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Letters to the editor policy1. The Macoupin County Enquirer~Democrat wel-

comes letters to the editor.2. Letters must be hand-signed. Names will be pub-

lished. Please include your address and phone number.

3. Please limit subject to those of public interest, and avoid personal attacks.

4. First 400 words are free. (This is about one page of typed-double-spaced copy or 10 inches of news column space. Any additional words are charged $1 per 10 words, and must be prepaid.)

5. The editor reserves the right to edit, condense or reject any letter.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2013

Editorial

–The Editorial BoardMacoupin County Enquirer-Democrat

There’s room on this page for everyone

THE ISSUE

OUR VIEW

Talk to us!Contact us if you’d like your voice to be heard on an issue.

Macoupin County Enquirer~Democrat125 E. Main St., PO Box 200Carlinville, IL 62626

mcednews@enquirerdemocrat.com

Typically, editorial pages are serious business. Such a page exists for the specific purpose of addressing issues of the day from not only the editorial staff, but from members of the pub-lic as well.

Letters to the editor are the traditional route through which members of the public can express themselves. While there’s also the Talk to Us question of the week, that small space doesn’t provide much room for thoughtful expression.

While it has always been the policy of this publication to allow guest writers to provide commentary, it certainly hasn’t been promoted like it should.

We’d like our readers to know that the very space upon which this column is available to you should any of you have some-thing about which you’d like to write. As anyone who is famil-iar with this space can tell you, the commentary provided here isn’t particularly heavy, however that doesn’t have to be the case. This column doesn’t exist to cater to any specific type of article. It can be just about anything the writer wishes it to be.

As far as length, 350 to 500 words is plenty (Microsoft Word has a word count tool). Too much over that and space could be an issue.

If any of our readers would like to submit material for con-sideration in this space, it can be done in person, fax or via e-mail to editorial@enquirerdemocrat.com. It can be mailed to Macoupin County Enquirer-Democrat, P.O. Box 200, Carlin-ville, IL 62626. The only requirement is that a name and phone number be attached to the article for verification purposes.

We realize not all that our readers submit is appropriate for a letter to the editor. There are many good writers among our readers and they have some good stories to tell and some com-mentary to provide. It’s our intent to showcase that talent.

As with all of this publication’s content, we reserve the right to proofread and edit material as we see fit. That doesn’t mean, however, we intend to change the meaning or intent of the work.

The bottom line is this is a community paper. We don’t cater to any specific group, political party or business. It is our goal to cover the spectrum of this community’s humanity and all the joyous and/or messy business that it contains.

We are firm believers of the notion that our differences are what make us great. That same belief applies to this newspaper. Varying beliefs will make this publication, not only more inter-esting, but more informative.

So, send us your commentaries and tell us about your experi-ences and points of view on whatever topic strikes your fancy, because both the community and this publication is better with you in it.

Talk to Us

“I’m gonna miss it! I don’t think I’ve ever missed it!”- Nancy Mihalek

“Making costumes for and being in the parade with my family for close to 30 years now.”- Sarah Zimmer Gillen

“It would be decorating floats during my high

school years. Also always attending the

parade.”- Kathy A. Thomas

“Seeing the expression of excitement on all the childrens faces as well as the community pulling together to create such a memorable experience for folks of all ages from near and far .”- Tracey Lindsey Richardson

“Working on our high school float which was a covered wagon with our

Class Motto hanging on the back. “Tough as

nails, Hard as bricks, We’re the Class of “56. I think it was our Junior

Year and I think we won. Fun Times!”

- Donna Bowman

“Making costumes for the girls!”- Diana Harszy

What are your favorite Rotary Halloween Parade memories?

Each week we ask people on the street a different question. If you want a question asked, let us know, we will ask it for you.

letters to the editor

During the summer of 2012 many lo-cal communities approved ordinances allowing video gaming in their city limits. Within six months, state-ap-proved video gaming machines started hitting area establishments.

The idea behind legalized gaming machines, of course, is money. You see video gaming has been in nearly every community for a very long time. It used to be those machines could be found in just about every establishment that sold alcohol. It’s not so easy any-more. While places like bars, veterans’ establishments and truck stops can still apply for and receive legal gaming ma-chines, places like convenience stores have been eliminated from contention. To obtain a video gaming license, an

Will gambling on video gaming pay off?Last year, most area communities passed ordinances legalizing video gaming, often with great opposition.

Although there are many pros and cons to the law, it seems to be doing what it is supposed to do.

establishment not only has to a liquor license allowing them to sell alcohol, their liquor license has to permit them to serve it as well. Therein lies the rub for many small stores who used to have that back room where locals could go and wager a dollar or two in their favorite machines.

Although there were many who opposed legalizing video gaming, the ordinances were passed, in large part, because city officials were well aware that video gaming was happen-ing whether it was legal or not. Just because those machines were marked “For amusement only,” doesn’t mean there was some back bar payout she-nanigans going on. There were many businesses with upward of five or 10 machines. No business is going to dedicate that much space to some-thing that isn’t turning them a profit.

