No strip clubs on this river, thanks.
The question of whether we should have a strip club here on the river has been a hot topic lately. In fact it’s been the talk of the town.
The club, soon to open in the Lower Nelson area, will no doubt be a popular spot, at least for the first while, until the novelty wears off. But for some, the novelty will never wear off.
Some people will stand in line like addicts to hand over their last dollar for one more fix, to leave the place with empty pockets and empty dreams.
If this were only about nudity, I wouldn’t be wasting this ink on the subject. If a man wants to pay hard-earned money to watch a woman dance naked, more power to him. This is, after all, a free country. Like the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted and there are for sure lots worse things to contend with in this country than that.
But we all know there’s more to it than girls dancing naked.
For whatever reason, when someone says the words strip club, if you know anything about the world at all, somewhere in the back of your head you think organized crime. Prostitution. Money laundering. Drug dealing. Extortion.
In the back of any decent person’s mind we know that in those back rooms anything can happen and probably does.
That’s what I don’t want here on this river. Why should we allow the possibility of some stranger walking into our community and selling these vices under one roof?
In a recent Thumbs up, Thumbs down question about the strip club in this newspaper, one gentleman said he didn’t think it should go in a rural area and that it set a bad example for the children who live around there.
I wholeheartedly agree. And good for the MLA on that side of the river for taking a stand against the club in the same Thumbs up, Thumbs down. It’s good to see a politician who will actually stand up for something, not turn like a weathervane to whichever way the wind happens to be blowing at the time, or worse yet, sit on the fence because he thinks it’s the best political move.
These types of places have always existed, always will probably. But it doesn’t mean they have to exist here.
We have a lot of things to fix here. This river is experiencing one of her worst economic problems ever with the almost overnight unemployment of hundreds of people from high paying mill jobs.
Add on the ever-growing problem of addiction, whether it be prescription painkillers, alcohol, or gambling machines, they’ve all destroyed lives of people you and I know and they’re not getting any better.
Throw into the pot one of the lowest literacy rates in the country, then subtract the ones who do get educated, because most of them are washing their hands of the whole mess and making for the bright lights of the big cities far away.
We’ve had enough pain. Do we really need another cheap source of mind-numbing entertainment that cheapens those who provide it and those who pay to use it?
I don’t think so.
But we do need to protect this community from those who would destroy its moral foundations for quick profit.
The club, soon to open in the Lower Nelson area, will no doubt be a popular spot, at least for the first while, until the novelty wears off. But for some, the novelty will never wear off.
Some people will stand in line like addicts to hand over their last dollar for one more fix, to leave the place with empty pockets and empty dreams.
If this were only about nudity, I wouldn’t be wasting this ink on the subject. If a man wants to pay hard-earned money to watch a woman dance naked, more power to him. This is, after all, a free country. Like the saying goes, a fool and his money are soon parted and there are for sure lots worse things to contend with in this country than that.
But we all know there’s more to it than girls dancing naked.
For whatever reason, when someone says the words strip club, if you know anything about the world at all, somewhere in the back of your head you think organized crime. Prostitution. Money laundering. Drug dealing. Extortion.
In the back of any decent person’s mind we know that in those back rooms anything can happen and probably does.
That’s what I don’t want here on this river. Why should we allow the possibility of some stranger walking into our community and selling these vices under one roof?
In a recent Thumbs up, Thumbs down question about the strip club in this newspaper, one gentleman said he didn’t think it should go in a rural area and that it set a bad example for the children who live around there.
I wholeheartedly agree. And good for the MLA on that side of the river for taking a stand against the club in the same Thumbs up, Thumbs down. It’s good to see a politician who will actually stand up for something, not turn like a weathervane to whichever way the wind happens to be blowing at the time, or worse yet, sit on the fence because he thinks it’s the best political move.
These types of places have always existed, always will probably. But it doesn’t mean they have to exist here.
We have a lot of things to fix here. This river is experiencing one of her worst economic problems ever with the almost overnight unemployment of hundreds of people from high paying mill jobs.
Add on the ever-growing problem of addiction, whether it be prescription painkillers, alcohol, or gambling machines, they’ve all destroyed lives of people you and I know and they’re not getting any better.
Throw into the pot one of the lowest literacy rates in the country, then subtract the ones who do get educated, because most of them are washing their hands of the whole mess and making for the bright lights of the big cities far away.
We’ve had enough pain. Do we really need another cheap source of mind-numbing entertainment that cheapens those who provide it and those who pay to use it?
I don’t think so.
But we do need to protect this community from those who would destroy its moral foundations for quick profit.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 8:09 PM
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