Plainridge Myths: Repeating a Lie Makes It So

Those of us who attended the many meetings about the race track in the late 1990s were told — repeatedly — by Gary Piontkowski and others that slot machines were not in their plans.

So why, during recent discussions about allowing Plainville to become a racino town, have we been told that Plainridge "always planned to have slots?" Everyone from Joe Fernandes to Andrea Soucy (who voted against the track in 1997) to Gary Piontkowski has insisted that we are mistaken about what we heard. Their mantra that Plainridge "always intended to have slots" has been repeated and repeated in meeting after meeting of the selectmen and other boards in town. (That, of course, is how you get someone to believe a lie — say it enough times until it sounds like the truth.)

Well, here is a Sun Chronicle article from October 28th, 1997, that begins: "The owner of the company planning to build a Route 1 harness racing track to replace Foxboro Park says slot machines are not part of his plans."

At the very least, I hope the selectmen will stop perpetuating the lie.

 

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