Posted: Friday, 15 May 2009 11:46AM
Give Gary DiBileo A Chance
Steve Corbett Reporting
Friday, May 15, 2009
When I decided to move back East after five years in California, I wanted more than anything to move to Scranton. I had grown up around Harrisburg and lived in Wilkes-Barre for 17 years. But Scranton has always drawn me into its spell.
Scranton is the home of my father’s birth.
Scranton is where my grandfather put down roots after coming to America from Ireland. It is where he and my grandmother raised 10 children, the place where he worked 45 years in the coal mines.
Five generations of my family have walked the streets of this city.
Scranton is my last destination, my hometown where I want to do all I can to improve the quality of life for myself, my friends and my neighbors.
That’s why Gary DiBileo should be elected Tuesday as the Democratic nominee to run for Scranton mayor in the November election.
DiBileo shares my vision.
Unlike incumbent Mayor Chris Doherty, DiBileo has an understanding of the old as well as the new. He is as comfortable with his working-class supporters as he is with people who, like himself, share a business interest in the city.
Doherty is bright, personable and accomplished.
But he seems mired in an elite smugness that mostly extends to people as fortunate as he is.
DiBileo wants to share the blessings and wants to work from the ground up, not from the top down. And I want to give him that chance.
Doherty has achieved much during his eight years as mayor. Yet, he seems to regularly forget the people in this city who need the most help. Shopping downtown is nice, but being able to afford to shop is nicer.
To do that, taxes must fall and wages must rise. Downtown development should be cut back until the longtime traditional neighborhoods of this city are repaired and restored to their one-time luster.
DiBileo understands that too many people in this tough town who need help simply don’t get it. Because DiBileo sees through the Doherty administration failure, the Mayor’s supporters mock him.
At Tuesday’s debate, too many of them showed their arrogance and snootiness by laughing out loud at DiBileo’s sincere attempt to define himself and his plan for bringing all people in the city into the discussion.
By mocking DiBileo, Doherty’s supporters mocked the rest of us as well.
Doherty sat by watching his people berate the city’s greatest strength – good people who simply want to make life better.
By the end of the debate, after previously announcing on “Corbett” that I was voting for Doherty, I was in a bad mood and leaning toward changing my mind.
Earlier that day, I had spoken to Doherty on “Corbett” and asked about one of the most troubling aspects of his political career. I asked why he continues to belong to an organization that discriminates against women and deprives them of equal opportunity. I asked why the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, a group that Doherty once headed as president, bans women from membership. I asked why women are not given the chance to campaign as political candidates or network as businesswomen at the organization’s annual March 17 dinner.
My questions were as serious as any questions I could pose.
And Doherty laughed at me.
At first I thought I was mistaken at the audible snicker. But when I heard him laugh a second time, I knew he did not care about my concerns. He cared more about the tuxedoed male crowd at the dinner that he believes will keep him in office.
DiBileo later told me that he, too, had attended the dinner. He also acknowledged membership in other male-only groups. But he pledged to try to change the rules of those groups so that women could join and consider quitting the organizations if he failed.
Doherty will not even try.
Scranton has always been about trying, even when the odds are against us. DiBileo has persuaded me to give him a chance to try. He might fail. But he might succeed.
At least he’s willing to make an effort to change people’s lives for the better in cases where Doherty remains mostly concerned about himself and people like him.
That’s simply not good enough for my kind of town.
And Scranton is my kind of town.
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