As crunch time comes for a proposed Bethlehem casino, opponents of the idea "shrill up" their efforts to kill the idea. And maybe they will succeed. Certainly Allentown, in its desperation, has discerned the economic boost a gaming center might offer it, and its mayor has been willing to beg and plead to get one.
Bethlehem, thanks to an element that calls itself "moral," is a more problematical location. May heaven save us from those who think they know morality.
The despised South Side of the city has long been the home for people much of the rest of the city regards as undesirable. These include the poor and the troubled, and--for some--members of the wrong ethnic group. What will happen to these people, if there is no casino? And if they can no longer live in the old neighborhood because it has become a place of multi-hundred-thousand-dollar condos?
Well, if there is no casino, there is less chance than ever that many of these needy people will ever have jobs. But they will not be able to continue living in the old neighborhood, which is rapidly becoming an alien place, affordable only by the upscale rootless.
Most of them will not be able to leave Bethlehem. So where are they going to go?
My guess is: To your neighborhood, O gaming opponents. Yes indeed, especially if you live in a relatively un-upscaled part of town, such as the West Side.
If this happens, you will not like it. Especially if, as I fear, many of you secretly base your idea of "morality" on your dislike of what you regard as South Side types.
I say this with apologies to those gaming opponents who do not dislike anybody, but who are concerned with the very real downside of gambling itself. There are no easy answers to Bethlehem's challenges--but you should know that many of us who favor the casino do so only because we can see no better immediate prospect for the city.
But we need to act on the opportunity that is available at the time; and that is the casino. The opponents--who are reputedly gathering money for lawsuits from far out of the area and out-of-state--have nothing apparent to offer the city except the triumph of their own ideas and their own power. And economic death.
I would suggest that pro-casino forces set up a fund to counter-sue the anti-casino people.