The struggle goes on - with honesty and principle

This week our legislature and Governor showed their true faces again.  They passed a bill that will not just expand predatory gambling, but it will further drag our city and state in budget crisis after crisis and cause the real economy and our communities to suffer severely.
 
Yet, despite knowing this truth, it still is hard to continue fighting in the face of defeat.  This bill is awful as is explained in our op-ed in yesterday's Inquirer.  The bill allows all Pennsylvania casinos to extend lines of easy credit to compulsive gamblers already beyond their limits. The bill gives Foxwoods two more years to keep trying, even after we demonstrated that they will not open in South Philly, Chinatown, or anywhere else. As to the procedures of the PGCB, this bill was phony reform.  The only way it passed was by threats and bribery of pet projects to buy legislators' votes.  Read this insightful commentary by Isaiah Thompson of the CityPaper.
 
And of course, as we learned late Monday evening, this bill exempts the proposed Philly casinos from the city-wide smoking ban.  That's as outrageous as it is indefensible.
 
Our politicians are digging their own graves. We will stop these proposed casinos from opening, and shut them down if they do.  This is not the end, this is not the middle; we are still just beginning.
 
It's important now to not let up.  This is part of the struggle, part of the struggle that will not be lost unless and until we give up - and that's not going to happen.  We'll only stop when they surrender.
 
Now is the time to support each other so we can grow stronger. We're collecting messages of support -- from each other, to each other -- to post here on the website. Please share why you're in this fight by emailing lily [at] casinofreephila [dot] org.