you are responsible for the company you choose to keep.

you are responsible for the company you choose to keep

(emphasis mine)

6/28/07 Middleboro Gazette:
Casino opponents' message becoming one of rudeness, racism

Dear Editor:
I am disappointed and disheartened by the recent behavior of the casino opponents at town meetings. I applaud anyone who is interested and passionate enough to get involved in the town politics. (However, it is discouraging that it takes a mega casino to motivate you. Where were you on the Eagles Club issue -a real and physical threat sitting on the edge of the Peirce Playground literally endangering the children of our community?) There is a point where your passion can get away from you and I feel that I must address your emboldened behavior of late.
It is inappropriate to cat-call, shout-down and be generally rude to your fellow citizens. I am truly distressed to hear that one citizen who asked you all to quiet down in the hallway after exiting this past Monday's meeting (why stay to hear all of the town business, after all, you're only concerned with your own backyards), was reportedly called an "Indian Lover." This is pathetic, and, as far as I am concerned, the entire group of you should be ashamed of yourselves.
I noticed, while looking at your site this evening that you carry the following disclaimer:
"We can not control the content or take responsibilities for pages maintained by external providers/organizations that can be accessed through our site."
I know that it is difficult to control the flow of information and harder still to ensure that the people jumping on your bandwagon share your values and beliefs.
Here is the problem: you are responsible for the company you choose to keep. So, if you're shrill, rude and now, apparently racist behavior continues, it will reflect on you. It will become part and parcel of your message. And you will be heard.
It is outrageous that the folks in this town who are in favor of a casino are being bullied by an overly loud minority that have put forward not one single solution to our current fiscal crisis.

You complain that crime will increase with a casino. You attempt to scare people with the thought that suddenly houses will be robbed when the casino opens its doors. Houses are being robbed now, or perhaps you don't read the police blotter. There was a stabbing in downtown Middleboro recently. Drugs are a serious problem in this town right now.
Let's imagine where we will be 5 or 10years from now, without a casino, without an override, and a severely scaled down police force. We will have a town that can not afford to support the services it needs. We will have a park department that can barely afford to offer programs to our youth and a library stripped to the bone, possibly de-certified, relying on its own meager collection of books. Where do you think our children w:ill be then, having received a substandard education with few if any prospects for employment? We won't need to talk about a crime rate then -we'll be living it.

But it probably won't affect you, the rude ones screaming about your backyards, you'll have moved on to someone else's pasture by then. And you'll want the door to that town closed behind you. You'll shun change and growth there too, claiming it as you found it -calling it your own.
By the way,the fellow that you slurred the other night has lived in Middleboro for more than 20 years. I imagine he too calls this place his own. He deserves your respect. I sincerely hope that bit of common decency isn't beyond you.

I, for one, do not have concerns about "the introduction of low-wage casino workers who will bring 20+ languages into the school system..."as you recently posted on your site. It seems to me that a bit of diversity is precisely what this town needs at the moment. Tolerance is a lesson that clearly needs to be learned here.

Victoria Bond

7/27/07 Middleboro Gazette:
No vote doesn't ensure no casino, just no money from casino
TotheEditor:
As a resident of Middleborough, I feel strongly that the people of our community be left alone to make decisions regarding our community. Recently, several neighboring towns have begun to insert themselves in an issue that is uniquely Middleborough's. While I am aware that many people within the South Shore are concerned about what impacts the Wampanoag resort will have within their respective communities, that is an issue to be dealt with on the state level. When the Wampanoag tribe solidifies their plans regarding their resort, they will have to enter into a compact agreement with the state. It will then be up to each concerned community and their town officials to negotiate for mitigation of any perceived impacts with the state. It is wholly inappropriate for anyone to suggest that somehow Middleborough should be responsible for that mitigation and in kind, inappropriate for any neighboring community or its citizens to pressure the individuals within our community regarding their personal vote.
This proposed resort presents a unique opportunity for our town. We are all painfully aware of the financial straits in which we currently find ourselves. This proposal can and will significantly mitigate our current situation.
Our police and fire departments will be substantially improved (three fire houses open in Middleborough?!?), our schools will once again be solvent enough to foot the bill for

JV and freshman sports, our COA willonce again be able to care for the elderly with home visits and meals, and our precious library may, with any luck, escape decertification
If we vote against the resort proposal none of the above will be true. We will continueto bleed from our financial ulcer and our quality of life will definitely suffer -you think the current trash fee is a burden? Think of all of the families who are going to have to come up with additional monies just to provide their children with the extra-curricular activities that were once a part of our quality of life. The folks in Oak Point are going to be waiting longer for a response to their emergencies. Our elderly will no longer be able to turn to the town for help so they will have to rely on family, provided they have any. Crime and drugs, which this year alone jumped 30-40%, will continue to worsen until it finds itself on your very doorstep, that is if it hasn't already.

It seems that some of the folks who are opposed to this resort have been advising voters that a NO vote will ensure that the resort will not come. That is simply not true. The resort will come. They do not need our permission to build it. The town being opposed to it may make their fight more difficult, but to assert that it will defeat it is, quite simply, a lie. If in the end the tribe is successful (they are tenacious and proud, they just won a 33 year legal battle for recognition) they will build it and people will come. The only difference is that Middleboro will still be bleeding out, have received no financial compensation and have a bad relationship with the tribe.
I know that there are negatives to this proposal, which is why the town is negotiating with the tribe to protect and prepare our community to adequately deal with those negatives. The anti group is ONLY focused on the negatives. If they were going to be honest with themselves and their community they would have to admit that there are also a lot of positives. Here are just a few:
-You will finally have some place, close by, where you can go to see a show, have a five star meal, do some high-end shopping, take the kids to the water park or go to a: museum.
-It will create 16,000 jobs for Middleboro and her surrounding communities.
•It will provide the town with much needed improvement to our gas and electric and water systems which are currently insufficient to access all of the water available to us, which is the real cause for the water bans we have to deal with yearly -it's not because we don't have the water -we don't have adequate pumps to bring the water up. Those pumps, by the way, have already reached their half-life and will have to be replaced within the next 15 years.
-The resort will feed local industry. Think of all the supplies that it will require from toilet paper to sheets and towels on up to food supplies and dishes.
-Bordering towns will have the opportunity, should they so choose, to create industry and
commercial tax revenues within their communities.
-The completion of Route 44 will finally fix the problem at the Middleboro rotary and complete the loop on the South Shore from Boston down 495/95 and 24 across to route 3 making the whole of the South Shore more accessible and easily traveled.
-Keep in mind that Foxwoods Resort and Mohegan Sun, combined, have contributed more than $432 million annually to Connecticut and have deposited more than $ 4 billion into the state treasury. Importantly, the casinos are two of the state's five largest employers with more than 20,000 workers (The New London Day, editorial, June 17, 1 2006).
Everyone seems to be forgetting that the Wampanoag are coming home. This will once again be their home, and they want to be as proud of it as we are. They are not looking to destroy it or desecrate it in any way. They are looking to open a business here and unlike most big business, they will be living amidst that business. Don't you think that gives them added incentive to be thoughtful and cautious in their planning? We have a choice: we can either share this town or fight over it. I don't think change is a bad thing-I think it is a necessary thing. I, for one, will embrace this change by voting yes to the proposed agreement with the Wampanoag tribe on July28.
Victoria Bond (Victoria Bond's husband is Selectman Adam Bond.)