Closing This Chapter on the Gettysburg Casino

Now that Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has rejected the proposal for a casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield, I am removing the list of links to articles that I have written concerning that near tragedy. I will leave on link to this page which lists all of the aforementioned articles. Thank you again everyone for your support in the effort to keep a casino from marring the grounds of the battlefield and exploiting the memories of the soldiers who died on those fields.

I suspect the Battlefield will face future threats from those who would seek to profit from the sacrifices of our ancestors. But for now, we can feel good about the results of our efforts knowing that the Battlefield can safely continue to honor those who helped to build this nation.

List of Articles:

Gettysburg Casino No Vote – More Good News
Thank You for Saving the Gettysburg Battlefield
Tomorrow’s Final Vote
Free Alcohol at Gettysburg Casino
Letter to the PGCB
Gettysburg Casino Update
$60 Million and Our Heritage Lost
The PGCB Dismisses Dissention
More Opposition to Proposed Casino
Gettysburg Casino Hearings
Last Chance to Testify
A Casino in Gettysburg - The Danger, The Truth
The Smothering Mantel of Irrelevancy
Letter to Governor Ed Rendell
A Vision Place of Souls

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2005-2007. All Rights Reserved

The Gettysburg Casino No Vote - More Good News

While reading an article concerning the recent vote by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board against a casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield, I found the following encouraging statements.

"More should be known soon about the gaming board's rationale, because written opinions on the licensing decisions are due from the board in the coming weeks.

Crossroads then has 30 days to appeal to the state Supreme Court, but lead investor David LeVan said in a radio interview last week he has no plans to appeal."

Of course, they may yet change their minds but for now, this is good news.

Still more encouraging is how the Civil War community came together to save the battlefield from this serious threat. Elsewhere in the article it states, "With the battlefields nearby, opposition from local and national groups was vocal.

National preservation groups such as the Civil War Preservation Trust lined up against Crossroads, and just last week more than 100 Civil War historians signed a letter to the gaming board opposing the plan. They joined a local, grass-roots group named No Casino Gettysburg that fought the plan throughout the licensing process...'I think the (gaming) board listened to the community,' Gov. Ed Rendell said after the decision."

Good news indeed.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Source: Chambersburg Public Opinion Online

Thank You For Saving the Gettysburg Battlefield

I want to take a moment to offer my sincere heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped to save the Battlefield at Gettysburg. Yesterday, we all heard the fantastic news that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board has denied the application for a casino near the National Park's borders. I suspect that appeals will again raise the spector of a casino near America's hallowed ground but for now, the men who fought, bled, and died on those fields along with those who gratefully honor their memory can rest a little easier.

Thank you to everyone who wrote to the PA Gaming Control Board, testified at the hearings, posted their feelings online, and contacted their elected officials. You made this possible through each of your efforts and should feel justifiably proud. For what it is worth, whenever I walk the sacred fields at Gettysburg, I will recall my sense of gratitude for each of your efforts and unflinching support.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com.

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Tomorrow's Final Vote on the Gettysburg Casino

Tomorrow, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) will vote to award the remaining Pennsylvania slots licenses throughout the Keystone State. Despite overwhelming local and national objections to this proposal, the PGCB still may approve building a casino so close to the battlefield that no question remains of the damage it will cause. A casino so near the endangered ground of the Gettysburg Battlefield would seriously threaten the ability to protect and preserve one of America's most precious and revered historical locations.

Please, take a moment today to write to the PGCB and express your opposition. Your word does count but time has almost run out. If the investors build this casino, we will not be able to reverse the damage.

Please contact the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board at the link below.

Contact the PGCB.

For more information on the proposed casino and the associated dangers posed to the battlefield, please see the links in the right hand column of this page listed under the heading "The Gettysburg Casino".

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Free Alcohol at Gettysburg Casino

The incongruity is obvious. "Gaming will be good for Pennsylvania" the gambling lobbyists say. Yet the Pennsylvania Legislature just voted to allow free alcohol from 7am to 2am in the Pennsylvania casinos. The Lebanon Daily News, located just east of Harrisburg, said the following:

"...the casinos ply every trick in the book to wedge a few more dollars out of the wallet and into the machines.

Pennsylvania Legislature has given casinos one of the most powerful tools available to do just that with their vote to allow unlimited free alcohol to gamblers at the coming slots parlors in Pennsylvania.

By current rule, horse tracks can’t serve any free drinks; taverns and other establishments have a one-free-drink rule by which they must abide.

That’s not good enough for the casinos, and now, depending on the whim of Gov. Ed Rendell, they’ll be able to ignore that rule. The rule for casinos will be to serve ’em up all day and most of the night — from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. — as fast as patrons can drain them."

If the proposed casino at Gettysburg is allowed to see the light of day, the patrons who lose everything will leave the casino with empty pockets and veins full of free alcohol. Broke, drunk, and despondent, they will be a danger to the other people on the road and the monuments in and around the park. Neither are replaceable.

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board will hold its final hearing for the Gettysburg casino on December 4, 2006. To express your opposition to the casino before this tragedy cannot be undone, please visit the links below.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Governor Ed Rendell

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

A Letter to the PGCB

I include here a letter I recently sent to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board concerning the proposed casino at Gettysburg.

To Whom it May Concern,

I wish to express my displeasure with the continued manner in which the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) informs the public of both the correspondence and testimony offered concerning the proposed casino at Gettysburg. On April 5 2006, at the PGCB Hearing at Gettysburg College, the vast majority of the people who testified expressed their vehement objection to allowing Chance Enterprises to build a casino near the Battlefield. Of the 33 private citizens to speak, 29 opposed the casino. After listening to the others present, I left the hearings encouraged. Knowing the government’s charge of representing the will of the people, I felt that Gettysburg might emerge free of a scourge that threatened to desecrate and damage the grounds upon which our ancestors fought and died.

However, as time passed, I realized that the PGCB had made public none of what we said that day. I contacted your offices seeking transcripts of the testimony. After some time awaiting a reply, and receiving notification that you would not publish this on-line, you informed me that I would need to go through a private company to obtain the transcripts. Unlike other minutes that the PGCB freely and publicly posts on-line, I would need to pay for a copy of our public record. Much to my continued exasperation, the company to which you directed me declined to quote a price. In fact, they ceased to respond at all.

I felt some measure of resurgent optimism when I noticed that the PGCB had posted a series of casino related public comments on their site. However, instead of posting searchable, easily readable text, the PGCB instead chose to post massive files of collections of scanned copies of some of the original documents. In doing so, the PGCB has contributed to the impression of bias concerning this issue. The first four web pages of posted comments concerning the Gettysburg casino contain almost exclusively if not entirely letters in support of that casino. The final eight pages hold the letters and petitions containing hundreds of vehement objections.

