Juneteenth and Pilgrimage
After reading the two articles on Juneteenth and the Columbus Pilgrimage on Tuesday’s front page, there is only one painfully obvious conclusion to me. The Pilgrimage attracts many thousands of visitors from all over the country and the world. This means tourism dollars coming in for Columbus’ businesses. Plus, these visitors go home and tell their friends and families about Columbus, which is advertising by word of mouth, and then those people want to come and experience Columbus for themselves. More tourism dollars coming in.
Juneteenth attracts local people to come and enjoy the party for a couple of hours and then go home. Not much money is spent in local motels or restaurants. Still a lot of (tax) money is spent in police security. Granted, the police have to patrol anyway, but a few hundred extra revelers means extra manpower is needed just in case.
The people who cry “racism!” because the CVB isn’t funding Juneteenth this year, and possibly ever again, … isn’t being given a few thousand dollars to waste. If Juneteents is so all-fired important in the grand scheme of things, then it is incumbent upon the organizers to get out and hustle up funds from those who stand to benefit financially from the event.
Stop pouting and hollering “racism!” as a way of trying to scare (extort) money from the taxpayers. You want to have Juneteenth? Fine. It’s your party. It’s your tune, you pay the fiddler. Get off your butts and get busy.
Cameron Triplett
Brooksville
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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