BE OUR GUEST: STAND UP FOR HONESTY, DECENCY, HARD WORK: VOTE `NO' ON RIVERBOAT GAMBLING ISSUE

Charles Gudermuth is a resident of Cape Girardeau.

On June 8, 1993, the citizens of Cape Girardeau will be given the opportunity to speak out decisively on a moral issue that will affect families throughout their lifetime. Proponents of riverboat gambling are touting this evil as "good, clean family fun and entertainment." Gambling is far from good, far from clean and definitely is not family fun and entertainment and its mendacious "get rich quick" lure led to the ruination of a lovely lady's last years. That lovely lady was my mother, who died almost two years ago, and left me with memories that I would not want to see repeated in someone else's life.

Approximately 10 years before my mother retired, after a lifetime of self-denial, hard work, and a prudent lifestyle in order to raise me and my brother, she started gambling with football and baseball pools among the employees at National Vendors in St. Louis. At that time she held a good paying position as an inspector of the rejection units on the vending machines they manufactured. With most of the pools she contributed to she would win, sometimes $150, sometimes more, sometimes less. She seemed to have a knack for winning, and fellow employees instigated her to gamble more by telling her how extremely lucky she was. From dealing with these pools, she met fellow employees that moonlighted as bookies for placing wagers at Cahokia Downs and Fairmont Park. Supposedly, with the winnings from these in-house pools, she began betting on horses, and continued to do so into her retirement years. I remember well times the phone would ring and a bookie informed mom she owed them money instead of winning. She never told us how much she would lose or win in these transactions, or how she intended to pay back her losses. The full extent of her gambling addiction will probably never be known by my brother and I, but upon her death and our subsequent disposal of personal and real property, much of what she had put back for her retirement we found was completely gone. For a period of about 30 or 40 years she had regularly saved through payroll deductions buying U.S. Savings Bonds to supplement her retirement. These were gone as well as all other assets, leaving us with a great deal of anguish and financial responsibilities to clear up her affairs.

We also discovered upon searching through her remaining effects that she had purchased Illinois and Missouri Lottery Tickets from many different sources each w~eek. She spent money on these tickets to the extent that it boggles my mind and that of my brother. In defense of my mother, and the logic she used: She bought into the lie that after a lifetime of struggle and self-denial that somehow this easy money would come to make her life toward the end more pleasant. Moreover, she could then provide the luxury items for her sons she was unable to do during her lifetime. Her favorite saying to us was "when I strike it rich, I will buy a mansion for you and your brother and I'll have one also."

The most vivid memory my wife and I have of my mother is her huddled in the kitchen with three or four blankets wrapped around her in the dead of winter, with one burner lit on the gas range as her only source of heat. We also know that in the summertime, she would spend her days and nights sitting on a lawn chair in her dank, dark, gloomy basement rather than turn on her ~central air conditioning, and ~waste her money by giving it to the utility company. We've seen this on many occasions, because we would visit her unannounced. If she knew we were coming in advance she would have the air conditioning or furnace operating before we arrived. I really believe this was a contributing factor in her becoming less desirous of having visits from her children and grandchildren as the years went by. She didn't want any of us to know how intrusive and unrelenting her addiction to gambling had become.

I am grateful at least that riverboat gambling did not exist in St. Louis during her lifetime, for I am sure it would have fed onto her addiction and even devastated her life further. So when I am told riverboat gambling is a form of family entertainment and fun and of no harm to anyone, I can not help but think of my mother and her golden years being spent in isolation, depression and disillusionment because she bought into a lie that dreams come true through the vehicle of chance.

When the lottery came up for a vote, we in Cape Girardeau said we were against it, but the big cities of St. Louis and Kansas City forced its approval. We will not have that type of excuse on this vote. It will be a vote decided by the people of Cape Girardeau for the people of Cape Girardeau. The slick gamblers from Las Vegas wish to roll their medicine show wagon into the base of our city, drain it of its money, its pride and its honesty, then move on to the next gullible location, much like the snake oil salesmen of the past. We should not fall for the glit and glitter and empty promises of these charlatans. Many of our so-called civic and business leaders have been beguiled into believing "pie in the sky" lies under the pretext of tourism and economic development, but I can only hope that the citizens of Cape Girardeau can see these false promises for what they are.

As for me, my focal memory will be of my mother, losing the golden years of her life feeding this exploitive, financially subversive habit ... to the extent that she would not receive medical care even though racked with pain over the last 25 years of her life. She died of colon cancer, which doctors indicated could have been treated if detected earlier. Trying to financially feed these monsters called "gambling addiction" and "false hope" by avoiding proper medical treatment hastened my mother's death.

I believe that we truly are "Our brother's keeper" and that we are to love our neighbor as our self, and I can not imagine anyone taking pride and happiness losing their money to these gambling casinos, or winning money that they know was lost by someone like my mother. As a Christian, I believe that all things we do are to glorify God and witness to the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. I could not imagine being on a gambling boat, having my Lord come up to me and look me in the eye and ask me what I am doing there. I honestly don't believe I could tell him I am here to glorify the Father and witnessing to his love.

I ask all my fellow plebs to stand up and be counted on the side of honesty, decency and hard work that made this nation great. Vote no for riverboat gambling! Do it for your family, do it for your city, do it because it's the right thing to do!