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Euthanasia for Horse Racing?
If there is one shibboleth that both political parties agree upon here in Maryland, it's "we need to save the horse racing industry."
For the life of me, I cannot understand why. The numbers cited as to racing's contribution to "the economy" are nebulous and unsupported with backup data. It looks to me that you have a handful of wealthy (or at least highly indebted) land owners at one end of the spectrum, and at the other end, the hot-walkers and people who muck out stalls.
Democrats, who usually champion the cause of people-of-color above all else, have failed to point out that the number of blacks involved at anything above the stoop-labor level is miniscule. How many horse owners, much less farm owners, are minorities?
What really sticks in my craw is the sheer tonnage of money the governments shovel into the hands of spectator sports people. I ran (and lost my shirt on) an old-book shop for ten years, and goddam if I ever heard of any bill in City Hall or Annapolis aimed at supporting the bookselling trade. (A separate rant on this subject is coming...) True, the city promised to put up banners proclaiming the unit block of West 25th Street to be "Baltimore's Book Block," but they farted around so long in the process, that only two shops were left when the banners finally arrived.
I can't help wondering how much lower taxes would be, or how much public services could be improved, if the governments quit throwing millions of dollars at the Modell family, the Mangione family, Peter Angelos and Steve Geppi?
Nobody ever died for lack of a horse race or ball game to attend; while plenty have died because of lousy police work or inadequate firefighting budgets.