Public servants are anything but

Public servants are anything but
By Joe Fitzgerald

It’s hard to know where to start in deciphering just how low this commonwealth has sunk because of low-grade, self-absorbed leadership.

As originally conceived, political leadership meant moral leadership, too. It was implicit, a manifestation of the adage which holds we are our brother’s keeper.

The lofty ideal was that government would “insure domestic tranquility” and “promote the general welfare,” remember?

In Massachusetts, unfortunately, that’s never been more of a myth.

Up on Beacon Hill, where years of corruption and mismanagement have left our coffers bare, House Speaker Bob DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray are now taking bows for what they see as a viable solution, casino gambling, oblivious to the devastation it would inevitably wreak in the homes and families of constituents thrown to the wolves of addiction.

State-sponsored gambling is an unconscionable notion because it puts the state in the contemptible position of having a rooting interest in losses incurred by its citizens.

“Four of us were raised by my mother and supported by public assistance,” a lawyer who grew up on Mission Hill recalled. “She had such an addiction to gambling that most nights our dinner was one can of tomato soup mixed with three cans of water. To have a piece of bread was like having dessert.

“Shoes and sneakers were replaced only when the nuns complained. New clothing never came; we shopped at Morgan Memorial near Kenmore Square.

“We had a bad enough time dealing with her going to bingo every night, playing the Spanish and Irish numbers on the street and Keno at the local post. So you can imagine the impact on our household when the Lottery was born; now she could waste away more of the little we had with the greatest of ease, thanks to the state.”

Anecdotal? Yes, but there are countless stories just like it, every bit as heartbreaking, and now DeLeo and Murray can’t wait to add to them by having the state licensing casinos.

“We have over 250,000 people out of work,” Murray said. “That’s why we’re doing this bill.”

If that’s her idea of civic vision she’s blind as a bat.

The building of casinos would obviously come as welcome news to anyone who swings a hammer. But once the final nail is driven, then what?

“Read the bill,” then state Sen. Sue Tucker urged when the push for casinos first began years ago. “What really got to me were the lines requiring casinos to check their parking lots every two hours for abandoned children.”

Oh, and the Senate, as an added enticement, hints it would look favorably on happy hours, permitting restaurants and bars to offer free and discounted drinks, just so the casinos wouldn’t have a monopoly on the exploitation of misery.

Anyone pushing this is not a public servant.

Please. He or she is a public menace.