Second Reply to Loring Tripp III, Planning Director for the O'Connell Casino/Horse Track Developers and Former Plymouth Planning Board Member

[Dear Readers: I received a message on Facebook from Boston South Real Estate Director and former Plymouth Planning Board Member Loring Tripp III. I have posted Mr. Tripp’s communication below, and my reply below that. I am on a train, so many apologies for any errors.

I certainly, as I say below, will have coffee with him to tell him to his face that his arguments are spurious and his position structurally corrupt. And I shall pay for my own coffee, as I don’t want a cent of his boss Mr. O’Connell’s money].

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?

– Cicero, The First Oration Against Catiline. (“When, O Catiline, shall you cease to abuse our patience?”)

Mr. Tripp:

I am willing to meet you for coffee, though I shall pay for my own, as I do not wish to take a cent from your boss, Mr. O’Connell.

I frankly don’t know what possible common ground you hope to achieve on this issue.

I, along with thousands of others, find myself implacably opposed to the avaricious and destructive plans of your bosses, the O’Connell family of developers of Quincy, for a horse track and casino in the Plymouth Woods, our ancient commons. Nothing less than your total defeat on this issue, as occurred last spring, is our demand.

You will recall that your bosses were defeated by a margin of 85% to 15% at Wareham Town Meeting last year, for a remarkably similar and inordinately environmentally and socially destructive proposal for a Horse Track and Casino there. I hope you are defeated by similar margins in Plymouth on May 21st.

There are a number of reasons to oppose this:

The neighbors bought their houses, and are raising their families, with the reasonable expectation that they would have the use and quiet enjoyment thereof. You are directly attacking that for your and your paymasters’ personal enrichment.

In environmental terms, this is enormously destructive to our precious Plymouth-Carver sole source aquifer. We are on a planet with nearly 8 billion people; we only have so many natural resources. It is frankly outrageous that you believe we should destroy our precious common resources so the O’Connell family can get even richer.

The Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke MP (Whig – Bristol) had this to say on the subject of greed in politics in 1786, in his impeachment of Warren Hastings, Esq., of the East India Company, before the House of Lords:

“My Lords, I have to state to-day the root of all these [wrongs] — namely, the pecuniary corruption and avarice which gave rise and primary motion to all the rest of the delinquencies … it is necessary to give, in the best manner I am able, a history of that corrupt system which brought on all the subsequent acts of corruption. I will venture to say there is no one act, in which tyranny, malice, cruelty, and oppression can be charged, that does not at the same time carry evident marks of pecuniary corruption.”**

( Edmund Burke MP — photo credit, Wikimedia Commons)

In terms of democracy, this project is widely opposed, yet the County Commission passed this lease while refusing to hear public comment. Why do you think that is? It is because it dramatically violates the sovereign will of the People, and the politicians seem to care more about what they themselves describe as “Well-heeled” private interests rather than the public good.

The arguments for tax “relief” are spurious canards. Overwhelming experience across the entire nation shows that development invariably raises, rather than lowers taxes, as municipal services face increased strain.

Finally, you are selling an addictive substance — gambling — substances, really, as I am sure alcohol will be on the menu. In a region that has been ravaged by addiction – there are some kids I went to High School with who just aren’t here anymore because of it — why do you believe it is a good idea to introduce more addictions to our population? Do you believe it is ethical to profit off of addiction, particularly when it is predicated upon certain forms of animal cruelty inherent in the practice of horse-racing?

I note that you view as impugning your character my pointing out the fact that your employment as the chief PR flack for these predatory developers, after experience as a Plymouth Planning Board member — indeed, experience which you brag about in your cut and pasted corporate propaganda — is a classic, indeed textbook definition, of a type of public corruption that political scientists refer to as The Revolving Door, in which individuals move back and forth between positions as regulators of, and employees of, various industries.

We see this as well with the case of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel [NDCAP] and its Members for Holtec.

These are well established facts. You may be a nice fellow, and are probably not mean to kittens (though it seems some of your associates have no problem with cruelty to horses); it is utterly immaterial, however, because your position is one of structural corruption. As Upton Sinclair put it, it is hard to get a man to understand something his salary depends upon him not understanding.

Finally, as Attorney and Town Meeting Member Richard Serkey of Plymouth argued, this land is zoned contrary to your intended use. Do you intend to seek a ⅔ vote of Town Meeting to change that zoning? Are you aware, as Commissioner Greg Hanley stated on the 31st of March last, that the County knows this land cannot be built on for commercial purposes, and feels no compunction about taking your money because you are “well-heeled”?

I look forward to a meeting, but I will insist upon recording it.

Good Evening.

J. Benjamin Cronin, Ph.D.

** Edmund Burke, The Impeachment of Warren Hastings, Governor-General of the East India Company, in the House of Lords, 1786.