Why I’ll Vote NO For Maryland Question 7

If you watch TV, you can't have missed the advertising battle over Maryland's "Question 7." This summary is from an online post:

"Question 7 is an effort to expand commercial gaming in Maryland. Lawmakers argue expanded gambling will raise revenue for education. A vote for Question 7 would be in favor of three attempts to expand gambling.

1) Authorization of table games

2) Increase from 15,000 to 16,000 allowable lottery machines

3) An increase in the number of video lottery machine operation licenses allowed in Maryland from five to six – allowing a proposed casino in Prince George’s County." (Posted: 09/12/2012. Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc.)

OpEd:

I will vote No to approve another Maryland casino.

1) My husband racked up $60,000 on his credit cards because he was addicted to gambling. To cover debt exceeding his gross annual salary, he ran a shell game moving money from one of 17 credit card account to another to meet the minimum monthly payment. (FYI: Maryland law allows credit card companies to pursue spouses even if they are not on the account!) He died not long after filing bankruptcy.

2) Gambling is NEVER a good thing. In a bad economy, desperate people do desperate things. Instead of food, one Union Station pan handler buys hundreds of DC lottery tickets but loses 99% of the time! Casinos odds are worse than state lotteries because their machines are programmed to favor “the house.”

My advice: gamble for free on your computer, donate directly to your local school system, and, if you want a job, do something that won’t prey on others’weaknesses.
 

How should you vote?

"Against the Additional Forms and Expansion of Commercial Gaming"

[The OpEd portion of this post was published to the Washington Examiner on 09/27/2012 online, 09/28/12 paper with different subtitle.http://washingtonexaminer.com/letters-to-the-editor-sept.-28-2012/article/2509233] See also Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/VoteNoOn7

Life in the City - September Shock in DC

In the 9/5/12 Washington Express newspaper, the DC Rider column entitled “’September Shock’ Is on the Way” warned the public that with fall comes traffic gridlock. For those of us long-suffering commuters who relished in the peace summer brought, this was an unhappy reminder. After repeated episodes of my car being hit and almost hit, it didn’t take me long to hate the fall with a passion that can only come from someone who has lived other places and knows traffic doesn’t have to be this bad and drivers don’t have to be such jerks.

In year four, I made some grassroots efforts to “educate” metro DC area drivers but didn’t get very far. After many more years of behavioral observation and “accident avoidance” to quote an All State commercial, I concluded change will not come easily because drivers’ overt behaviors are deep-rooted in lifelong emotional immaturity.

Montgomery County is a disappointment to me. When I moved here 20 years ago, I was excited to live close to the nation’s capital and in a wealthy area. Little did I know what idiocy and immorality such wealth brought. LindaJo McKim starts a devotional (These Days, 9/17/12) by saying “children struggle to learn how to control their tempers.” Unlike the adults in her article, adults here have not” learned to control [their] tempers” nor “found ways to release [their] frustrations without harming others.” They have not “learned [they] cannot have everything [they] want.” A recent example (8/21/12) is a blurb in the Washington Examiner about two Montgomery County women fighting over a pair of pants in a department store.

The problematic area-wide behaviors are not just physical – cutting people off, pushing and shoving to get in line, etc. Verbal assaults often accompany the bad driving and extend into electronic communications. Mostly because some easily offended person overreacted to being told they were wrong.

I’ve been subjected to the worst verbal insults from people who are allegedly educated, well-paid, born and bred. Their ignorant communication style more befits hillbillies and rednecks than decent folk they purport to be. Of particular note are several people in my subdivision. One verbal abuser ironically boasts in his email signature he is a “peacemaker”. Given what he wrote to me, it’s no wonder he spends so much time trying to patch things up. The thing that kills me is they don’t realize what they are doing because it is so fundamental to the area culture.

To me this is all a sign of the apocalypse whether you believe in the misrepresentations of the Mayan calendar or not. If you’re an ignorant obnoxious selfish jerk who doesn’t care about anyone else or what you do it WILL negatively impact others.

Doreen Published Again

I sent a letter to the editor at Washington Examiner commenting on one of their articles about DC drivers. This is the third letter of mine they published in August 2012. A personal best.

See for yourself "D.C. drivers are lost in own little worlds":
http://washingtonexaminer.com/letters-to-the-editor-aug.-31-2012/article/2506513