By now, the 79-year-old images of New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia swinging a sledgehammer and smashing a slot machine seem about as outdated as a newsreel or a typewriter.
However, not until you see the image of a handful of little-known people doing the same thing a few weeks ago in Albany, N.Y., do you understand the difference all those years make.
In 1934, the mayor of the nation’s largest city saw it as good politics to stand up against the immorality of the idea of giving hard-earned money away to gamblers in the futile hope of getting something in return. Today, people who oppose legal gambling on the same grounds are seen as oddballs. They wield sledgehammers without the help of any smiling politicians. And the gamblers who were getting rich in the old days are now
However, not until you see the image of a handful of little-known people doing the same thing a few weeks ago in Albany, N.Y., do you understand the difference all those years make.
In 1934, the mayor of the nation’s largest city saw it as good politics to stand up against the immorality of the idea of giving hard-earned money away to gamblers in the futile hope of getting something in return. Today, people who oppose legal gambling on the same grounds are seen as oddballs. They wield sledgehammers without the help of any smiling politicians. And the gamblers who were getting rich in the old days are now
RSS Feed