The logic behind the legalization of video gaming is to provide a cut of the action to state and local munici-palities.

On paper, it certainly seemed like legalized video gaming was a win-win for all business owners, gaming machine distributors, consumers, the municipalities involved and the state.

As long as the proper licensing and procedures are followed, business owners don’t have to worry about raids and having their machines

seized. They can allow more custom-ers to game because there doesn’t have to be a level of trust between the business owner and gamer since sting operations will be drastically reduced. The city and the state will get a piece of the action which will hopefully improve our communities, although modestly.

Our sources at city hall report that soon after the proper paperwork was filed and machines were placed in lo-cal establishments, the monthly checks started coming in.

It seems legalized video gaming is doing what it set out to do.

It’s understandable that those who were opposed to the law are disap-pointed, but let’s face it, if a person wants to gamble, it’s very easy for them to do so. We are within an hour’s drive from several casinos. At the very least, we are within a few minutes drive from a neighboring community allow-ing legalized video gaming. Gamblers who are farced to leave town due to poor access to gaming, would certain-ly do so, leaving this community and/or the state out of the flow of cash.

It has always been our belief that there’s a limit to how much any gov-

erning body can do to legislate moral-ity. While there are laws against the most heinous immoral acts (murder, rape, assault), history has proven that trying to uphold legislation for victim-less crimes is exceedingly more diffi-cult. Gambling and prohibition are two strong example of this sort of failed legislation. Marijuana use is quickly becoming another as more and more states are declaring its use legal.

Only time will tell if the legaliza-tion of video gaming is a boom or a bust. It’s our guess that it will bring in some much-needed revenue, but not as much as was hoped. We don’t believe that simply legalizing the activity will bring those who normally wouldn’t gamble to the brink of bankruptcy simply because, if one wanted to be a video gamer, that person could easily do so despite the law.

Sure, there are those who will gam-ble too much just as there are those who drink to much, eat too much and spend too much time outdoors with-out sunscreen. It simply isn’t feasible or logical to try to legislate activities that could potentially do harm to an in-dividual in a country where the people are supposed to be free.

Dear Editor, I am so glad the cemetery

tour was a big success! My sister and I had planned to go. I got the booklet about the historic people buried in the cemetery, which was very in-teresting! Unfortunately, due to an illness, I was unable to go.

We have been to a cemetery tour in Franklin Tennessee and loved it. I always wondered why Carlinville didn’t do any-thing like that. What a great way to research and discover the history of people that cre-ated our city! Even the not so famous have a story behind their lives!

I really look forward to next year’s tour.

Betty ScheldtCarlinville

Dear Editor,The Carlinville Tourism

Committee would like to thank the Chamber of Com-merce for giving us a “Mak-ing Carlinville Proud” award at last Thursday’s annual Chamber dinner. We are proud of Carlinville,and proud of all our dedicated volunteers, and we promise to continue promoting Carlinville as a GREAT Tourist Destination!

And, speaking of pride in volunteers – we want to rec-ognize our committee’s own

Ben Strode,who received a “Selfless Service” award for his volunteer work for so many worthy causes. Ben couldn’t be at the dinner; he was busy vol-unteering that night. That’s just like him. We’re very proud of you, Ben!

Finally, in my letter in last week’s paper, thanking all those who made possible our TombstoneTales at the Carlin-ville City Cemetery, Oct. 12, I forgot to mention Commander John Rauzi and the American Legion, who graciously loaned us 50 folding chairs to use. The Carlinville Tourism Committee greatly appreciates their help with our event and looks for-ward to working with them on next year’s Tombstone Tales.

Stan BarkerChairman, Carlinville

Tourism Committee

Dear Editor, This letter is in regard to

your 10/17/13 front-page article on methamphetamine arrests.

According to the Controlled Substances Act, determin-ing which drugs are more or less dangerous is an executive branch function assigned to the Attorney General and the Sec-retary of Health and Human Services; this process is known as “scheduling.”

According to the Obama

administration, marijuana is as dangerous as heroin; both are Schedule I drugs. The Obama administration also says that marijuana is more dangerous than co-caine or methamphetamine, which are Schedule II drugs. These schedule assignments are very important because they determine the amount of criminal justice resources that will be devoted to each individual drug. Even if you think marijuana should not be legalized, please ask Sen. Dick Durbin to tell President Obama that marijuana’s en-forcement priority should be no higher than Schedule IV.

Additional information on this topic is posted on RichardDeBiase.com.

Sincerely, Richard DeBiase

Carlinville

Dear Editor,The following letter is to

the Committee of the Class of ‘63:

Just want to say thank you for a great 50th reunion. A lot of patience and hard work went into making this a suc-cessful weekend. I looked forward to the reunion for months and went home with many pleasant memories. Thanks again.

Kathleen Uder Stults

“Watching all the kids’ facial expressions when Renos Pizza’s “Dragon

float” came down the street a few years ago

was PRICELESS.... We are looking forward to

this years Rotary Parade- something exciting every

year so don’t miss it !”

- Maggie Rose Filson