No More Casinos

I woke up today and realized that the last thing Arizona needs are more casinos. In my last post I recounted the proud history Arizona has since the land was first charted by Spanish explorers and Mexican priests like Marcos de Niza. Geronimo and Wyatt Earp are two proud figures blanketing the multi layered past of Arizona. We have Ira Hayes whose image models the most famous monument and photo of the Second World War. And we also have a presidential candidate for the presidency in the figure of Barry Goldwater. I am at a loss at who Arizona could claim as it's most famous governor, save that Raul Castro was Arizona's first Hispanic governor, and seemed so enthralled with that title that he took the office and then then the money and headed off to be ambassador, for Argentina. Casinos, on the other hand, don't seem to fit into that proud history.
When I was small all along baseline road were rows upon rows of Japanese gardens huddled against South Mountain, stretching for miles along Baseline road. Today, Baseline has barely a handful of gardens spotted by I-10, but nothing of the green environment that make the road famous. Searches on the web omit them. Inquire of them to a non native and you will only be met with a blank stare. In their place warehouses, apartments, and more housing developments have been dumped along the the prized mountain road. Now, I'm not opposed to progress. I think a freeway should be hammered through Camelback road ASAP, for instance. It just seems to me that there are plenty of places a warehouse could go up. These beautiful things are unique and only come along once, and a tradition should have been established, sheltered, and preserved.
Along the same lines, the reservation should be cultivating things more valuable than casinos. Does every reservation really need to stack up some slots off the Ajo turnpike? The answer is a resounding no. Reservations, the Native Americans need plenty of things, and casinos does not make my top five. I'm unconvinced casinos really help Native Americans at all. Why isn't a bingo hall good enough?
The reservations already contain natural beauty. What they really need are an educational system, libraries, more and better industry, and infrastructure to handle business. I wish there was a way to incorportate labor with the an efficient environmental policy, perhaps even a model for the rest of the nation. But that's just me.
I went on thinking of casinos and then my muse went mute.