Today, while I was waiting halfway up somebody's telephone tree, I heard over the phone line a Don Cunningham radio commercial. "I did it for Bethlehem, I can do it for Lehigh County!" he was shouting.
Many of us who saw him in action here in Bethlehem believe he did it TO the city, not FOR the city. And that, fellow Lehigh Countyans, is what we have to fear.
I do not take this stance lightly. I am a proud, lifelong Democrat, a former committeewoman who, as a student, got to shake hands with both Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. I have arrived at the point at which I believe both parties have gone very far astray from any concern about the well-being of the American people.
I will never stop voting; and you shouldn't, either. It may not seem like MUCH of a weapon against political excess, but it is a weapon nevertheless. For me, the difference from before is that in the future I will vote for the candidate for each office who most seems to have the people's and the nation's welfare at heart. Call me a swing Democrat.
What I have to say next will not come as any surprise if you've been following along.
I do not plan to vote for Don Cunningham for Lehigh County Executive.

Let's say you got D's in all your history courses. You can't remember the day before yesterday any better than you can remember the American Revolution--and all this past and gone stuff bores you anyway. Is there a reason why you should support historic preservation, the survival of the blast furnaces and all that?
You bet. Because history is good for tourism, and tourism is good for the economy. Once again I am handicapped by my inability to go off and do research just now. But I can nevertheless assert, with assurance, that in cities like Easton and Scranton, tourism--in both cases with a significant historic bent--every year pumps many tens of thousands of dollars through their local economies.
Especially in the case of Easton, other elements must be factored in. In a word, Crayola. But this does not mean the National Canal Museum and the Northampton County Historical and Museum Society are economically negligible. Their economic contributions are significant.
I don't know of any place whose economy runs exclusively on historical tourism; but then, I don't know everything. I do know,if you have local history, you have an asset--at least, if you take care of it and develop it wisely. And if you don't, if you squander it, then it is an asset to nobody. We need all the assets we can get.
History is an asset that we now have. The question is, Can we keep it? The answer depends on whether we can develop it as part of a larger cluster of assets--which may or may not include gambling, whether or not you wish to call that an asset. Somebody might have other ideas to put together with what's already on the table; but if so, the time to mention them is running out--if it is not already gone. John Stoffa, the Democratic candidate for Northampton County Executive, has a wonderful idea for a plant to develop hydrogen as fuel.This is something the country needs to be working on, and it may be the wave of the future; but it is likely to be a technology of slow growth.

If I keep coming back to the issue of the sale of the Bethlehem landfill, it is because of my sense that the episode marks a new and not very healthy turn in the politics of the city, and that what is happening here is happening everywhere.
What is this unhealthy turn? I might call it the privatization of the assets of the public--at least, this is one aspect of it. In the case of the Bethlehem landfill, the procedure began by raising an outcry over the alleged waste and mismanagement of the facility, and the assertion that the city could no longer afford to keep it. I cannot speak to the question of how badly the landfill may or may not have been mismanaged; certainly while Bethlehem Steel existed city government might hope to be bailed out of some of its mistakes by the company.
But a former member of city council--this was several terms back--recalled that landfill revenue used to be turned to when the city administration wished to avoid a tax increase. This suggests that, despite the hypothetical mismanagement, the landfill was not a money-losing project. And indeed it could not have been sold had it been a hopeless money-loser. Private industry does not do charity, at least not in its Monday-Friday guise.
The important thing is that Mayor Cunningham managed to persuade the public that they needed to get rid of this "white elephant." And that was done, although the botched sale cost the city a huge sum, which the citizenry still is paying.
Relatively few of the voters,I would guess, really had a chance to think through this kind of public policy. Does privatization mean that vital public services might become unaffordable, or at least far more expensive? Is the privatization of one service the slippery slope leading to the loss of all? What will happen to public health and well-being as the result of such a process?

Some time ago I incorrectly identified Bethlehem mayoral write-in candidate Karl Fluck as a Republican. It appears he is a Democrat.
But what is important about Mr. Fluck is that he said he had a great idea for saving Bethlehem's economy without casino gambling. I was looking forward to it with bated breath, figuratively speaking; like many other people, I have reservations about gambling as a main prop of the city.
Mr. Fluck is set to formally reveal his great idea tomorrow; but those of us who cannot wait are directed to the website www.christmascityusa.com. ( I HOPE I have written that url correctly.)
And what a disappointment THAT turns out to be! It appears that Mr. Fluck would have us become the national capital of Christmas creches, Easter dioramas, and assorted, more-or-less secular holiday decor.
To mix a metaphor, in a manner of speaking: "Oy, vey!"
In the early days of the South Bethlehem Historical Society, none of us really could envision the total absence of Bethlehem Steel from the city's life. But we used to speculate, anyhow, on what could possibly replace it. Jokingly. And someone came up with the idea of making the plant site the cornhusk doll capital of the world.
As an economic plan, Mr. Fluck's idea is in the same league. But while the idea seems a clear non-starter, Mr. Fluck is to be commended for his committment to Bethlehem and his willingness to think about ways to help the city.
A better idea, a much better one, seems to me to be that of John Stoffa, Democratic candidate for Northampton County executive. Mr. Stoffa would like to explore placing a research facility for the development of hydrogen as a fuel on part of the Steel land. My guess is that there would be plenty of room for it, in the area east of the Minsi Trail Bridge. And it would be a step toward an America that is once again energy independent. I think Mr. Stoffa's idea should be pursued.

I have learned that the Bethlehem Press will be out tomorrow, and that copies are being mailed to 45,000 households. That should answer most of the questions many of you may have.
Enjoy...