Now, look: Before we go any further, can the anti-casino among us please refrain from the emails and comments prostelytizing the myriad ways in which casinos are bad? WE KNOW. Somewhere along the line, since we opened our big mouths and criticized the anti-casino movement here in Philly — not even one specific group, mind you — that became a big giant vote FOR casinos. Or something like that. So you can see why this movement has been so successful. (If the anti-casino movement were a person, it would likely be diagnosed with what psychologists call a borderline personality disorder; in their minds, you’re either for them or against them.)

None of this changes the fact, though, that today is big day for the anti-casino forces, such as they are. A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled at the Sugarhouse site at 2PM today (has no one in the Sugarhouse organization ever heard of these guys called the Phillies?), and Casino-Free Philadelphia will be there to rain on the parade. And they’ve launched this new leavephila.com campaign, as seen above, to help out. (Clever!) It could get ugly; last time around, the cops showed that they took great joy in gathering the necessary “intelligence” (i.e., reading blogs and Twitter) to, uh, know that protestors would be at Sugarhouse, ripe for the bullshit arrestin’. Good luck to all of them.

Meanwhile, as we speak, a dozen representatives of major clergy groups, including Buddhist monks, members of the Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity and the Methodist ministries are at the Bellevue Hotel. There, they’ll deliver a letter to Ronald Rubin, central stakeholder in the Foxwoods Casino, and hold a prayer vigil outside. The clergy action is happening in the name of the whole anti-casino movement, but it’s telling that this one is directed right at Foxwoods, even on Sugarhouse’s big day. One day, years from now, someone could write a book on why South Philly and Chinatown have been able to keep Foxwoods far from a done deal, while Fishtown and NoLibs couldn’t produce the same effect for Sugarhouse. It probably doesn’t help that a good part of Fishtown, God bless ‘em, actually wants this shitbox in their immediate vicinity. Let us pray.

[Photo credit: Twitpic user RGarella]

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 11:26 am.