Morseburg Letter in SYVJ

In the May 29 – June 4 edition of the SYVJ, I ran across a very disturbing letter to the editor by Mr. Howard Morseburg.

He started out talking about how in his teens he worked for the railroad in Connecticut at a time when just about everyone, except himself, played the numbers which is a form of gambling. He then skipped ahead about 50 yrs or so (just guessing) and compared the USA to a communist society using the state lottery as an example.

He believed that the Calif. Lottery and casinos have “educated and changed us to a gambling society and that Las Vegas “brought it into our culture” where we have taken our kids to teach them how to “lose money recklessly”.

Later, he goes on to cheerlead Ms Crawford-Halls personal war with Vincent Armenta, and I will address that later, but for now, concerning his beliefs that only recently has gambling, in his opinion, transformed our society…well, using his own terms, “What hogwash”!

Gambling has been in existence for thousands and thousands of years. Dice have been found in Egyptian tombs built before 2000 B.C, and by the time Greek civilizations dominated, dice were everywhere.

But as Mr. Morseburg’s statements refer only to our country, let’s focus on that.

Pay attention Mr. Morseburg, you might learn something.

Gambling in America originated back in the 1600’s. One historian astutely linked the desire to explore new worlds to gambling. Both rely heavily on high expectations, risk taking, opportunism, and movement.

The early colonies basically were comprised of two groups, the English who brought along the English traditions and beliefs, and the Puritans. Although the Puritans came from England, they came to the new world to create a better society and discard the values of their mother country. They saw coming to America as an opportunity for establishing a society grounded on Puritan values and beliefs. Entire colonies were established as either Puritan or traditionalist English.

The issue of gambling was a major difference between the two groups. In New England and Pennsylvania, Puritan attitudes toward gaming and play were adopted. The Puritan-led Massachusetts Bay Colony outlawed not only the possession of cards, dice, and gaming tables (even in private homes), but also dancing and singing.

In the English colonies gambling as recreation prevailed. These settlers brought with them the view that gambling was a harmless diversion where gambling was a popular and accepted activity. Legal gambling tended to be those types that were considered proper gentlemen's diversions.

That brings us to lotteries. No, not the very recent ones that Mr. Morseburg claims has just now changed our society, but the lotteries used by the early settlers.

The Virginia Company of London, the financier of Jamestown in Virginia, was permitted by the Crown to hold lotteries to raise money for the company's colonial venture. The lotteries were relatively sophisticated and included instant winners.

In fact, Mr. Morseburg, ALL 13 original colonies established lotteries, usually more than one, to raise revenue. Playing the lottery became a civic responsibility.

Proceeds helped establish some of the nation's earliest and most prestigious universities -- Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Dartmouth, Princeton, and William and Mary. Lottery funds were also used to build churches and libraries. Ben Franklin, John Hancock, and George Washington were all prominent sponsors of specific lotteries for public works projects.

Please, Mr. Morseburg… take a peek outside your little world and educate yourself on matters of which you speak. Gambling in our country has been in existence since the very beginning and for you to tell us otherwise is just plain ignorance. It has been a part of our society from the start. They were probably rolling the dice and playing cards on the first boat over here from England… and it will be here long after you and I are gone from this earth.

Wanna bet?

Now on to Mr. Morseburg’s cheerleading Ms. Crawford-Hall’s personal war against Mr. Armenta.

Morseburg’s divisive letter is absolutely shameful and it is even more destructive at this point in time, but perhaps, that is his desire… to keep adding fuel to the fire.

He states that we (does he mean me too?) “don’t have to sit here and accept” whatever Chairman Armenta does, even if it is to act in the best well-fare of the tribe. Mr. Morseburg it seems is in favor of taking away whatever health, happiness, and well-being the Chumash people may have, as that is the main responsibility of the Chairman.

He claims Ms. Crawford-Hall’s attack’s on Mr. Armenta are a “move in the right direction” and views the whole thing as a chess game.

He suggests to Mrs. Crawford-Hall that SHE should “find his weak spot and concentrate on that”. He says that there is a chink in Mr. Armenta’s armor and that it should be exploited. He recommends a couple other things that he thinks Ms. Crawford-Hall should look into to try and take Mr. Armenta down.