Along with rendering the task of reading the comments arduous at best, the PGCB has padded the first files which people are likely to read with those comments in favor of the casino. Nothing on that web page notes or explains this. The reader scanning the first few pages of comments may naturally assume that the citizenry expressed an overwhelming degree of support for a casino at Gettysburg. The PGCB must be keenly aware that this is most certainly not the case.

If I counted correctly, as of four days ago, the PGCB site hosted 687 pages against the casino and 243 pages in favor. The pages expressing support for the proposal included letters from persons working for or linked to Chance Enterprises, the Company wishing to build the casino.
Of note, I did not see any of the correspondence that I sent to the PGCB nor did I see the transcript of my testimony that I submitted to your stenographer the day of the hearing.

I would hope that, when you submit your final decision, you will support the will of the people and not permit a casino anywhere near the sacred ground of Gettysburg.

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

What Has Become of Us

I want to take a second to move away from what I typically do here and speak to you personally, US citizen to US citizen. When I write a blog entry, I usually take great care to try and post something that I feel is worthy of your time. I write something, set it aside, re-read it and write some more, set it aside again, and so on...until I'm satisfied. But tonight, I can't do that.

I received a very simple e-mail just about an hour ago. It said "Hi. I have a question. What is going to happen at Gettysburg? Are they building the casino or not? I certainly hope that the answer is no."

Now I have written perhaps 10 articles against the proposed casino. I have researched the dangers a casino represents to the Battlefield. I have spoken to many who are in opposition and some who are not. I have posted the e-mail addresses of those who will impact or make the decision to allow the casino, asking that people write to voice their opposition. I have testified at one of the hearings against the casino. I have written several times to the Governor, the Gaming Control Board, and my local representatives. I have posted on other blogs and discussion groups. But tonight, when I read this e-mail, I didn't know what to say. So instead, I e-mailed a good friend and expressed my exasperation. After venting to him, I re-read my e-mail and knew that what I wrote would be my answer to the young lady who e-mailed me. It wasn't eloquent. I didn't take my time making sure that I expressed myself exactly as I wanted. I just wrote.

I said to my friend, "Gettysburg is a good thing. It’s a symbol of what we were and could yet again become, in both a negative and positive aspect. Most importantly though, tens of thousands bled there to make our country what it is. What else need be said? Tens of thousands."

I can’t tell you of my frustration when I think that this casino may see the light of day and the battlefield where our ancestors fought will be forever scarred. If we can forget the men who shaped our country like very few others have, what does that say of us? Damn it what has become of us?

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Gettysburg Casino

Update: August 10, 2006: After writing this article I have heard two other news reports stating that the PGCB aims to award the Pennsylvania casino licenses before the end of the year. They made no mention of initially reported September 2006 date previously discussed. However, the potential for damage to the battlefields remains. So please read on.

****************************************

On the radio this week, I heard the disquieting news that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, despite legislative pleas for a postponement, hopes to begin awarding casino licenses next month. If you feel as I do, that the attempt to exploit the name, memory, and men of Gettysburg by building a casino near the battlefield should never be, please let the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and other Pennsylvania officials hear your voice. If you would like more information about this issue, I have several links in the menu to the right.


I have included links to those who have influence concerning this issue. Please write to some or all of them so as not to allow the memory of the thousands who fought and died to suffer the taint of such disrespect and to avoid the resulting damage to the battlefield which so honorably serves as an eternal monument to their deeds and memory.

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Governor Ed Rendell

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum

Lynn Swann - Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Candidate

Pennsylvania State Assembly

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The Exploitation of Gettysburg

Recently, two unfortunate subjects have stolen time from the joy in writing about the American Civil War and, hopefully, the occasional interest readers have in the end results. The proposed Gettysburg Casino, a project designed to blatantly exploit the fame and associated sacrifice of the Battlefield at Gettysburg, lingers on as an insidious malignancy threatening to sicken the beauty of the now peaceful fields. The casino investors calculated choice of a location near the battlefield reeks of a sordid desire to capitalize on the deaths of the thousands of men who "gave the last full measure of devotion". Neither our ancestors’ storied past nor our shared national history should ever suffer the indignity of strangulation by a deliberately placed noose of avarice and greed.

The Ku Klux Klan now also seeks to exploit the hallowed ground of Gettysburg to satisfy their self-indulgent, hateful ends. As fated once before, Gettysburg will apparently follow in the footsteps of Antietam. The Klan defiled the sacred grounds of the Antietam National Battlefield just a few short weeks past.

Not despite, but because of the moral obligation to counter both message and messenger, I strongly support the strategy of not combating the Klan’s demonstration on this cherished, hallowed ground. These foul parasites hunger for controversy and feed on the publicity it spawns. They will endlessly seek to desecrate the fields of our shared heritage if the media, counter-protesters, and onlookers continuously, though perhaps unintentionally, quench their thirst for center stage. While we should ceaselessly challenge prejudice and hatred at every turn, each battle can and should adopt the strategy that best meets the immediate need. With all possible respect to those who find the Klan’s message similarly offensive, I urgently ask that no one give them that which they so desperately seek. If the well of publicity runs dry, they will have to dip their cups of hatred elsewhere. When no longer able to find an opportunistic pool, then perhaps we will celebrate the day that such evil crawls back into its fetid hole to die its deservedly slow and painful death.

The Battlefield at Gettysburg silently honors the 160,000 men who marched, fought, bled, and died that this nation might live. The rolling fields, craggy heights, and venerable monuments both memorialize and celebrate the lives and sacrifices of our ancestors while educating new generations about our history, errors, triumphs, and the values that shaped this nation. Given this unmistakable truth, no justification exists for ignoring the national insult of these attempted exploitations. Home to the ghosts of such staggering courage, this holy ground forever holds our storied past, consecrated with the blood of tens of thousands of Americans who helped to shape the nation whose privileges we enjoy today.

***************************

The article below discusses further the coming sad event.

"The Philadelphia Inquirer - July 4, 2006

Ku Klux Klan wins approval to protest at Gettysburg

GETTYSBURG, Pa. - The National Park Service granted a request by the Ku Klux Klan to rally and protest near the spot where a failed offensive by the Confederacy turned the tide of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Gordon Young of the World Knights of the Ku Klux Klan obtained the permit Wednesday for about 100 people to participate in a Sept. 2 event on the lawn of the Cyclorama Center at Gettysburg National Military Park, near the site of Pickett's Charge. The purpose, according to the permit, will be to oppose the Iraq war and speak on "white unity between the North and South."

