“Lastly, let us resolve to do better in the future”

No. I do not agree. Before we come to this last item of a resolution for the future, before we can move on, the damage done to the reputations and leadership positions of two very good and honest people needs to be restored. If we do not, we teach a horrible lesson to any future office holder which is to forget the public interest, forget your fiduciary responsibility, forget your personal integrity, when very powerful private interests oppose you. Some would say that most everyone has learned that cynical lesson already and which is the reason for the corruption that is so rampant in our entire political system. If that is the history we want for Lancaster county, if that is the legacy the power players want to leave behind, then Lancaster County will be disgraced.

It may very well be that all the players were well meaning and wanting what they felt was best for the entire community, but the game was rigged from the beginning and rigged against the elected representatives of the people by nothing less than the combined power of money and media pursuing, by definition, their own private interests. You can pursue both but you cannot, by definition, have a private, vested interest, then deny that it exists and claim that you only have an interest in the public good. You cannot smash the elected representatives of the public using the leverage of money and media power, then claim, that you did so only to serve the public interest and not your own, clearly apparent self interest. It is not credible. It is incredible.

We can either restore these good people, Molly Henderson and Dick Shellenberger, to the respected positions they once held and deserved, or we may as well burn the hotel and convention center to the ground and begin all over again. Buildings and money can be replaced. A person’s right to their good name cannot be replaced, . . .but it might be restored.

(Note: I have never met Dick Shellenberger, and I met Ms. Henderson only once in a grocery store for less than 5 minutes. I have no hotel interests nor any personal involvement in the county, city, SDL or any other entity affected by the Hotel and Convention center. I wish that new facility every promise anyone has ever held out for it, but not under the history that now stands.