Growing Up Across From Sin City
By Roger Lovett
Dr. Roger Lovette is Pastor of the Baptist Church of the Covenant, Southside in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a widely respected preacher and is the acclaimed author of a number of excellent books.
I grew up in the forties and fifties across the Alabama line in Columbus, Georgia. The Chattahoochee River divided Georgia from Alabama. As a little boy, I would stand on a hill of the Georgia side, look across the river in amazement and say: "Over there`s Alabama." The distance between where I lived and Phenix City seemed light years away. In the forties and fifties Phenix City was a wild and woolly place. We called it sin city, very different from the safe, predictable mill village where I lived in North Columbus. On the other end of town was Fort Benning, the world`s largest infantry center. So Phenix City was where the "soldier boys" would go for a good time. We were told that Phenix City had it all: gambling, prostitution, drinking until all hours-even dancing which Baptists also feared.
My daddy, who worked eight hard hours in the mill, one day discovered Phenix City. What appealed to my father, with limited horizons and little chance of breaking out of the system, was the gambling across the bridge. There were slot machines and cock fights you could bet on and gambling tables in the back rooms. Anybody could make a fortune if you happened on a streak of good luck.
My father won only once. One night he came home happy and laughing. I never heard him laugh that long or hard before or since. He had played the slots and won. Out on the bed, he poured from a paper sack a hundred silver dollars! We were rich. My brother and I sat on the bed and counted and counted with awe and wonder. It was the most money we had ever seen.
I don`t remember my father laughing about gambling after that night. He got in deeper and deeper. He owed so much that they threatened his life if he didn`t pay up. But he kept trying, week-end after week-end, saying, wistfully: "One day my ship will come in." He borrowed money from the local finance company with astronomical interest charges. Then, threatened by the finance company, he borrowed from relatives to pay off the finance company. After his death my mother took part of his insurance money and paid off the rest of his gambling debts.
Needless to say, I am opposed to legalized gambling in the state where I live for personal reasons. Having seen the handwriting on the wall, the gambling forces in Alabama have put casinos on hold. They lobby instead for a state-supported lottery. After all, the argument goes, Florida and Georgia both have the lottery. Why not keep some of the loot at home? They also talk of the wonderful things we can do for our very-needy schools with the extra revenue.
They never talk about the down side. They don`t tell the real story of Atlantic City. Atlantic City looks like an abandoned town until you get to the last street. Miraculously, then, the hotels line the beach in splendor and opulence. On the other side of the hotels and the boardwalk there is a sandy, unkempt beach littered with debris. Statistics say that 40 percent of the restaurants not associated with the gambling enterprises have closed. One-third of the city`s retail businesses have closed. Unemployment in Atlantic City is the highest in the state. An industrial consultant told U.S. News and World Report: "Atlantic City used to be a slum by the sea. Now it`s a slum by the sea with casinos."
There is no free lunch. Atlantic City knows that. So do the social workers, school teachers and pastors in Las Vegas. You really do get what you pay for. Las Vegas has the highest suicide rate in the nation. I kept watching my father come home on those late Friday and Saturday evenings from Phenix City. His ship came close to shore on a shining night when he brought home that sack of silver dollars. He never saw that ship again-it kept moving out of sight.
Statistics say that few win at the gaming tables and the slots. Jess Marcum, who helped develop radar and the neutron bomb, is now a casino consultant. He figures that a craps player who wagered just one dollar every bet for two months straight would have one chance in 2 trillion to win $1,000 before he lost $1,000. Studies also show that most of the losers, like my father, are poor. They see gambling as a way out. What they discover is a dead-end street.
The state and its servants and institutions should always represent the common good of all its citizens. No society can ever be strong that appeals to the lowest common denominator: greed.
The gambling industry will continue to court our elected officials. The gambling lobby is powerful and strong. Why? Last year 37 states sold $34 billion dollars in lottery tickets. Gambling casinos netted $500 billion that same year.
The play, Inherit the Wind, is making a comeback on Broadway. In that drama one of the characters tells that when he was a little boy he saw a rocking horse in the window of a store. It was the most beautiful rocking horse he had ever seen. It was gold and silver with large purple spots. He wanted that rocking horse for Christmas. But his parents were poor and he knew it was never to be. But on Christmas morning-Santa had brought him the rocking horse in the window. His parents had sacrificed to get their boy his dream horse. The boy jumped on the horse and began to rock. A terrible thing happened-the rocking horse broke. The horse broke half in two. Looking back, he says, whenever you see something bright-shining, all gold with purple spots, look behind the paint. And if it`s a lie, show it up for what it is.
Once upon a time my father tried to ride such a horse and it broke and broke his heart as well. I want more for our citizens than a horse that will bring only pain and disappointment to their lives.