The permit was granted in light of the constitutional rights of free speech and peaceable assembly, Gettysburg park superintendent John A. Latschar said in a statement yesterday. About 30 members of Young's group and other white-supremacist organizations gathered June 10 at Antietam National Battlefield in Sharpsburg, Md. About 30 counterdemonstrators and about 200 law enforcement officers were there, too.
The Battle of Gettysburg, which repelled a Confederate advance into Pennsylvania in July 1863, was the largest and bloodiest battle of the Civil War. More than 51,000 combatants disappeared or were killed, wounded or captured.- AP"

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Gettysburg Casino: $60 Million & our Heritage Lost

The Philadelphia Inquirer printed the following on July 3, 2006.

Casino on battlefield would be a loss for all

By Jim Lighthizer and Tom Kiernan

In a high-stakes operation like a casino, there are always winners and losers. Build a casino at Gettysburg, and there would be one winner - the owner - while the losers would be too numerous to count.

Chance Enterprises, the investment group behind the proposed Crossroads Gaming Resort & Spa, wants to build a 3,000-slot casino one mile from the edge of the Gettysburg National Military Park. Casino officials tout the jobs and economic benefits the facility would provide, but these claims are overstated.

With about 1.7 million visitors annually, and with visitation growing steadily, Gettysburg is one of the top tourist destinations in Pennsylvania. Known for its quaint charm, downtown shops and restaurants, and, of course, the battlefield, Gettysburg is a pleasant, family-friendly place to visit. A casino would seriously detract from that enduring appeal.

In addition to conflicting with the historic character of a beloved national battlefield, the casino would divert a whopping $60 million from local businesses, according to a recent economic assessment by the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT). The region's thriving heritage tourism industry, the quality of life for local residents, and the historic and natural resources that make Gettysburg a national icon would all suffer.

National parks are some of our nation's most endangered, irreplaceable resources - Civil War battlefields no less so than wild places such as Yellowstone or the Everglades. Sadly, due to their locations near growing population centers, many battlefields are especially vulnerable to inappropriate development. Today, the same landscapes upon which our nation was formed and tested are being consumed by fast-food restaurants, strip malls, and other forms of suburban sprawl. Nearly 20 percent of our historic Civil War battlefields already have been paved over.

When the Crossroads casino was first proposed, our primary concern was that it would damage the countryside that gives the Gettysburg battlefield meaning and character, and encourage more of the growth that is eating away at the park's edges. What has since been revealed is just how devastating the casino would be to the economy of the Gettysburg region.

During the April 7 hearing before the Gaming Control Board, economist Michael Siegel, who prepared an economic assessment of the casinos for the CWPT, seriously undermined the rosy picture investors have predicted for Gettysburg. Siegel testified that Gettysburg is one of the areas in Pennsylvania that would be most vulnerable to the adverse effects of a large casino.

His report takes issue with Chance Enterprises' reliance on Vicksburg, Miss. - a gambling hot spot with a Civil War past - as a positive model of how a casino might affect Gettysburg. In fact, in 1994, after the first year the casinos were open, visitation to Vicksburg National Military Park fell 21 percent. Since then, visitation rates have struggled back to pre-casino levels. Before the casinos opened, Vicksburg's visitation had been growing at about 5 percent a year.

In Warren County, where Vicksburg is situated, nonmanufacturing wage and salary employment fell by several hundred jobs following the opening of four casinos. There was a slight increase after 1997, but another decline in 2000. These jobs and visitation figures strongly suggest that tens of millions of dollars of economic activity were diverted from Vicksburg-area businesses to its casinos.

Like casinos, Civil War battles always had their winners and losers, but ultimately all Americans won. Our nation's founding principles of democracy and freedom were strengthened, and it is a blessing that we can still share those battlefields with our children. Yet, if this casino goes forward, we all stand to lose.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Lighthizer is president of the Civil War Preservation Trust. Tom Kiernan is president of the National Parks Conservation Association. Contact the writers at jlighthizer@civilwar.org and tkiernan@npca.org.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The PGCB Dismisses Dissention

Several times I have contacted the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board asking when they would post the transcripts of the recent casino hearings. After having testified in Gettysburg on Wednesday, April 5 2006, I had hoped that the public would have access to the transcripts, especially given the overwhelming opposition stated.

After several months, I received their response. The PGCB said, and I quote the e-mail in its entirety:

"The transcripts of the public input hearings will not be posted on the
PGCB website. You are able to view these transcripts in the PGCB's
Harrisburg office. Please call to schedule an appointment.

PA Gaming Control Board
P.O. Box 69060
Harrisburg, PA 17106
717-346-8300"

As they clearly state, in order to obtain a transcript from these public hearings, the PGCB requires an appointment. Concerned citizens from both Pennsylvania and around the country who prove unable to travel to Harrisburg have no opportunity to read for themselves the testimony given during the proceedings. Since the PGCB regularly posts on-line the last few years of meeting transcripts, one can only assume that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board made their decision in order to keep opposing testimony out of the public eye. This becomes then another in the growing collection of very sad days for Pennsylvania politics.

For other articles concerning the proposed casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield, please see:

More Opposition to the Proposed Gettysburg Casino

The Gettysburg Casino Hearings

Last Chance to Testify Against Gettysburg Casino

A Casino in Gettysburg: The Danger, The Truth

The Smothering Mantle of Irrelevancy

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

More Opposition to Proposed Gettysburg Casino

This article speaks for itself.

"Trust's Report Assails Casino Application"

******************

Update: April 19, 2006

I re-checked the above link today and noticed the link is now broken. Since the Evening Sun apparently does not archive their articles for more than a few weeks, I have included below a copy of the article from the Civil War Preservation Trust web site.

******************

"For Immediate Release: 4/4/2006
Contact: Jim Campi, 202-367-1861
NEW GETTYSBURG CASINO STUDY REVEALS SERIOUS PROBLEMS IN CHANCE IMPACT REPORT

Independent report finds that a Gettysburg slots parlor poses risk to hundreds of local businesses

Gettysburg, Pa. - The Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) today released an independent report on the impact of a large casino on Gettysburg and the surrounding region. The report, entitled The Impact of a Large Casino on the Gettysburg Area – A Realistic Assessment, found that Chance Enterprises, the investment group behind the proposed Gettysburg Gaming Resort and Spa (renamed Crossroads Gaming Resort and Spa to obscure its location just one mile from the battlefield), greatly exaggerates the benefits their venture would bring to the community and ignores the serious negative consequences to existing businesses and the battlefield.

“We have long suspected that Chance Enterprises was vastly overstating the benefits of a Gettysburg slots parlor,” observed CWPT President James Lighthizer. “Now we have the facts to support that view. The new report confirms that a casino in Gettysburg is not just bad for history, it is also bad business.”

