Sunday, April 13, 2008

Clogged Arteries

The latest casino impact to be wrapped in pretty paper and presented to the surrounding communities as if it were actually a gift has been discovered on a new blog. This blog claims to tell THE TRUTH about a Middleboro Casino even while the blog's owner has yet to reveal THE TRUTH about their identity.

The posting in question boasts that a casino will actually enhance the current Pilgrim nuclear emergency evacuation route by adding additional lanes to Rte 44 and eliminating the rotary, and therefore allowing traffic to move twice as fast.

As usual, the blog neglects to mention that WE will be paying for this infrastructure. Once again NOT A GIFT.

But here's the part that just sort of rubbed me the wrong way:

...the Resort Casino is not in the evacuation area, so people can stop in and stay if they wish to.
Something most people probably don't know about me is that I lived in Plymouth for several years. Most of my immediate family live in the Evacuation area. The place I once called home is in sub-area #2, not far from the power plant itself.

You know how we all get those town calendars in our mailbox every year - with the old photographs and ads for local businesses. Well, in Plymouth, we received a town calendar too -except that it was full of emergency planning advice, evacuation routes, instructions on what to do with your pets, where your children would be taken if they were at school or daycare at the time of an event, and instructions for those with special needs. We were strongly encouraged to maintain a stash of Potassium Iodide in our medicine cabinets, and that, due to our proximity to a nuclear power plant, we can get some for free! And, in my old neighborhood, we went about our lives under the shadow of several huge emergency sirens, standing like dark-hooded sentinels on their towering poles.

When I was nine months pregnant with my first child, I was in the living room of my sub-area #2 home when those sirens went off. Not knowing whether it was a drill or not, I experienced some of the terror that might result in the event of a true nuclear emergency. Presented for the first time not only with my own life to protect, but that my baby, the floor of my living room seemed to fall out from under me - as the reality of potential catastrophe crashed in overhead. It is an experience I would not wish on anyone.

Living close to a nuclear power plant, you laugh off the potential danger with your neighbors - because you have to. You have to pretend it will never happen, or that if it does, that somehow it won't be so bad, or that you and your family will be fine. You take a look at the emergency planning calendar when it arrives in your mailbox, then toss it aside to gather dust. Who wants to think about Potassium Iodide when you're just trying to make a living, raise a family and set down roots. A nuclear emergency in your backyard is a difficult thing to think about - and so we in the sub-areas try not to think about it.

But THE TRUTH, take it from me, is that stopping in at a casino is going to be the LAST THING on your mind when you are racing for your life and that of your family AWAY from a nuclear catastrophe.

Brian Giovannoni (chairman of Middleboro's Casino Resort Advisory Committee aka CRAC) - oops... I mean the Mystery Blogger - seems to distastefully imply that, having just lost their homes, everything they own, their way of life and possibly friends, family and even pets in a nuclear accident, the potentially irradiated residents evacuating a hot zone might be in the perfect frame of mind to stare up at a fake waterfall or gamble what's left in their wallets on a rousing game of blackjack.

And, since we're on the subject, let's face it - it's only one extra lane on Rte. 44 that we're really talking about. While emergency personnel would certainly make use of an extra East bound lane, Evacuation traffic is going in one direction - away.

So, after reading Brian's - I mean, the Mystery Blog, I'm left guessing what it is Plymouth sub area #6 residents should thank Middleboro for. That extra lane - or the extra 50,000 people at a casino who'll be jumping onto it before they get there.

You see, while the official Evacuation plan sends the populations of the towns of Plymouth, Carver and Kingston, Duxbury and Marshfield onto multiple roadways around Rte. 44 in an effort to avoid gridlock, a Middleboro casino would, in fact, empty right onto it. And though I also have no doubt that, in the event of a nuclear emergency just two towns over, some hard core gamblers might continue to feed the slots as the band plays on, once word gets around, I have a hunch that most casino patrons are gonna know when to fold 'em, and then start to run.

And so, here you have the Evac plan, purposely attempting to spread out the huge numbers of fleeing residents from five towns onto certain local roadways so that they can get to some much needed emergency shelter in the quickest way possible, while, at the same time, a casino is emptying a population essentially that of Plymouth onto one of them.

Listen Brian - I mean, Mystery Blogger... we in the surrounding communities are quite aware of how little regard Middleboro has had for it's neighbors in it's attempts to foist a casino on our region. So please, please stop dressing up casino impacts as gifts. We don't want your special little 'gifts'. We also don't need any more smug, self-important comments from a callous casino-shilling no-name coward who can't see past the rose colored glasses on his own face. And that's THE TRUTH.

12 comments:

carverchick said...

Gladys,

Once again you have hit the target on this issue. Our mystery blogger continues to ignore real impacts and attempts to spin them into an opportunity....I too was shaking my head in confusion over the statement "the Resort Casino is not in the evacuation area, so people can stop in and stay if they wish to."

I honestly cannot think of a more callous and shallow remark. Why in the world would our mystery blogger think that anyone would want to stop in at a casino in the middle of an evacuation emergency? Perhaps its because he would do just that...to heck with the family's safety -- off to the casino we go!

