Yesterday, the U.S. Department of the Interior ruled that the 1993 compact between the State of New York and the Oneida Indian Nation -- the compact that allows gambling at the Casino -- was valid.
I may draw flack for this, but I cannot say that this is a problem. In spite of all the issues regarding unfair competition, taxation, etc., no one can deny that Turning Stone is probably the best thing that has happened to Oneida County in years, in terms of job creation and improvement in our quality of life. None of this would have happened but for the 1993 compact.
Yet there is something bothersome about what just happened: A federal administrative agency just trumped the rulings of New York State courts on issues of what New York State officials could and could not do.
Somehow I think our Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves.
PS Happy Flag Day!
2 comments:
I thought the exact same thing when I heard the news.
It is a very real possibility that New York State could lose statehood status and become a federal satellite. New York is near insolvency, is completely dysfunctional in even the simplest issues, and, with the new National Energy Corridor and the "War" on Terror (with more facilities being built here in NY as well as the target of threats), the federal government might just buy the state out. What kind of citizens would we be then? I have no desire to live in a police state or to be a serf in my own country. New Yorkers would do well to rally round the Constitution again... the state has lost its way.
Like Daniel Webster said, "I apprehend no danger to our country from a foreign foe... Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger."
STRIKESLIP:
I raise you two painted ponies, three buffalo skins and three beaver pelts!
How is that for a poker hand?
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