Most of Chance’s claims were first made public in the group’s local impact report (LIR), a formal piece of their legally required application released in December 2005. Mr. Michael Siegel, the author of A Realistic Assessment, found the Chance LIR to be unreliable and misleading in several critical aspects. Siegel, the principal of Public and Environmental Finance Associates, is a 28-year veteran in the field of public and environmental finance and impact analysis. Based on his analysis of the LIR, Siegel concludes, “It would be difficult to find an area in Pennsylvania that is more vulnerable to the adverse effect of a large casino. The Gettysburg area’s economy is too large to escape the proposed casino’s adverse impacts, but not nearly large enough for them to be of relatively little consequence.”

VICKSBURG’S POST CASINO EXPERIENCE: THE MODEL FOR GETTYSBURG?

Chance’s LIR relies in large part on Vicksburg as a model of how its casino would affect Gettysburg and the surrounding area. One of Chance’s key assertions is that visitation to Vicksburg National Military Park (NMP) was unaffected by the introduction of gambling to the area. This is not the case. In 1994, the first full calendar year after the opening of Vicksburg’s first casinos, visitation to Vicksburg NMP fell 21 percent. Through 2004 there were only two years when visitation to the park equaled or slightly exceeded the 1993 level, when gambling first came to town. In the five years previous to the casinos’ introduction, Vicksburg’s visitation had been growing an average of five percent per year.

In contrast, visitation to Gettysburg National Military Park has increased by 21 percent over the same time period. Given the importance of tourists to Adams County and the Borough of Gettysburg, this misleading portrayal of Vicksburg’s visitation numbers is of utmost concern. As the Realistic Assessment notes, “people’s wallets usually accompany them.”

The LIR’s economic analysis is based on the odd proposition that if it omits spending by existing visitors and residents at the casino in its calculations, then none of Gettysburg’s existing business will be hurt when this money goes elsewhere. As the Realistic Assessment points out, this poses a real and serious adverse impact to the Gettysburg area. In Warren County (Vicksburg), Mississippi, nonmanufacturing wage and salary employment fell by several hundred jobs following the opening of its four casinos. Not only did these casinos fail to generate a single net new nonmanufacturing wage job outside the gambling establishments themselves, they may have actually destroyed such jobs. Together with the Vicksburg Battlefield’s visitation data, this strongly suggests that tens of millions of dollars of economic activity was transferred and diverted from existing Vicksburg-area businesses to its casinos.

Chance also uses Vicksburg for its assertion that the proposed casino would have no adverse social impacts. In reality, the crime rate in Warren County, Mississippi after the introduction of casinos, increased at a far greater rate than it did in Mississippi overall. While Warren County’s crime rate was soaring, the national crime rate was also falling.

MORE MISREPRESENTATIONS IN THE LIR

A Realistic Assessment details numerous other serious deficiencies in the Chance LIR. Among them:

Damage to Existing Businesses: The Chance LIR fails to address the damage the casino will cause to existing businesses by the diversion and transfer of local resident and existing visitor expenditures to the casino. Siegel’s report roughly estimates that about $60 million of spending by existing visitors and residents would be diverted and transferred from existing establishments to the proposed casino. This represents a sizable share of Adams County’s service and retail sector spending..

Job Creation and Overnight Stays: The LIR assumes half a million or more new overnight visitors who cannot be reasonably accounted for. The level of overnight stays presumed by the report is only achieved by two mega-resort gambling destinations: Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Reputable industry studies indicate that no more than between four and eight percent of the casino’s visitors from within two hours drive time will stay overnight in Adams County. In Charles Town, W.V. (home to a similarly sized slots facility) only about five percent do so.

Failure to Fully Consider Competitive Disadvantages: A Gettysburg casino would have a disadvantaged location relative to the three other casinos it will have to compete with for market share. The three competitors are within a two-hour drive from Gettysburg. As the Realistic Assessment points out, drive times to Gettysburg from the large population centers in the Washington–Baltimore area are significantly longer than to other competing casinos. A University of Massachusetts study on visitation patterns to the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut found that a 10–15-minute travel difference caused three to four times as many Rhode Islanders to pick the closer location. Because Chance omits key data and assumptions about its market study, it does not appear that they have given proper consideration to this effect.

Tourism to Gettysburg: With approximately 1.7 million visitors annually, Gettysburg is one of the top overall tourist destinations in Pennsylvania. Its location makes it a gateway to visitors from across the nation. Locating a casino in Gettysburg amounts to brand pollution and will have negative consequences for Pennsylvania that will not be confined to the Gettysburg area. Leisure tourism is Pennsylvania’s second-largest industry, and heritage tourists tend to be the biggest spenders among leisure visitors.

With findings this dramatic on these and related topics, the Realistic Assessment should be carefully read and considered by those seeking to fully understand the potential impacts that a casino would have on the region, according to Rodney Cromeans of the coalition Businesses Against the Casino in Adams County. Believing that the information presented in the Realistic Assessment is a vital part of the dialogue and must be fully heard, Businesses Against the Casino has invited its author to present his findings on the organization’s behalf during the Gaming Control Board’s public hearings. “The data in this report are crucial for a full understanding of the issues at stake with this casino. As a Gettysburg businessman, I can truly relate to what these numbers mean for my bottom line,” Cromeans said.

With 75,000 members, CWPT is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States. Its mission is to preserve our nation’s remaining Civil War battlefields. Since 1987, the organization has saved more than 22,300 acres of hallowed ground, including 591 acres at Gettysburg. Most recently, CWPT partnered with the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association to protect the Daniel Lady Farm at Gettysburg. CWPT’s website is located at www.civilwar.org.

###

(A copy of A Realistic Assessment is available online at http://www.civilwar.org/news/realistic_assessment.pdf )"

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Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

The Gettysburg Casino Hearings

On Wednesday, April 5, I had the privilege of testifying at the initial Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hearing concerning the proposal to build a casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield. I left feeling cautiously upbeat after hearing a majority of presenters express their displeasure with the idea. Twenty-four hours later, that day's optimism became tainted with dismay as I both read and heard how the news media portrayed the proceedings. The straightforward hearing format allowed those seeking the casino license to testify first, followed by governmental officials, non-profit and private organizations, followed by individual citizens. I witnessed the entire hearing, took pages of notes, and heard each presenter.

Chance Enterprises and their CEO David Levan spoke first, stating their position that the casino would benefit the local economy, would not negatively impact the battlefield, and would not rest on any "hallowed ground". When they finished, various governmental representatives spoke with the numbers for and against the proposal about evenly distributed. The private and non-profit groups spoke next, all of whom voiced their strenuous objections to the proposal with the noted exception of the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association. My surprise at their declaration of support faded somewhat as I heard talk that they allegedly had received significant contributions from Mr. Levan.

