"So it's somewhat ironic that he now sits on the board charged with establishing the rules for Pennsylvania's new slot-machine-based gambling industry." It's not ironic at all. This is the Denaples-Industrial Complex in action. Mr. Conaboy is a node in the network. And no doubt Mr. Conaboy, a devout Catholic who attends Mass several times a week, will do what's right.
The paper makes it sound like Conaboy is doing the community a service by being Denaples’ little piss-on. Yeah, Conaboy, you’re such a noble and the community should thank you for your service in the name of social justice. I want to personally thank you for being so thoughtful and applying lubricant before violating us.
The paper tries to make it look like Conaboy’s appointment to the gambling control board by a friend for the purpose of complying with/ and setting up the rules around a few gambling sites for Denaples is somehow ethical. The paper has successfully given the most recent social injustice an affirmative character and the paper celebrates the life and work of Conaboy. Let me remind you that Denaples and his garbage Alliance (not to be confused with the propaganda ministry of the News Alliance) is the areas largest polluter and his money, network and influence has turned whatever democracy exists in Scranton into an autocracy. Let me also remind you that he sits on the board of two institutions that exploit citizens (although in different ways).
I can go on and on about Conaboy, the Denaples Industrial Complex and the various Networks of exclusion. But there is a weakness that I think citzens against the sale of the SS complex will benefit from. The U of S survives and thrives off an idenity and an image—one that purports superior education, social justice, community service and equality under the banner of the Jesuit tradition. You hear Pilarz preach with his deep voice how the U of S is the greatest thing for the community since KOZs. That image is very valuable to the U of S and can be tarnished very easily when would be parents of students as well as students find out the truth of the U of S's dirty deeds. Activists against the sale ought to do what the anti-sweatshop campaigns did against Nike in the early 1990’s: air the dirty laundry and tarnish the image. This may require using media campaigns that airs the dirty laundry of the U of S's administration in their largest market: Lackawanna County, certain parts of New Jersey and New York. Channel 61 is great, but not sufficient. I feel that if you press the U of S hard enough in their largest markets, the U of S will back off and cleap up their act. Hopefully for good.
