BE OUR GUEST: RIVERBOAT GAMBLING WILL ENHANCE CAPE GIRARDEAU'S PROGRESSIVE IMAGE

On June 8, the people of Cape Girardeau will make a major decision for the community. That decision will roughly amount to whether or not the citizens want to advance into the future or remain as they are and let the future leave them standing in their boots. In these trying times we live in, one must realize that the passive route only leads to complacency and for a community such as Cape, this complacency is not the right path to choose.

The city of Cape is on the cutting edge. Over the years it has seen progress that has led to the betterment of the community. In the span of a little over a decade, Cape has seen the emergence of a first-rate mall, the West Park Mall. Another facility, which has no equal in the immediate area, a~~nd which serves the community in a number of ways, is the Show Me Center. Cape Girardeau's downtown district is constantly being improved upon by civic-minded proprietors and is experiencing a resurgence. In order for Cape to continue on its upward path, new ideas and innovations are needed. Riverboat gambling is such an idea that can only enhance the community.

Riverboat gambling will provide the city with much needed revenues which accrue from the volume of money involved in the riverboat gambling activities themselves, and it does not result from the imposition of taxes uniformly upon the city residents. In a sense, riverboat gambling is a voluntary form of taxation in which even the people who choose not to gamble reap the benefits. Thus, riverboat gambling will provide a progressive, yet humane form of taxation.

This taxation can provide for the finance of important social and institutional improvements which otherwise, if they were reliant upon typical taxation of the citizenry found elsewhere, might not find their financing so easy.

Riverboat gambling will also serve as an important stimulus to the economic development and activity. Because of the fact that riverboat gambling attracts players from a wide ranging area. This influx of people produces an injection of economic wealth which produces high-paying jobs and large-scale economic development. But, in order to get this process started your support will be needed on June 8.

There are also abstract social values which gambling can provide, contrary to popular beliefs. The values may be identified as in existence at all times in areas where gambling is present, but most significantly in times of economic hardship. People know they are not going to become fabulously wealthy on their present income, so they invest a dollar and hope for the best. While the worth of this abstract value may be attacked as being only a dream, and usually a hopeless one at that, psychologists have indicated that some kind of dream is an important element in the motivation of men and women to go on, to continue their day-to-day existence in spite of its negative aspects. The abstract value accruing from gambling amounts to the potentiality of hope in a world of economic circumstances which seems restrictive and hopeless. Such abstract values as these have provided motivation for subsequent achievement and they cannot be overlooked.

Some people might assert that the hope which gambling stimulates is a meaningless and empty thing, without real potential of actual success or satisfaction. This argument may be countered by the fact that all of man's dreams could be considered meaningless when considered in the cold light of reason. At one time even the airplane and the personal computer were considered unrealistic dreams. The total potentiality of hopes and dreams is not found in the guarantee of success, but its worth to the dreamer, to make him go on and attempt to succeed in the face of overwhelming odds. It was on such dreams that America itself was founded and settled.

The citizens of Cape must look at this issue of riverboat gambling from all the angles. You must weigh the advantages and disadvantages and come to a conclusion which will be best for the city. Carefully research this issue because it will have a far-reaching effect on all of us. After you have done your homework, as I have, you should be convinced that riverboat gambling is what Cape needs to continue its upward movement and its appeal to the rest of the country.

As a lifelong resident of Cape I feel it is every citizen's duty to vote for riverboat gambling. Cape is a great place to live and to raise a family, but in order for it to remain that way it must grow and riverboat gambling is the answer. Especially when Cape has so little, if anything, to lose with the emergence of riverboat gambling. The company, or companies, are not going to come in and make the city offer them an ar~m and a leg to open up here, like other industries have done in the past. They will go about the business of setting up shop like any other local businessman has and that is with their own capital and their own initiative. Once the riverboat, or boats, are established we will find them to be extremely charitable to the community. So come on Chamber of Commerce, Division of Tourism, and especially the citizens of Cape ... don't miss the boat. Vote for riverboat gambling on June 8.