Of the 33 individuals who spoke, all area residents except two, 29 stated their opposition including a descendent of the family of Major General John Fulton Reynolds and one of Miles Standish. Groups who sent representative to this hearing who also objected to the proposal included:

The Friends of the National Parks at Gettysburg
Concerned Citizens of Straban Township
No Casino Gettysburg
Gettysburg College Parents Advisory Board
The Civil War Club of Gettysburg College
Gettysburg College Faculty

The gentleman who spoke for the Gettysburg College Parents Advisory Board, currently numbering 62 parents, emphasized that the vote against the casino was not just by majority but unanimous.

Despite the above, thus far, both televised and print media concerning this hearing seem to imply or represent that those testifying presented an equivalent number of positions both in opposition and in support. I have seen no mention of the 60,000+ petition signatures offered by the Civil War Preservation Trust and the group No Casino Gettysburg which publicly document both local and national opposition. In the reports I have seen, the print and broadcast media mentioned views in support of the casino prior to noting any specific objections, if they noted any at all. At the risk of painting myself with cynicism, I can only guess that these media outlets, all local to Pennsylvania, seek the advertising revenue a casino might offer.

As for my testimony, below I include a copy of the text from which I read excluding the specific contact information I provided to the Board.

"I was born, raised, and still live in Pennsylvania. I visit Gettysburg frequently, have friends here, and had family who fought here.

On June 28, 1865, Union Major General George Gordon Meade said farewell to the Army of the Potomac. A man of comparatively few words, he would say to the survivors of this war, "It is unnecessary to enumerate here all that has occurred in these two eventful years, from the grand and decisive Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point of the war, to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House. Suffice it to say that history will do you justice, a grateful country will honor the living, cherish and support the disabled, and sincerely mourn the dead."

It pains me to consider that this country may not be as grateful as it once was. Today we debate this plan by a few to exploit the name and sacrifice of Gettysburg for their own ends. Those who seek to build this casino would not do so at such a cherished site but for the millions who travel to Gettysburg every year to remember the men and women who gave so much for this country. A casino so close to the battlefield, the sacred grounds where our ancestors decided the fate of this nation, seeks only to profit from those who journey here to ponder and remember.

I wish now to state in the strongest possible terms that this cannot, this must not happen. The casino, if it sees the light of day, will scar the very fields we seek to protect.

But even without the increase in crime and costs to the community, building a casino near this battlefield remains as unconscionable a decision as building an amusement park at Pearl Harbor. The men who died here and their descendents deserve far better.

The great state of Pennsylvania along with people from all over this country will soon join in celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. We will proudly remember that, on those three fateful days, tens of thousands of Americans, including 35,000 Pennsylvanians, saved our nation. I say to you today, do not soil their memory by allowing this blatant exploitation of their sacrifice. We owe them. In those three days, thousands of men gave their lives that this nation, our nation, might live. Tens of thousands of others emerged from this conflict broken and shattered, their bodies no longer whole, their legacy forever written in blood in the book of honor.

Ladies and gentlemen of this board, how will we repay these men? Who speaks for the dead of Gettysburg?"

Sincerely,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Letter to the PGCB

A copy of a letter sent to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board concerning the proposed Gettysburg casino project.

"I cannot find the words to adequately describe how incensed I am concerning the proposal to build a casino near the Gettysburg Battlefield. Despite the empty promises, no one doubts for a moment that a casino would both threaten the battlefield and dishonor the memories of our ancestors who fought there. The priceless, irreplaceable monuments located not just on the battlefield but throughout the town, most erected by the soldiers to honor their fallen comrades, often are situated precariously close to the roads. The increase in crime, drunk driving, and traffic in general will without question result in increased damage to these monuments through vandalism, theft, and vehicular accidents.

Even more despicable is the exploitation of the memory of the men who on those fields saved a nation. Despite the protestations, no casino proposal would exist if not for the battlefield and the opportunity to profit through association with the name and honored dead of Gettysburg. The Battlefield grounds are Federal land, preserved for all of the citizens of our country. That anyone would attempt to capitalize on the dead who have served our country for the simple pursuit of profit is disgusting in the extreme.

I was born, raised, and continue to live in Pennsylvania. This is a nearly unbearable embarrassment that I hope will never darken the reputation of our good state. No one with any sense of patriotism, history, or pride in their country would entertain the thought of building a casino next to Arlington National Cemetery or Ground Zero in such a blatant attempt to profit from the unquestioned heroism and catastrophic loss. Likewise, no one should ever be permitted to exploit the honored dead of Gettysburg."

Please see my postings below for more information on this sad issue. And if you can, please write to the Gaming Board or your state and federal representatives to express your opposition. I included e-mail links to the governor, Pennsylvania's Senators, and the PGCB in the article A Casino in Gettysburg: The Danger, The Truth.

Sincerely:

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Last Chance to Testify Against Gettysburg Casino

I've written several blog articles about the proposed casino in Gettysburg.

A Vision Place of Souls

A Casino in Gettysburg: The Danger, The Truth

No need to restate what's been said. Those supporting the casinos deny the attempt to exploit the honored name and dead of Gettysburg. But without this Battle, the Battle that saw one nation die so another might live, no one would seek to build a casino so close to Gettysburg.

Only three days remain to register to testify against the casino. If you can be present, please do. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) has extended the registration deadline to allow for those opposed to present their points of view. Without sufficient voice against the casino, the project will likely go forward. If you cannot be present, please write to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and express your opposition. A casino in Gettysburg will drain area resources, increase crime, and ultimately prove harmful to the ground reserved for a nation to honor its heroic dead. If the living do not steadfastly guard the memory of these men, no one will.

To Register for Public Hearings

To Contact the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

A Casino in Gettysburg - The Danger, The Truth

There exists no greater immediate threat to the most treasured battlefield within the United States than the recent proposed casino project. In a February 2006 press release, The Civil War Preservation Trust, America's largest non-profit organization devoted to the preservation of our nation's endangered Civil War battlefields, stated, "Although the park is the most visited battlefield in the country and is the cornerstone of the local economy, the Gettysburg that millions of Americans have come to know and love is threatened by a proposal to build a massive, 3,000-slot gaming facility". I do not write today to criticize gambling but to help save this precious battlefield.

Gambling increases the amount of crime experienced by the communities that host gambling. According to a 2005 study by Aborn and Bennett, two communities in Mississippi experienced dramatic increases in crime from their pre-gambling levels. To quote their report, "Crime increases were seen in every category with murder, rape, robbery, and car theft at least doubling." With the advent of gambling, they experienced a 300% increase in bank robberies in just one year. Alcohol related accidents increased 101%, prostitution related arrests rose 85%, and drug arrests jumped 152%. In the five years previous to gambling, the crime rates had actually decreased by 42%.

