All is love in fair and war

Happy Anniversary East Taunton....one year gone by and still no trust land or casino.  When I think of Mayor Hoye and some (not all, well....only one) Taunton City Councilors, all I can think of is the Pepe Le Pew cartoon.  You know, that skunk who always fell in love with the cat who always seemed to wind up with a white paint stripe down her back....Pepe would see her and instantly fall in love....just like some certain city councilors did when Cedric Cromwell crossed their paths. Casino love at first sight...only difference is...this cat disguised itself on purpose and now thinks "playing hard to get" with the State will fill Cedric's empty wallet - it didn't work in Middleboro, Fall River or New Bedford....no problem - new stripe - new city.  Oh well, in the words of Pepe "all is love in fair and war".

I think this letter to the editor in the Taunton Daily Gazette is fantastic.  This was written by Frank Lagasse, another East Taunton resident who actually says it like it is...not what Cedric Cromwell would have you believe...and certainly no fake white stripe to have you believe what is not real.

Mashpee Wampanoag Land in trust application dishonest?  yep.....unlikely to succeed? oh yeah....even that fancy lawyer from Boston, with all his...ahem....revisionist history can't reverse the spin.  Oh...and did I mention that the Secretary of the Interior can't and won't put land in trust for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe because they were not under federal jurisdiction in 1934?  hmmmm...yep....so did Frank. 

Guest Opinion:  Mashpee casino bid dishonest, unlikely to succeed

We are now at the one year anniversary of the referendum that approved a tribal casino in East Taunton. Let’s discuss the developments since.

The tribe has submitted its land into trust application to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Currently, it is incomplete as it lacks proof of aboriginal land claims to Taunton.The compact between the commonwealth and the tribe has been rejected by the Bureau of Indian Affairs as being, in part, usury.

A new compact, arguably just as usury as the first, is stuck in the Economic and Emerging Technologies Subcommittee at the Statehouse.KG Urban, a commercial casino developer, has filed suit in the First Circuit Federal Court.The Pokanoket Wampanoag Tribe has submitted an in-depth scholarly report challenging the Mashpee claim to Taunton.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has opened southeastern Massachusetts to commercial bidders. This includes bidders who may be denied a license in the other two regions of the state.

The Mashpee tribe is trying to establish aboriginal land claim to Taunton by claiming the female Sachem Wetamo was assassinated on the Taunton River and her head displayed on a pike on Taunton Green for 20 years.  A hijacking of Pokanoket land and heritage is being attempted. This is despicable. Wetamo was a Pokanoket. The Pokanoket have aboriginal claim to the Taunton area.

The Mashpees’ lawyer made this claim at the Economic and Emerging Technologies Subcommittee at the Statehouse during a public hearing on the second compact. If the second compact gets out of subcommittee and the Legislature approves it, there is a risk that the commonwealth will get no revenue from the tribal casino. Their chairman has threatened as much. If he’s such a wonderful partner, why would he issue threats? Why not follow through on his promises of partnership and friendship and compensate the commonwealth as a friend if the zero percentage part of the compact were to become effective?

The land-into-trust issue will not be resolved for years. On average, it takes seven years for the Department of Interior to make a decision on land-into-trust cases. And then there are numerous Supreme Court case decisions that must be overcome, adding many more years of indecision. And KG Urban’s Constitutional challenge will cause further delays. The Pokanoket will probably file suit. Neighbors may file suit. Opponents to the whole policy of land-into-trust will file suit.

There is no evidence that the Mashpees can use to claim a right to Taunton territory. There is, in fact, evidence that the Mashpees were never under federal jurisdiction. This is found in documents from the late 1930s and in a recent court case in 1977, when the Mashpees sued New Seabury for repatriation of land.

Commercial competition will most certainly cause competitive problems for the goal of a tribal casino. The revenue that a commercial casino will generate for the commonwealth will be at least 10 times what a tribal casino will generate. Why would our legislators allow such a low revenue stream from a tribal casino when a commercial casino would generate so much more revenue? In effect, we would be subsidizing a tribal casino by deferring the greater revenue from a commercial casino.

We are being played as fools. The disingenuousness, obfuscation, omissions of fact and carrot dangling must stop. Our state and community is being held hostage for the benefit of an entity that can not develop a casino. I beseech our Legislature to reject the compact in subcommittee for the benefit of our state and community.

Frank Lagace of East Taunton is an anti-casino activist.

"I am stupid. No?...Zee stripe! It is gone! She is not a skunk at all!"- Pepe Le Pew 

"When I tell the truth, it is not for the sake of convincing those who do not know it, but for the sake of defending those that do." - William Blake
 
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