As reported by: People's Daily Online
Beneath the surface Gettysburg is engaged in its fiercest battle since the smoke cleared on the morning of July 4 1863 and the shocked and bewildered townspeople were greeted by the apocalyptic sight of more than 50,000 dead and injured men strewn across their fields.

A group of developers led by a prominent local businessman are proposing to build a 200-room hotel and casino within a cannon ball shot of the historic battlefield in an attempt to attract a very different kind of visitor to the town - the sort who will spend every waking hour dropping quarters into the 3,000 planned slot machines.

Ranged against the developers is a disparate band of residents, historians, traders and re-enactors, determined to stop what they see as the attempt to desecrate sacred ground.

The somewhat reluctant leader of the No Casino Gettysburg group is Susan Star Paddock, a mild-mannered psychologist and resident.

"Something profoundly important for the United States and American history occurred here," she said standing near to a monument erected on the spot where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address.

"This whole area is a classroom on that history. Lincoln said that people can never forget what happened here, and this is a hard-working community dedicated to preserving history and hosting people who want to learn about that history. The suggestion that you should bring into that community a gambling casino that exploits the ignorant is deeply offensive."

Paddock's ire is directed against the businessmen, but also Pennsylvania's politicians, who passed a law last year that would permit as many as 61,000 slot machines in the state in an effort to reduce homeowners' property taxes.

It is understandable why the aptly named Chance Enterprises, the casino developers, picked Gettysburg. The town attracts an estimated two million visitors a year, drawn to the scene of the largest battle in north American history where victory for the Union army is generally acknowledged to have turned the tide of the civil war against the Confederates.

The lead investor is David LeVan, a local businessman who owns Battlefield Harley Davidson, motorcycle dealership in the town, and has been a generous contributor to local institutions. His involvement has, in the words of one commentator, caused "anguish" in the local community.


Article By: People's Daily Online