NC must reject the ‘easy money’ sports betting would bring
Welcome to NC Voices, where leaders, readers and experts from across North Carolina can speak on issues affecting our communities. Send submissions of 300 words or fewer to opinion@charlotteobserver.com.
Don’t make sports betting legal in NC
We don’t understand the human spirit that says we should surrender in the face of something evil. Sports betting is inevitable, some say. There’s too much money involved. We can’t stop it, so we should just regulate it and get something out of it.
That’s the way some North Carolina leaders are approaching the prospect of legalizing sports gambling. They know thousands of people will be hurt and families will be destroyed, but they seemingly have have lost any manner of courage and given in without a fight.
Decades of research shows that legalizing sports betting in North Carolina will, over time, seriously increase adverse outcomes such as divorce, bankruptcy, child abuse, domestic violence, drug addiction, crime and suicide. The gambling industry’s business model is built upon exploitation of the financially desperate and addicted.
Would these same leaders so easily acquiesce to legalizing sports gambling if they knew that they, or someone they love, would be the victim of a crime because of it? Or, if one of their family members would suffer a gambling-related suicide? After all, the victims of gambling addiction are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives, sons and daughters.
How can one be so callous? The problem is a lack of love — true love for one’s neighbor. Gambling is predicated on the losses, pain, and suffering of one’s neighbor. Commercialized it is also a form of covetousness, a violation of the Tenth Commandment.
It’s not that the state of North Carolina is desperate for more gambling dollars — the lottery has already proven to be a shell game. It’s that too many state leaders want government in on the action, regardless of whether the negative consequences for the citizenry will far outweigh any revenue garnered.
No, a law that prohibits something will never stop it altogether. But if the objective is to curb a destructive behavior and its ill effects — which is all any law can do — then the law can be an effective tool in the prevention of harm. To legalize evil is only to normalize and encourage it.
Our state’s leaders and N.C. citizens should reject the seduction of “easy money” and stand courageously against the legalization of predatory sports gambling.
Rev. Mark Creech, Executive Director Christian Action League of NC
John L. Rustin, President NC Family Policy Council
On masks, the loudest voice wins
Regarding “Protesters urge Wake to stop requiring students to mask,” (Feb. 18) and related articles:
As I read yet another article Feb. 18 about protesters at a school board meeting urging the county to stop requiring masks, I’d like to suggest the other side of the coin.
Why not a headline that says “More parents want their children and schools to continue the mask mandates?” Focusing on the parents who want masks off is really skewing the picture of what is going on in many cases.
For example, 51 of the state’s 115 districts still require masks for now. The CDC and the N.C. DHHS continue to encourage the protection that masking can provide, and ask that schools not rush too quickly to change their mask policies.
Why is this? It’s likely because this is what serves more people in the community and because the advice is based on the changing nature of the virus.
Like many, many North Carolinians, I am a rational human being. But I’m very tired of having all the oxygen in the room go to those who are angry and loud and want to advance their political position through their stance on masking.
One parent who opposes masking told the Wake County school board last week “The world around you is finally realizing that we the parents were right all along.” That is absolutely not the case! The world is evolving as we learn more about the virus and its mitigation. North Carolina has been exemplary in the way that we handled all of this during the pandemic, and Gov. Roy Cooper has been firm and flexible.
It would be wonderful to read that explanation, and to let parents like the one above know that she’s not right — and that more parents than not are very happy that the Wake school district and many others across the state remain focused on safety and caution.
Laura Stillman, Raleigh