Crowds
Pack into Cowlitz Casino Public Meeting
As reported by the Columbian:
"The cold, unemotional language of the
federal bureaucracy ran smack dab into the heated
rhetoric of Clark County's casino debate Wednesday
night at Prairie High School.
"More
than 1,000 people gathered in the auditorium
and spilled out into the halls for the first
of two public meetings on the Cowlitz Tribe's
plan to build the $510 million casino complex.
"No
decisions were made. Instead, U.S. Department
of Interior officials both local and from Washington,
D.C. explained how they will reach a decision
and heard from the public.
"The
federal officials knew the intense passions
underlying the gathering.
"…The
project has been in the works for three years
already and two or three years more may pass
before completion of the bureaucratic process.
The meeting still offered supporters and opponents
a chance to call out the troops and demonstrate
the righteousness of their cause.
"The
result was something more impassioned than your
average federal hearing but short of a political
convention. It was, however, full-fledged political
theater with information booths, signs, buttons,
stickers and banners. Casino supporters rallied
their troops with 300 caps, 500 T-shirts and
upwards of 150 pizzas, the uneaten last dozen
or so turned over to the high school's busy
maintenance staff…"
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