All things being equal, this week will mark the first appearance of the Bethlehem Press. I am supposed to be its history columnist, a challenge if ever there was one.
Evidently this city never ceases to be underscored by faults and fissures. The "right" (or wrong?) issue, like the question of casino gambling, never fails to set the ground runbling underfoot. And always there is--or at least I always think I see--the ethnic element, or the class element. During World War I, for example, foreign-born workers at Bethlehem Steel were sometimes suspected of being spies for the Germans and Austrians. And now, so much later--with much misunderstanding in between--it is feared by many that the new Southsiders want gambling because they want jobs. If true, that makes sense to me. Why would they NOT want jobs?
Honest and sensitive historical reporting can perhaps help close some of the fissures in the city, bridge some of the gaps. I am going to try for that kind of historical reporting.

We are almost at Christmas again; it's hard to believe. We are almost at the time of year when Bethlehem receives its biggest influx of visitors, although it remains to be seen to what extent this year's soaring gasoline prices cut into the tally.
Every year, as the town awaits the arrival of the first tour bus, I recall something that must have happened during Christmas season 1985--at any rate, soon after the founding of the South Bethlehem Historical Society.
One of our members was Willie Howard, a prominent member of the African-American community. In those days the Christmas decorations on both sides of the river featured white lights; but this made Willie unhappy. He longed for the old days of colored lights. Somebody--possibly Jeff Zettlemoyer, who was a city employee--said the matter could be checked out. It was indeed checked out; and that year the Moravian North Side retained its white lights, while the South Side had its beloved colored lights back. The city had had the lights in storage.
That should have pleased everybody--because to some the white lights on the North Side represented the the aspirations of the Moravian founders of the city, while to others the colored lights on the South Side of the river represented the richness of the ethnic tradition there. A perfect Christmas exposition of the city.
But those of us who thought it was so simple were wrong. A friend of ours went on one of the city's Christmas light tours, and he came back with a hair-raising story. He said the "spiel" of the costumed guide had gone something like this:
"The white lights of the North Side represent purity and nobility and simplicity. The colored lights of the South Side represent evil and satanism..."
Alas, I fear little has really changed, although the ethnic mix of the South Side has changed and the neighborhood is now heavily Latino.
But it makes no difference to the principle; bigotry is bigotry.
I think this, as much as anything, animates some people's fear and loathing of casino gambling. They fear it will be South Siders who benefit; it will be South Siders who get the jobs. And if casino gambling does not come, maybe the South Side will go away.
Well, I don't think so.

It appears that Karl Fluck, a Republican anti-gambling candidate, is prepared to wage a serious write-in campaign for mayor of Bethlehem. He has asked one of my friends to serve as judge of election in her ward, although she cannot afford the time. He told her that the city is indeed close to bankruptcy,just as Jean said, but that he is going to present ideas to save the situation without gambling.
Fine. Where has he been all our lives?
If I were still able to vote in Bethlehem, instead of living a few yards out of the city, I would definitely vote "no" on John Callahan, who is a disciple of Don Cunningham, who--like Cunningham--has managed to wreak havoc with the city's finances, and who in my opinion should never have considered--or been considered for--public office.
Would I bother to get out my pencil and vote for Karl Fluck? Perhaps. It would depend on whether his proposal to save the city without gambling made sense to me.
And WITH something else. He needs to propose to save and develop the Steel site and its historic buildings, including the noble, Wagnerian blast furnaces. I believe that these buildings, if saved, will turn out to be a greater asset to the city than gambling per se could ever be.

I was chilled when I thought of Lehigh University, squatting up there--or over there--on South Mountain, resenting the mere idea of casinos, resenting, unless I miss my guess, any shape the City of Bethlehem may take that runs counter to its desires. And what might its desires be? Why, to raze everything from the edge of its ever-encroaching campus to the Lehigh River, and to set up a northern version of Duke University's Research Triangle.
At least, this is my idea of what Lehigh may want. It's logical, if you want to call the quest for power logical. Society needs institutions like Lehigh--and, for that matter, like my own neighbor, St. Luke's Hospital. But society also needs to be protected from them.
It was suggested to me today that some sort of informal protection might in fact be in place in this case. A place like Lehigh thrives on taxpayer dollars, which it consumes by the millions. Now, if not only Bethlehem's city council and perhaps a majority of Bethlehem residents want casino gambling--but if powerful, grant-making politicians also want casino gambling in Bethlehem--then Lehigh is likely to have to shut up and stand down.
I hope this analysis is correct.

September 24-25, 2005
Within 24 hours of the vote on the gambling zoning ordinance,Councilman Bob Donchez's home mailbox was vandalized and a disagreeable letter left in its remains. His daughter's car's hood was smashed in; the perpetrators, whoever they were, used an enormous pumpkin to do the job. My source on these matters is unimpeachable, and the news worries me a great deal. This could represent only the topmost level of a deep pool of hatred. Donchez, who was the swing voter on the gambling zoning ordinance, is said to wish to keep the vandalism matter out of the paper. I am among those who believe the public needs to know what level of discourse we are dealing with--needs to know, too, that the battle for the city is not over yet.