A little closer to Pennsylvania, when considering Atlantic City, "In the first ten years the city had casinos, the total crime index rose a staggering 258%…Violent crime rose 199%, and larceny skyrocketed 481%." Atlantic City’s crime rates in 2002 were 3 times the national average and 4 times that of New York City.

A casino brings increased demand for law enforcement, crime-victim advocacy and support, social services, medical services (especially at local hospital emergency departments), emergency services (both ambulance, rescue, and fire), and welfare funding. The need for more social services will include addictions services (both gambling and substance abuse), crisis services, and housing. Housing typically means placement in an area hotel room at the cost of the local tax payers.

I have worked in the social service field, primarily with the mental health and addictions populations, for two decades in two different states including Pennsylvania. Officials predictably promise sufficient funding to address the problems associated with casinos whenever they propose such projects. In my experience, those promises remain broken. I know of no agency or public service entity which reports sufficient funding to meet the existing needs of the people they serve much less the expected expanded needs.

Even if the funds did exist however, by design, the person wishing to access those services must first display a need for those services. This is a key issue. To access the proposed expanded law enforcement services, someone must first be a victim or the intended victim of a crime. To access addiction services, someone must first become addicted. To access victims services, someone must first be victimized. Therefore, by design, people must first suffer in order for the proposed services to begin to address the need. Those who suffer will include people who never set foot in the casino. Since many health insurance providers limit the amount of covered addition services, those with the greatest need will inevitably go without treatment to their and the community‘s detriment. Sadly, since funding will not meet the anticipated expanded need generated by the casino‘s presence, all community members who need law enforcement, medical, or social services may experience decreased access.

Casino advocates have of course spoken of prevention. However, since the casino only profits if the majority of those gambling lose money, talk of prevention seems empty. By definition, in order to survive, the casino must attract a consistent and steady stream of people who lose money. Casino survival is simple mathematics. That loss contributes to the problems that will not receive adequate funding which in turn threatens the community and the battlefield

I say none of the above to disparage or insult the populations needing services or the providers attempting to meet these needs. However, the reality exists that when you introduce gambling, especially on such a large scale as proposed, personal and societal ills always have, and always will, follow. The costs will not be covered and the Gettysburg area as a whole, the town, the people, and the battlefield, will suffer irreparable harm.

Some of those who commit gambling related crimes will do so on the roads and grounds of the battlefield. This will tax already limited park financial and personnel resources. Increased crime means an increased threat to the battlefield. The park, its irreplaceable monuments, and other historic homes and structures will suffer increased damage due to automobile accidents, drunk driving, theft, and vandalism. Resources will be pulled due to under-funding and the battlefield will suffer. Again, simple mathematics. Much of the damage that will occur will be irreversible. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the nation will be poorer for it. This cannot happen. We cannot allow this.

Whether you are a Pennsylvania resident, a tourist from out of state, or you simply love our history, please contact any or all of the Government officials below and let them know that you consider the mere thought of a casino near Gettysburg completely unacceptable. Take time to write a few words and you will help save these grounds for our current generation and all those yet to come.

Governor Ed Rendell

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter

Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum

Pennsylvania Gubernatorial Candidate Lynn Swann

Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board

Respectfully,

Randy

Please visit my primary site at www.brotherswar.com

All original material Copyright © 2006. All Rights Reserved

Sources:

Civil War Preservation Trust
The Connection Between Gambling and Crime
(PDF File. Adobe Acrobat required.)

The Smothering Mantle of Irrelevancy

Despite thousands of books, articles, columns, web sites, and various productions concerning this segment of our history, one question lingers like a specter eternally lurking maliciously in the shadows. It feasts on controversy such as that enveloping the current proposal to establish a casino just outside of the Gettysburg Battlefields. With this conflict to fuel its fire, the question springs forward as someone queries aloud, "Why do these grounds matter?" Relishing its power, the inquiry bears its sinister, toothy grin as it lunges again with, "Do the lands bordering Gettysburg, or any battlefield, significantly impact the life of those I love?"

As you might guess, I would argue strenuously in the affirmative. But that was not always the case.

Until recently, I did not care much for this particular period in our history, considering its study hardly useful. However, about five years ago, I found myself pacing impatiently in a bookstore, lamenting my inability to find a satisfactory read. But, as discussed in a previous entry, I happened upon the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, "Killer Angels". Moving with increasing eagerness through its unexpectedly enthralling pages, I found that I had stumbled into an undiscovered world where men held dear seemingly antiquated qualities such as duty and honor. These citizens turned soldiers willingly and repeatedly endured hardships surpassing current standards of acceptability for little identifiable gain. Men became hardened to marching twenty or more miles daily, over rough, stony roads, frequently without shoes or adequate food and water. They did so both in the sweltering unforgiving heat of summer and the icy biting cold of winter. Week upon monotonous week passed drilling, marching, or doing nothing while trying to maintain some measure of morale and desperately missing home. Woven in-between the months of grinding tedium, soldiers encountered threads of savage conflict which destroyed countless lives, families, and at times, entire communities.

Currier and Ives' pictorial interpretations, gracing the pages of the illustrated papers, influenced how many citizens of that day pictured battles both great and small. Usually including one or two obligatory wounded, the images, especially early in the conflict, depicted lines of perfectly aligned men, dutifully advancing into battle courageously lead by a chivalrous mounted sword-wielding commander. Glory and fame awaited the majority who, these renderings implied, would survive this magnificent scene. Sadly though, the elegant images captured little of the real tragedy of war.

Officers frequently led men into battle in Napoleonic formations, often ignorant of both the position and number of the enemy in their front as well as the danger awaiting them. At Antietam for example, Union Major General Joseph Mansfield, proudly assuming his first field command, perished when shot by a foe he believed was elsewhere on the field. Just to the South, Union Major General William French's men advanced valiantly forward over the rolling hills of the Roulette Farm, marching in perfect formation unknowingly towards a solid gray line sheltered in a sunken farm road. Cresting a small rise, the bluecoats earned for their advance the reward of cold death and unspeakable pain as the Confederates opened fire. Irish and German immigrants, along with thousands of American citizen volunteers, whole just seconds before, would suffer the bone crushing impact of the violent hailstorm of lead balls filling the air from a massed array of carefully aimed muskets. The crash of the musketry merged with the agonized cries of the wounded to smother the commands of any officers still standing. Smoke from the hundreds of guns fired would obscure vision. Lacking a clearing breeze, formations crumbled as unsympathetic projectiles whirling towards them mowed down men standing out in the open, firing bravely at their sheltered foes.

