PROBLEM IS EXTREMISM

Everything Has A Good And Bad Side

The key is to find the good side and develop it while trying to keep the
bad side in check.

Even gambling has a good side.

And religion, a bad side.

Why is alcohol legal and marijuana illegal?

Is investing in the stock market just another form of gambling? Should we
shut down the markets?

Indiana's anti-gambling faction is accusing Gov. Frank O'Bannon of
flip-flopping on the gambling issue because he said a Senate-inspired
version of dockside gambling would be acceptable to him. Maybe O'Bannon
isn't flip-flopping. Maybe he recognizes that gambling may be doing more
good than bad in Indiana.

That's the answer you would get from residents of Gary.

A massive infusion of casino cash has Gary taking the initial steps toward
a recovery. Who would have believed 10 years ago that Gary would be the
site for the Miss USA contest? That there would be a new baseball stadium
being constructed downtown, along with apartments and new homes? Not many
would have bet on it.

I'll bet there are a large number of people in Porter County and especially
in Portage who wish that 1993 referendum on a riverboat would have passed.
Maybe we wouldn't be in the financial crunch we are in.

There is an evil side to gambling. People are addicted to it. They lose
their grocery money. They abandon their families.

The same can be said for alcohol. But there is no anti-alcohol faction
visiting the Statehouse and buttonholing legislators to shut down taverns.
It's not happening because the United States tried it once and it didn't
work. Not only did it not work but it also gave birth to organized crime.

Marijuana still is illegal. Marijuana also is hemp, which has many useful
purposes but can't be grown because if smoked, it makes you giddy and real
hungry. You can get the same feeling if you smoke an unfiltered Camel. It
just doesn't last as long. When I was in high school, we used to smoke
unfiltered Camels to "relax."

It's a lesson we have never learned. Human vices cannot be legislated away.
People will get their alcohol and drugs and gamble wherever they can, legal
or illegal. We just have to keep the bad -- the extreme behavior -- in check.

Extremism is bad even in religion. The war in the Mideast has caused more
deaths and misery than any human vice has caused. Toss in the Crusades and
the Spanish Inquisition and there's more death and misery than human vice
will ever cause.

I've never seen anyone marching to ban religion.

I've never been to the boats. I'll probably go sometime. I've been to Las
Vegas and Reno -- both in the early '70s when the casinos were downtown and
there where a lot of guys with bent noses. I won about $40 in Vegas and
lost about $40 in Reno.

Last year I went to a casino in Gulfport, Miss. I won more than $100
because a friend would hold part of my winnings and not let me bet it all
- -- any potential for extreme behavior was held in check.

Criminalizing is not the answer. Controlling the extreme behavior will
provide money toward improving our communities, not a criminal's lifestyle.