...I am still on vacation. I need to catch up on some other work.

Taking today off. Maybe tomorrow as well. I wish I could go over to Celtic Fest, which is one of the finest things that happens in Bethlehem. Unfortunately, I am not yet strong enough and steady enough on my feet.

September 22, 2005
I first met Don Cunningham, the future mayor of Bethlehem, in the newsroom of the Globe-Times. I think he had a full-time job with the paper, while I was a freelancer. He seemed a nice young man; I remember that he had a sick daughter whose condition worried him.
After a time he left, to go, I think, to the power company--I persist in calling it PP&L. I believe that after that he moved to the public relations office of Moravian College.
Somewhere in here, he began to stake his political claim. He was elected to city council with my vote, then to the mayor's office, also with my vote.
My suspicions of him were first aroused over the episode of the city landfill, which seems to have been mismanaged for years, but which at least some experts believed could have been "shaped up" and run by Bethlehem at a profit.
But Don was obsessed with selling it. Why? I went to the voter registration office in Easton to check who had contributed to his election campaign--and was surprised to discover that many of the contributors were corporations and individuals from New Jersey. Why would a Bethlehem mayor have to cross state lines for campaign contributions?
I now believe I know, although I cannot absolutely prove it. I think Don and his friend and hand-picked successor Mayor John Callahan represent something relatively new in American politics; or at least something raised to an unprecedented level of blatancy. Their goal appears to be to sell off public assets to the highest bidder; or at least to the highest bidder among their friends.

Whatever we do shapes the future, and the future is always a gamble. But to be human is to act. Last night, while I was at the historical society meeting, city council acted at last. It voted, 4-3, to quash a proposed zoning ordinance that would have forbidden casinos on the former Bethlehem Steel tract.
So there may well be casinos in our future, and that's if we're lucky.
Is this the ideal future for Bethlehem? I doubt it. Is it a workable future? Maybe. It seems to me that casino gambling soon will be ubiquitous--every state around Pennsylvania will have it, so why should people travel to play the slots?
Maybe they will travel, and spend money here, because they want to see our majestic old steel mills. But that can happen only if the mills are still here; and gambling represents the single best chance we have of keeping them here.
Not only that; for now it represents the single best chance we have of keeping the City of Bethlehem afloat. I was told that at last night's city council meeting Councilwoman Jean Belinski explained to the audience of several hundred that the city was in debt to the tune of $374 million, and was beginning to have to sell its assets.
(Jean has become a real political heroine of mine, and I am sure I will be writing about her further adventures quite a lot. With the other woman member of city council, Magdalena Szabo, she is one of Bethlehem's best assets. But Maggie, who I have known for many years, has had bad luck with her health. Jean, who is about the same age as Maggie,and older than I--early 70s or thereabouts--must have incredibly good genes. She is dynamic, tireless. She also is highly intelligent, amazingly good at ferreting out and interpreting information that some would prefer to keep hidden, and totally dedicated to the well-being of the city.
This is why, I think, this year's primary campaign was dedicated chiefly to getting Jean Belinski off council. But she survived; and I hope she will survive the general election as well. It seems she will; but I have learned that, when it comes to politics, it does not do to break out the champagne before the votes are counted.)
What Jean had to say about Bethlehem's fiscal crisis did not make the Morning Call; and this has been usual--"Let's ignore the old lady, and she won't get her message through." (This, thank heaven, is becoming harder to continue to do.)
I believe, in this case, there was more than one reason not to put Jean's comments into print. In my opinion, the Morning Call is attempting to promote the political career of former Bethlehem mayor Don Cunninghman, who helped create the current mess, and who is now running for Lehigh County executive. If Don is elected, I fear, it will be the worst thing that has ever happened to Lehigh County.

September 20, 2005
Living in the past is always tempting around here. We have, after all, a lot of past to live in--more than three centuries' worth.
I could not have gone to what I am sure must have been the mob scene of the city council vote on gambling; no place for people with walkers or canes, I am sure. And I still don't know how that came out. For that matter, there is a second vote to come, on October 4; and perhaps the losers tonight will work themselves up into a frenzy trying to get this original vote reversed.What is at stake here is a proposed zoning ordinance banning casinos on the former Bethlehem Steel land.
Anyway, I went with the artist Ken Raniere to the annual meeting of my South Bethlehem Historical Society, with which I have been at odds almost since I returned from Carbon County--that has to be well over a decade now.
The meeting was held in a chilly, noisy, barren room at the Forte Building, a former mill that is now low-income housing. (And, persistent rumor has it, a hub for drug dealers and users.)
Yet it was a very pleasant meeting. The group now seems to have some very intelligent program ideas, and maybe it IS time for us to join Historic Bethlehem Partnership--even though I well remember the snobbery we encountered with the Collegium. Still, the Northsiders now seem to need us more than we need them; and Professor Beall Fowler of HBP seemed to recognize that. At least, he spoke to us with respect.
The city needs us all.That truly is the way of it, and the more people recognize it the better off we will be.
It was our 20th anniversary meeting, and I was pleased to be richly acknowledged for founding the society in a special edition of the newsletter, and also during the meeting. This made up for many years of snubbing.
Tomorrow I learn what the citizens' representatives have done, and where we go from here.