What foundation will Garrison build?

I agree with Steve Goodwin that the search for the next president of West Virginia University is an extraordinarily important job.

And for that reason we should question Goodwin and the committee: Is Mike Garrison the right contender for the position?

It was Garrison, an administrator under former Gov. Bob Wise, who was a prominent person in the passage of the video poker slot machines.

We could question if he failed to exercise a real leadership role in protecting our state's business climate and the quality of life of its citizens.

While West Virginia lawmakers were being pressured to pass the expansion of gambling, South Carolina, which had lived with video poker machines, was reporting the proliferation of video poker as an economic and social blight that had both short-term and long-term adverse effects on its future growth.

The South Carolina chamber of commerce was taking an active role in educating that state's electorate on the negative economic and social impacts and was urging its citizens to vote "No" in the Nov. 2, 1999, referendum to outlaw the gambling machines.

All the while this information was being discussed with the West Virginia Legislature, Garrison and the Wise administration were apparently ignoring what South Carolina was telling the country.

While South Carolina was voting down video poker, Garrison and Wise were promoting the gambling bill.

As the result, West Virginia is gambling our lives, our children's lives, and the economic well being of our state on the flashing lights and the empty promises of video poker.

South Carolina saw the blight of more than 34,000 video poker gambling machines and what it was doing to individual families and society, and the serious danger to that state's reputation as a good place to live, work and do business.

Now that video poker shanties are cropping up on every street in our towns and even rural areas, we are seeing front-page stories about their negative competitive business climate.

Who would wish to invest in real estate next door to the video shanties? Millions of dollars that would be going into local businesses has been siphoned off to gambling.

South Carolina, whose people had lived with video poker, saw the machines as a menace to their economic future. It showed that video poker's negative impact reaches into the heart of the business climate and the social fabric of the state.

Why didn't Garrison have the courage and vision to build the state on good, solid businesses? With other qualified candidates for the top position, we should hope the committee will do the right thing for the university and state.

Alice Click

Mount Alto