The Bethlehem Gadfly

Items

• "We have the information and the ability to do better"
• Mapping police violence
• "The suffering of the abused is honored if the abusers and those who follow create something better"
• "Clearly, our system -- our paradigm -- of justice needs correction"
• Residents chatter about Gadfly around Gadfly's water cooler
• Who can you trust anymore?
  Jim Friedman asks questions about trust in the media in age of social media. "When local newsrooms can no longer afford to assign journalists to cover public meetings, this is the outcome. Residents read comments filled with a biased agenda on social media, and believe it, then share it. Some rely on bloggers and citizen journalists, but the trust factor has disappeared. Who can you trust anymore?..."
• Councilwoman Negron: stop the lies!
• Other Councilmembers respond to Councilman Callahan: suspicion, outrage, separation
• Drum roll! Draft Climate Action Plan debuts December 9 -- THAT'S TOMORROW! SIGN UP!
• Councilman Callahan quotes from the record for the record
• Councilman Colon: a lot of fear but not a lot of understanding
• Councilwoman Crampsie Smith: sympathy and support not mutually exclusive
• "Let's have the humility, respect, and wisdom to ask why"
• What's missing in LVGNA's march to victory?
• A note on the Wage Equality ordinance
• Recognizing the Original Inhabitants of This Area (3)
• LVGNA marches to victory (6): We won!
• LVGNA marches to victory (5): leftists are delusional and lack common sense
• Recognizing the Original Inhabitants of This Area (2)
  Statement from the Alliance for Sustainable Communities Lehigh Valley: "We are located in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, a small part of what was Lenni-Lenape territory for over 10,000 years. We understand that the Lenape were friendly and accommodating—until the settlers gradually, and often violently, forced them out. We acknowledge the injustice and mistreatment indigenous people faced (and still face) as a result of colonialism."
• LVGNA marches to victory (4): is Bethlehem City Council worried?
• LVGNA marches to victory (3): don't let these simple minded people ruin the City
• LVGNA marches to victory (2): the politics of hate
• LVGNA marches to victory (1): the Council is out of control
  Comments from members of the Lehigh Valley Good Neighbors Alliance, who assert that the current City Council is out of control.
• A recipe for disaster
  Resident Michele Downing writes a letter to the Gadfly regarding policing and also the economy. "We’ve borrowed a million dollars [from cash reserves], we are increasing taxes on citizens with no safety net for those on fixed income, and now an additional water run off fee. One doesn’t need to be a economist to see this is a recipe for disaster."
• Christmas Shopping? Fig it!
  An encouragement from the Gadfly to skip the big-box stores this year and shop small businesses. A link to a list of small businesses is provided by Fig Magazine.