Odd Pairing

Who would think up the idea of putting a statue of Lenin in an Atlantic City casino restaurant? Well, the Tropicana Hotel and Casino's Red Square restaurant did just that.

The statue is of Vladimir Ilich Lenin, the communist founder of the Soviet Union. Lenin stands outside the front door of Red Square, the hipper-than-thou, Russian-themed restaurant and bar in The Quarter, the highly capitalistic dining and retail section of Atlantic City's Tropicana Casino and Resort.

And Garrett has objected to the architect of one of history's brutal dictatorships being part of a restaurant's theme statement ever since Lenin's likeness went up early in 2005. Garrett has written letters to the editor. He has made calls to radio talk shows. And he has circulated public petitions demanding that Red Square tear that statue down - or at least move it inside the restaurant, away from where thousands of people walk by it every day.

He doesn't like the idea of Lenin getting a place of honor - or at least high visibility - anywhere in the United States. But it really bugs him that it happened in Atlantic City, just down the White Horse Pike from his Absecon home.

Lenin was the father of one of the most ruinous and murderous totalitarian dictatorships in modern history. Yet, the Trop has decided to give his statue prominence?

What gives? Well, communist chic perhaps. The same folks that profit off Che Guevara are the kind who push this kind of nonsense. The historically illiterate will simply wonder who the bald dude at the front is if they even bother to ponder such things as they go between the casino and the restaurant as they partake in that most capitalistic of activities - gambling.