A message from Gettysburg

No Casino Gettysburg Network
Opposition to a proposed casino 1/2 mile from the Gettysburg NMP

A message to all members of No Casino Gettysburg Network

Friends,

Thank you for participating in our online network!

We are still working to save Gettysburg with your help.
Recently we've all had cause to celebrate. Preservationists in Virginia turned back the tide and forced Wal-Mart to abandon its plans to build a supercenter on the Wilderness battlefield. A Wal-Mart spokesperson explained they made the decision because it was simply, “the right thing to do.”

On 2/11/2011, the Philadelphia Inquirer published an Opinion Editorial (reproduced below) from the presidents of the Civil War Trust and the National Parks Conservation Association, two of our staunchest allies, calling on Mason-Dixon, LLC to similarly do the “right thing.”

No Casino Gettysburg couldn’t agree more – now is the time for Mason-Dixon to drop their ill-advised plans. But, until they do – everyone here at No Casino Gettysburg will continue working hard to persuade the Gaming Board to reject this proposal.

That’s where we need your help.

Since this all-volunteer, grassroots organization started 6 years ago, we’ve advertised on television, billboards, radio, newspapers, t-shirts, signs and every other way to make the point: Gettysburg is no place for a casino. But, we can’t stop now. With the decision on Mason-Dixon casino still looming, and legislative talk of more casino licenses coming available, we need to continue moving forward.

(Yes, you read that right – HB65, now in committee, would allow 3-4 more licenses to be sold to the highest bidder anywhere in PA, even though experts say the casino market is saturated. This bill would not effect the current Gettysburg casino application, but would supply future opportunities for casino licenses near Gettysburg even if/when Mason-Dixon is rejected by the Gaming Board. That would extend our battle beyond 2017! If you live in PA please tell your legislator "enough!" and ask your legislator to extinguish un-awarded licenses, or buffer Gettysburg from further attempts.)

Your help is essential. $20 funds our website for a month, $200 pays for nearly a quarter of a major advertisement, $500 puts us on the radio – no matter what you can give – we will make it count and its impact will be long lasting.

You can donate securely on the internet via PAYPAL using your credit card by visiting our site http://nocasinogettysburg.ning.com or simply send a check to No Casino Gettysburg, PO Box 4235, Gettysburg PA 17325.

**We are a PA registered non-profit corporation, but we are not yet a formal 501(c)3 organization, so your donations are not tax deductible. However, if you would like a tax deduction for your donation, please visit www.civilwar.org/nocasino, the website of our trusted partner, the Civil War Trust, where you can designate your donation for “Gettysburg casino grassroots fight” and assure both a deduction – and – support for our efforts.

Together, we will save this special place.

Yours for History and Community, Susan Star Paddock, Chair, No Casino Gettysburg

http://www.philly.com/philly/opinion/20110211_For_Pa__casino__a_civics_lesson_from_Wal-Mart.html

For Pa. casino, a civics lesson from Wal-Mart
The mega-retailer has ceded a Civil War battlefield.
By James Lighthizer and Tom Kiernan

Wal-Mart recently made the responsible and welcome decision to abandon its plan to build a supercenter on the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange County, Va. Just as its permit to build on the Civil War site was about to go to trial, and after enduring what one media outlet called "withering opposition," the nation's largest retailer explained that it "just felt it was the right thing to do."

Wal-Mart thereby gave credence to the notion that we as a people have a duty to preserve, defend, and honor the legacy of those who came before us. Today, the fields and woodlots of the Wilderness Battlefield are safe from this particular threat to their sanctity.

But other historic sites are not so lucky. As well-intentioned as it may be, the proposed Mason-Dixon Casino near Pennsylvania's Gettysburg Battlefield could similarly compromise the integrity of some of the most hallowed ground in our country - ground soaked with the blood of tens of thousands of our ancestors, and further consecrated by the words of Abraham Lincoln as he set the nation on a path toward "a new birth of freedom." If approved, the proposal would allow a casino to operate at the battlefield's edge, just a half-mile from the boundary of Gettysburg National Military Park.

Four years ago, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board decided that an application for a gaming hall twice as far from the battlefield was inappropriate. But the controversy continues as another proposal is considered.

America is poised to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War this year. From coast to coast, communities are preparing to pay tribute to its staggering consequences and its role in shaping the country we know today. Now is not the time for division. Rather, let us use this occasion to put controversies behind us.

As the newly inaugurated president of a nation on the brink of a mass fratricide, Abraham Lincoln told his fellow citizens, "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot's grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when touched again, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Today, too, we must remember that we are not enemies, but fellow citizens of a country shaped by the men who fell at Gettysburg, Wilderness, and thousands of other battlefields before, during, and since the Civil War. Though our debates may grow heated, we all share this noble heritage. Divided we can accomplish little, but together we can honor the memory of those who laid down their lives that our nation might thrive, and we can cement for ourselves a legacy worthy of their sacrifices.

If Wal-Mart can change its mind and subjugate financial gain to respect for our national heritage in the case of Wilderness, will Mason-Dixon's investors not consider a similar act of corporate and social responsibility for Gettysburg? The historic preservation community stands ready to welcome them, alongside Wal-Mart, as partners in our ongoing efforts to protect America's sacred Civil War battlefields and other irreplaceable historic sites.

The world may little note what we say here in defense of Gettysburg. But if casino investors rise to the occasion, it may long remember what they do there.


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James Lighthizer and Tom Kiernan are the presidents, respectively, of the Civil War Trust and the National Parks Conservation Association, both of which are members of the Wilderness Battlefield Coalition and have worked in opposition to the current and previous Gettysburg casino proposals.




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