The cornfield just hours earlier held similar scenes of horror. Union Major Rufus R. Dawes, writing of this fighting reported, "As we appeared at the edge of the corn, a long line of men in butternut and gray rose up from the ground. Simultaneously, the hostile battle lines opened a tremendous fire upon each other. Men, I cannot say fell; they were knocked out of the ranks by the dozens." George Smalley, a correspondent for the New York Tribune also wrote of this day, "The field and its ghastly harvest which the reaper had gathered in those fatal hours remained finally with us..….The dead are strewn so thickly that as you ride over it you cannot guide your horse's steps too carefully. Pale and bloody faces are everywhere upturned. They are sad and terrible but there is nothing which makes one's heart beat so quickly as the imploring look of sorely wounded men who beckon wearily for help which you cannot stay to give." [1]

Soft lead bullets and the iron fired from relentless artillery swept these fields tearing flesh and shattering bones. The wounded lay among the dead on the unforgiving, unsheltered ground, unsure whether aid or death would find them first. The figure of 23,000 casualties for one day's fighting remains grim enough on its own. But many more suffered slower, lingering deaths from wounds, disease, or the aftereffects of amputation and crude surgeries. The citizenry would endure trials as well as contagious, untreatable diseases ravaged many families who offered their homes, resources, and energy to help save those mangled by the unfeeling hand of battle.

Countless pages could be filled with equally horrid descriptions of such savagery. Mentioning such underscores that these labors, once survived, destroyed most illusions of the glory of war. Those who fought these battles knew the brutality that would tirelessly seek them out. Those who fought at Antietam would, less than one year later, fight, struggle, and die on the fields in and around Gettysburg. That they knew the dangers awaiting them is without question. One Southern soldier, moving northward in 1863 would write home to his family, "I have been this morning over the old Sharpsburg Battlefield and have witnessed the most horrible sights that my eyes ever beheld. I saw the dead in any number just lying on top of the ground, their bones bleaching and they by the many hundreds. Oh what a horrible sight for human beings to look upon." [2] Witness to the unprecedented killing of Antietam, the merciless slaughter of Fredericksburg, and the carnage of Chancellorsville, with thousands of dead killed by there sides, these men marched onward towards the inevitable collision at Gettysburg.

Walking the fields of Gettysburg, most appearing as they once did, you begin to comprehend. Certainly, countless books offer vivid depictions of what these men did, especially when concerning Gettysburg, the best-known battle of the four-year war. However, to stand on Seminary Ridge, at the foot General Lee's watchful eye atop the Virginia Monument, next to the now silent cannon, and begin the slow mile long walk towards the Union line on Cemetery Ridge, lends to a level of understanding which no printed page can attain. As the vegetation crunches under your feet, you marvel at their relentless advance into the face of the enemy, knowing that they understood what lay before them. You involuntarily sense relief when dipping into the occasional sheltering swale that mercifully offered fleeting but welcome concealment from the punishing artillery fire. About halfway through your walk, when you reach the Emittsburg Road, you enter within musket range of the men in your front. As you step forward from behind the post and rail fences and advance into the ever widening line of what was thousands of waiting primed muskets, the growing sense of awe sears itself into your soul.

Gleaning this from the undulating terrain of the field of Pickett's Charge, we owe this lesson to the preservation of the fields on which men fought, bled, and died some 140 years past. Books, articles, and publications hold the potential to inspire. Photographs or video can grip or tear at the heart. Yet lacking the ability to touch all of the senses, those inspirations sadly fade with the turning of the final page or the switching of the channel. But, some hot July afternoon, walk the fields at Gettysburg. Feel the rough ground under foot as you endure the wearing heat. See the distance traveled and the barriers overcome. Taste the dust kicked up from the dry ground as you walk along with the increasingly desperate determination as with each unwavering step you close on the Union lines. After such an experience, understanding what these men knew as they advanced, no heart can remain unchanged or forget the deeds which laid another brick in the foundation of our nation.

In a time when fleeting, disposable, and impermanent describe much of our society, our shared heritage remains one of the few enduring treasured constants. When disregarding the lessons of our past, we allow ourselves to remain susceptible to the pitfalls of political intrigue, manipulation, greed, barbarism, and the undesirable facets of many periods in our country's storied history. However, the valorous deeds of the common citizen turned soldier offer an inspiration that seeps into the soul to rekindle an awareness of the better angels of our shared identity.

These fields alone complete that lesson. The grounds where great deeds occurred offer a nourishing fragment of the spirit of those who marched, fought, and sacrificed here. Left unthreatened and unchanged, they hold the same potential for touching and inspiring generations yet to come.

With this, the question of the relevance of these sacred grounds shrinks back into the shifting shadows, surrendering its former ferocity to the smothering mantle of irrelevancy.

Sincerely,

Randy

If you would like further information regarding the concerns with the proposal to establish a casino near the battlefield, please visit www.nocasinogettysburg.com.

All original material Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved

Sources
[1] www.military.com
[2] Antietam: A Documentary Film. Media Magic Productions Historical Films Group

Letter to Ed Rendell, Governor of Pennsylvania

On July 7, 2005, I sent the following letter to Ed Rendell, Governor for the state of Pennsylvania, and to several other state officials concerning the ongoing plans to build a Casino a short distance from the town and Battlefield of Gettysburg.

*******************************

To the Honorable Governor Ed Rendell:

With all due respect sir, I must say to you that I find inconceivable that any American would consider for a moment the building of a casino anywhere near the historic town and sacred fields of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The obvious attempt at exploitation disgusts me. Thousands of men bled and died on those fields. Thirty thousand emerged from those ferocious three days of fighting no longer whole. President Lincoln permanently etched into the soul of our nation the meaning of the sacrifices offered on those now deathless lands. He did so on the grounds where thousands who died to preserve this Union lay now in a place of honor at eternal rest.

Few places in the United States can match Gettysburg for the degree of sacrifice and historical significance. As the smoke of battle faded, the men who struggled there understood and asked for their sacrifice one thing in return. They left molded in bronze and stone their earnest plea that we never forget. A casino near the battlefield, attempting to capitalize on the honored name of Gettysburg and the memory of such valor, would disgrace this state in my eyes and those of the nation.

I trust that you will oppose the existence of this stain, this desecration, of that hallowed ground. The fields, monuments, and indeed the lands around Gettysburg which cradle this most precious of national treasures must be vigorously protected. We owe as much to those who came before us and the generations yet to come.

Although frequently quoted, the power of these words hold even today. "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

The Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863.

Very Respectfully and Sincerely:

Randy

*******************************

If you share these concerns, or if you simply have questions about the issue, please visit www.nocasinogettysburg.com. If you also wish to express your concern, please see the "politics" section of the NoCasinoGettysburg site for contact information.

Thank you.