Nice… Pretty brave guy this Mr. Morseburg. “You go after him Ms. Crawford-Hall while I sit here on the sidelines with my popcorn and cold drink and enjoy the dirty little war from a safe distance.”

Sick.

Instead of suggesting positive ways to create mutual respect, cooperation, and open lines of communication between the tribe, local governments and the community, Mr. Morseburg not only seems to want the tension and adversarial climate to continue, but actually suggests ways to escalate it.

To Mr.Morseburg I say… there is enough unwanted animosity and ill will between the Chumash and certain groups and individuals in our valley without your nasty spoon trying to keep the pot stirred. Go get your cheap thrills somewhere else.

I’m not sure where all this bad blood between Mr. Armenta and Ms. Crawford-Hall and other POLO members came from, but it might be just the fact that as Chairman, Mr. Armenta has been the voice of the Tribe and these people didn’t like what they heard so they made it a personal thing. That also made it very convenient for these people to say they don’t have a problem with the tribe but that it’s the leadership they have a problem with.

The fact is that the Chumash leadership, who are not self appointed, but are elected by tribal members, do not decide whether there should be any expansion. They do not decide when to negotiate or whether the terms of any negotiations are good or bad. They do not decide whether to build more hotel rooms or to add parking or to buy the Royal Scandavian Inn or the old Fedrico’s place. The membership of the tribe decides these things. Mr. Armenta is not even allowed to vote on any of these issues. His job is to carry out the will of the tribe.

The election of a new 3rd District Supervisor in November will provide a great opportunity to try and mend the severed relationship between the county and the Chumash. It may have not been a great relationship before, but at least they were speaking to each other.

Farr did not talk about the Casino at all, that I know of, during her campaign except to agree with the other candidates that she opposed casino expansion… whatever that broad term means.

She is pretty much an unknown concerning the relationship between the county and tribe and whether or not she intends to do anything to try and open up a dialog.

Mr. Pappas vowed, if elected, to hire an acquaintance who he said is a Native American but not Chumash to the 3rd District staff, as tribal liaison. This would, in his opinion create a little more cooperation. I recommended this type of staff position over a year ago to the BOS and still think it’s necessary. The person appointed and the responsibility accorded should be considered very carefully however and a friend of Mr. Pappas’ might not sit to well with the Chumash after all the assaults on the tribe by POLO over the years.

It’s this connection to POLO, whose members are Mr. Pappas’ staunchest supporters that is so bothersome to me. You have the SYVJ, which is owned by one of Pappas’ main supporters, Ms. Crawford-Hall and which could just as easily have been called the POLO Messenger and no one would know the difference, publishing personal attacks on Mr. Armenta as well as attacking the tribe itself.

How can a candidate like Mr. Pappas ever hope to represent the majority of the 3rd District on issues concerning the Chumash with such a history?

To wrap this up…last week, in another letter to the editor in the SYVJ there was one from a lady who lives in Santa Ynez. It really exemplified the alarmist element in the valley and the lack of really understanding, or refusing to understand, the reality of the issues concerning the tribe. I found it very timely after my post of last week addressing the likelihood of Casino expansion.

The woman said she loves “to hear what is happening with the fight against increased gambling in our community” and that she shudders “to think what this valley would be like with two casinos, and twice the traffic, crime, divorce, suicide, and bankruptcy, or a casino that is 30 stories high.”

Well lady, quit thinking about it beacuse thats a fantasy.. course then you wouldn't be able to shudder so much which is probably why you like to think about it in the first place. More cheap thrills. Need that drama.

What really made me laugh though was her comment about seeing hookers in her little town...as if the Casino has brought the oldest profession in the world to our valley.

First, unless one actually walks up and asks someone if they are a hooker or not then how can you tell these days… and second for about 80 yrs now and way before the Chumash even had running water on the reservation, ladies of the night (I guess some probably work during the day too) have visited our valley at just about this time of year, and its kinda funny how it always coincides with the Rancheros Vistadores Ride annual ride.