Mystery blogger also neglects to address the fact that route 44 is also the evacuation route for Cape Cod and south shore residents in the event of a hurricane hitting our State.

As far as that extra lane goes...it's really not going to help traffic when the casino is essentially going to double or possibly triple the amount of cars traveling on route 44.

Mystery bloggers website is yet another example of pro casino constituents lack of careful consideration to real impacts and a blatant disregard for the truth.

Thanks again Gladys for clarifying this issue and for having the guts to tell it like it is.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, so a disaster could never happen on a friday or saturday night during a concert or a poker tournament etc. Stop and stay at the casino, there aren't any occupancy laws, all of southeastern MA will fit!. Or better yet when all those thousands of folks are fleeing the area, those two new lanes on Rt. 44 will hold every car ever built. BULLSHIT ALERT.

Anonymous said...

What do you call it when a person has a long history of creatively engineering information to fit his argument? Lying or self-delusion? What really irks me about the alleged Mystery blogger is the way he snidely dismisses anyone with an opinion differing from his. Essentially this comes across as "Who are you to question my facts, O ye ignorant jaw flappers? Don't you know how brilliant I am?" Gimme a break, Mystery blogger. Many of us have done a hell of a lot more research than you! Some of us hicks even have an education.

Gladys, you sure have Mystery blogger's number. He's so busy hard selling the casino that he's totally ignoring some very real impacts and minimalizing others.

Thanks for another worthy post.

cranberrycynic said...

I suspect that the mystery propagandist is only doing what he/she thinks he/she needs to do to fulfill his/her obligation to Section 22C of the IGA signed by the BOS and the lying rapist Glenn Marshall.

Dontcha just love it when the Enterprise drags out that photo of the Gavel Queen and the Convict?

Anonymous said...

To meet this pontificating MYSTERY BLOGGER is to truly recognize his insipid and shallow personna. While he criticizes others and has convinced himself of his great wisdom that surpasses that of mere mortals, he fails to understand that his departures provokes laughter and snide comments. Yes, Br...G, you're so wonderful! But thanks Gladys, for revealing his shallow facade filled with pompous self adulation and much inaccurate information. Who appoointed this pompous .....?

Anonymous said...

Did anyone notice in those ridiculous BIA PLANS - just released plans that there is PROPERTY TAKING???? Doesn't that require a 2/3 vote by Town Meeting? Isn't that why it was important that TMFH didn't get a 2/3 vote?
Where is the MYSTERY BLOGGER when it comes to facts like that? And the joke that the casino investors presented for PLANS?
Thanks for being there, Gladys! You're wonderful to point out the issue and uncloak the clowns!

Anonymous said...

Factfinder or fact inventor? That is the question. At least when/if something does happen the wildlife can get to safety thru those magic wildlife safety tunnels under 44!

Anonymous said...

We attended 3 speaking events at which the rapist Glenn Marshall spoke. He proclaimed numerous times 50,000 VEHICLES EACH DAY. Suddenly, when the opposition balked and protested, the rhetoric changed and denial set in. The number of VEHICLES has been reduced, the size of the meg-monster reduced, the height reduced (we think, but you can't tell from the plans). The bogus traffic count was conducted during a winter school vacation when traffic was exceptionally light.
Let's do a REAL traffic count on a Friday evening in the summer when the entire region is grid-locked with Cape traffic. Evacatuation route? Hopefully, they'll serve free alcohol to all to dull the impact of the mushroom cloud!

Carl said...

Compulsive liars are like compulsive gamblers, denial is always their biggest problem. Fact Inventor will continue to be in denial as he drinks from the radiated fountain of Kool-Aid that flows from his casino dreams. There is no therapy to cure the ill until he accepts the truth and admit he has been duped. "Hello, my name is Fact Inventor and I am cumpulsive liar."

Anonymous said...

I SPENT AN HOUR TALKING ABOUT THIS VERY SUBJECT OUR SENATOR PACHECO. HIS RESPONSE WHEN I BROUGHT UP THE EVACUATION ROUTE AND THE EXTRA TRAFFIC WAS "YOU FOLKS ARE ALL TOAST IN MIDDLEBORO ANYWAY." GIVES YOU A NICE WARM FEELING ABOUT THE CARING NATURE OF OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS. THINK OF ALL THE EXTRA FOLKS AT THE CASINO BEING TOAST TOO.... WE ARE ALL IN SERIOUS TROUBLE IF ANTHING SHOULD HAPPEN TO THE PLYMOUTH PLANT.

Carl said...

Well when I mentioned RT44 to Canessa he said that the tribe & Middleboro should not even bother coming to the state for assistance. They can, "GO POUND TAR!"

Gladys Kravitz said...

Dear Anon 6:22,

My first reaction is to think... no, Pacheco wouldn't have said that... but then, I had a discussion with an aid of another rep a few weeks ago which left me similarly shocked and horrified.

I think most of us have this expectation that our elected officials at the very least are informed about an issue and are committed to protecting their constituents from bad policy or shortsighted decisions.

And there are! I've met them and seen them in action. But there are also MANY MANY who are not. Just take Middleboro...

"Yes! Let's all believe the first Indian Lawyer we listen to and not do any research on our own!"

All the more reason we need to pay attention to who we are voting for.

Gladys


ShareThis