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Burn


Frank E Gibbard

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Frank E Gibbard

A former Red Indian lights a cigar

With his high denomination dollar,

Smokes comfortably in his swivel chair.

He always enjoys this ritual burning,

After paying the tribe’s huge tax bill.

As Chief Exec of the Pequot Nation’s casino

The old fox has no reservations anymore;

Life and revenge, he muses, is very sweet.

 

(the Pequots adopted the name which remains today, "The Fox People." )

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Interesting poem, Frank. I live near the Foxwoods Casino and Resort, and I've been there a few times. There's another tribe near there (also in Connecticut), called the Mohegans, and their casino is called the Mohegan Sun. Both casinos are extremely profitable. I remember reading maybe eight years back that the Mohegans made so much money with their casino that they gave back their federal handouts. On the other hand, the Pequots, with the bigger and more lucrative Foxwoods casino, kept the federal money. Go figure! icon_lol.gif

 

But I am wondering, have you been here to my neck of the woods?

 

Tony

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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Frank E Gibbard

tonyv wrote:

 

the Pequots, with the bigger and more lucrative Foxwoods casino, kept the federal money. Go figure!
icon_lol.gif

But I am wondering, have you been here to my neck of the woods?Tony

 

Tony thanks what a coincidence, I never knew locations involved. I based my story on a BBC radio documentary programme about the Foxwood casino. Frank

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goldenlangur

Hi Frank,

 

I've enjoyed your interesting exchange with Tony and can appreciate the humour in this the better for it:

 

Frank E Gibbard wrote:

...

The old fox has no reservations anymore;

Life and revenge, he muses, is very sweet.

 

Thank you for a good read. Must say writing a poem to a a theme from a radio/TV discussion is quite something icon_smile.gif

 

goldenlangur

goldenlangur

 

 

Even a single enemy is too many and a thousand friends too few - Bhutanese saying.

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Hi Frank, I loved the subject, it was so different. And the perspective was even more interesting. The thing that stood out for me was the "huge tax bill" as if it was a negative thing, which I thought was odd, since the tax bill that Indian casinos pay is through their own agreement with the governments, city, county, state and or federal and are usually a pittance of their profit.

 

Reservations are sovereign land and not subject to the laws of the state which they occupy, No corporation or individual could buy land and build a casino, it would be illegal, but the federal government can buy land anywhere, give it to a "tribe" and call it a reservation, sovereign land, the "tribe" can build a casino and the taxes from the profits can be negotiated. (what citizen or corporation can negotiate taxes?)

 

We have been fighting a proposed casino coming to our area for a few years now. The nearby Indian reservation has a casino already but it is small, difficult to get to and little profit to anyone but the people that live on the res. (The scale of gambling that goes on there generates little or no tax revenue but has helped the people of the res emensely.) The new casino, if it goes through, would be owned by a "tribe" that has never been confined to a reservation, it would be plunked down on beautiful farm land less than an hour's drive from San Francisco and would becoeme a huge resort and casino which would all but wipe out the small casino on the res an hour north. It will also clog up our country roads with traffic and attract criminal activity which goes hand in hand with gambling on this scale. I don't want it here and no amount of tax revenue would compensate for the destruction it would bring.

 

Sorry, your poems seem to bring out the soap box under me.

 

~~Tink

~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~

For permission to use this work you can write to Tinker1111@icloud.com

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Tinker wrote:

 

We have been fighting a proposed casino coming to our area for a few years now. The nearby Indian reservation has a casino already but it is small, difficult to get to and little profit to anyone but the people that live on the res. (The scale of gambling that goes on there generates little or no tax revenue but has helped the people of the res emensely.) The new casino, if it goes through, would be owned by a "tribe" that has never been confined to a reservation, it would be plunked down on beautiful farm land less than an hour's drive from San Francisco and would becoeme a huge resort and casino which would all but wipe out the small casino on the res an hour north. It will also clog up our country roads with traffic and attract criminal activity which goes hand in hand with gambling on this scale. I don't want it here and no amount of tax revenue would compensate for the destruction it would bring.

The Narragansett tribe wanted build one here in Rhode Island a couple of years ago. The question whether to allow it came up on a referendum, and it was defeated. Though it was no secret, during the time leading up to the voting, the public became more conscious that the "Indian" casino was really a venture of big Las Vegas gambling corporations. Sure, it had the token Indian tribe, and it was to be situated on Indian land, but (if I remember correctly) both MGM Grand and Harrah's entertainment lobbied hard for the casino and competed to become the principal investors. I think the Indian tribe was to start receiving profits only after a decade. It went something like that, though I can't remember the exact details. My point: the "White Man" was to have significant involvement in what was propagandized as the "Red Man's" venture.

 

Tony

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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Frank E Gibbard
Tinker wrote:

 

We have been fighting a proposed casino coming to our area for a few years now. The nearby Indian reservation has a casino already but it is small, difficult to get to and little profit to anyone but the people that live on the res. (The scale of gambling that goes on there generates little or no tax revenue but has helped the people of the res emensely.) The new casino, if it goes through, would be owned by a "tribe" that has never been confined to a reservation, it would be plunked down on beautiful farm land less than an hour's drive from San Francisco and would becoeme a huge resort and casino which would all but wipe out the small casino on the res an hour north. It will also clog up our country roads with traffic and attract criminal activity which goes hand in hand with gambling on this scale. I don't want it here and no amount of tax revenue would compensate for the destruction it would bring.

The Narragansett tribe wanted build one here in Rhode Island a couple of years ago. The question whether to allow it came up on a referendum, and it was defeated. Though it was no secret, during the time leading up to the voting, the public became more conscious that the "Indian" casino was really a venture of big Las Vegas gambling corporations. Sure, it had the token Indian tribe, and it was to be situated on Indian land, but (if I remember correctly) both MGM Grand and Harrah's entertainment lobbied hard for the casino and competed to become the principal investors. I think the Indian tribe was to start receiving profits only after a decade. It went something like that, though I can't remember the exact details. My point: the "White Man" was to have significant involvement in what was propagandized as the "Red Man's" venture.

 

Tony

 

Thanks Tony for this insight. They still have to be wary of the white man with forked tongue eh?

 

Frank

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Frank E Gibbard wrote:

The old fox has no reservations anymore;

 

Frank,

you always seem to gaurentee

a very ironic line, like the above one,

in every one of your 'perception' poems icon_lol.gif

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Frank E Gibbard

Thanks Golden for appreciating the reservations pun. Thanks Tinker, the politics of it all is another matter is all I can say, but info is interesting. Thanks Jonathan too. Frank

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