Sincerely

Randy

All original material Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved

Gettysburg Battlefield Threatened

This post is a simple yet earnest plea for your needed help. As you read this, developers continue in their efforts to obtain approval to build a casino just outside of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This blatant attempt to exploit this hallowed ground, the honor of the Gettysburg name, and the memory of those who struggled on those fields should not be considered for a moment much less permitted. During those three hot days in July of 1863, ten thousand men died. Thirty thousand lived but would no longer be whole. The deeds of over one hundred and fifty thousand men propelled our country irrevocably towards "a new birth of freedom" and helped to crystallize the shape of this nation. This should never be forgotten or trivialized.

Please, let your voice be heard about the importance of preserving our shared past. Write to or call those who must listen. If you live in Pennsylvania, have visited Gettysburg, plan to visit Gettysburg, or care about our shared heritage and past, please contact your Representatives, Senators, and government officials. Should you find yourself visiting Gettysburg, let the business owners know of the importance you place on saving these grounds from exploitation and the irreparable harm a casino would cause. Please help preserve the Gettysburg Battlefield as an eternal memorial to the tens of thousands who fought, bled, and died there.

For more information, please visit
NoCasinoGettysburg.com . If you can, please consider signing their on-line petition and donating to this cause, to our cause.

Thank you.

Very sincerely,

Randy

A Vision Place of Souls

Several years ago after finishing my first book on the Civil War, despite the six-hour round trip, I decided that I needed to see one of the sites where these events took place. Having read about one battle, I could picture the conflict's beginning, the fighting on the second day, and the final, ultimately doomed assault. I had in my mind a vision of those terrible struggles. To form this vision, I needed only to recreate this world, 140 years distant, that the author had so vividly painted. I held certain that he could not have missed a detail, no subtle nuance and no deafening boom. The sulfurous smell of gunpowder, the mind numbing roar of the cannons, the fear and exhilaration of battle, the decisions made by commanders and by others who would lead by example if not by position, all emerged from the pages. Each filled in a number on the mental canvas as the picture formed.

Venturing out to the fields was not a necessity. The conjured images were vivid, powerful and alive, complete with the needed details and facts. But something yet unidentified remained elusively absent. Not sure what I would find, I drove to this sacred place. Following the brown park signs to the Visitor's Center, I noticed a few weather worn monuments along the rolling country road, peppered with a cannon or two here and there. The granite carving in a restaurant's driveway looked interesting if not overly impressive. The marker noting past deeds in a homeowner's front yard seemed an oddly placed curiosity but not much more.

Relieved at successfully finding the parking area, now came the question of what exactly to do or where to go. Looking around with some confusion at the unfamiliar setting, I thought of walking up the hill to the Visitor's Center, a common enough looking building which held the promise of dioramas and other routine displays, but at least a map or two for a first time guest. Taking in the surroundings, my eyes caught a glimpse of the southwestern corner of the lot, a lighter open area beyond, and a few more monuments. That must be the direction to go.

Walking along what I later discovered was Cemetery Ridge, an impressive row of numerous monuments welcomed me, announcing my official arrival on the Battlefield at Gettysburg. Each had a regimental designation, a list of casualties, and odd seemingly out-of-place symbols such as three leaf clovers, crescent moons, and circles. Moving along the hot macadam surface, I took pictures of the monuments, despite my uncertainty of their significance, and progressed south along the ridge. Still unsure of my location and wondering what all this meant, the reassuring presence of the monuments at least left me satisfied of my presence in the right place.

Then I saw it. Likely the least impressive of the adornments, it none the less made my heart stop. The National Park Service marker calmly noted that I stood near the Confederate High Water mark. Another marker, lower to the ground, clarified that I had stumbled upon the focal point of the Pickett / Pettigrew Charge. Raising my head to look in the direction noted by the map, my eyes widened in shocked amazement. I knew the story. But it no longer seemed to fit so clearly. According to the NPS interpretive display, across the nearly mile long stretch of open fields to my front, 12,500 Confederates marched into massed guns, ferocious artillery, and historical immortality. Reading about what occurred on that day, July 3, 1863, did not prepare me for this sight. Standing behind the low stone wall that sheltered the men in blue, I stared without blinking across the rolling fields in awestruck amazement.

Questions swirled. How could they have done this? What could have possessed these men to do what must have seemed unthinkable? Each man in butternut or gray had to find the courage to stand in line and march forward across these open grounds into the malevolent hailstorm of deadly lead and iron. Each man in blue would have to hold his ground as he watched the many times victorious Army of Northern Virginia irresistibly swell towards them. With one glance over these now peacefully serene fields, I began to sense the enormity of what happened here. I began to understand.

Needing now to see more, I visited as many other battlefields as time and expense would allow. The experiences mirrored this. Nothing compares to the feeling of walking on the Old Mountain Road where men of the Southern Army mistakenly shot Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson or of silently standing in the room at Guinea Station where Jackson's time on this earth would end. Like Cemetery Ridge, today the curious can still stand at the Bloody Angle in Spotsylvania or walk the path out of the woods at Manassas where Stonewall Jackson emerged to join the battle and earn his name. Anyone can walk the same grounds in the Wilderness where General Lee thought to personally lead his men forward while his brave Texans demanded he go to the rear.

Sadly though, no one can stand behind the stone wall below Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg and truly understand the sacrifice of thousands of Union soldiers. Knowing all too well the danger, they did their duty. Brigades of men in blue battered themselves against a Confederate wall of lead which denied them the victory at the stone wall beyond. The fields are gone. Only a small section of the wall remains. Never again will anyone peer out over the fields below the wall and completely fathom the valor required to brave those charges. Eager enthusiasts find other fields equally threatened. Encroaching development and the ever-increasing rush of traffic threaten the Manassas Battlefield. Chancellorsville continues to fight to hold back the tide of building and "progress" as well. While the National Park Service progresses with restoring the Gettysburg Battlefield to its 1863 appearance, hard-hearted investors seek to cash in on the brand name and bring casinos to the area.

These are some of the most well known and cherished battlefields from the United States' shared past. That even these hallowed grounds are threatened speaks to the fate of lesser known but equally important historic fields. Many of these fields are simply gone.

By studying our history, we discover who we are and how we came to the place we currently occupy. More importantly, we learn what we can yet be. Without the courage to preserve such places for our generation and those yet to come, true understanding of the men who made this nation and of why we went to war with ourselves will remain elusively out of reach.

Union General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain understood. Over a century ago, considering those who would come, at the dedication of the monument to the 20th Maine at Gettysburg, he spoke these words. "In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear, but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field to ponder and dream; And lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls."

For more information on battlefield preservation, please visit the Preservation of Battlefields section of my web site.

Respectfully,

Randy

All original material Copyright © 2005. All Rights Reserved