HOW A LETTER TO THE EDITOR CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY

Ross Perot and Steve Forbes have spent a fortune trying to change public opinion, get elected to the Presidency and then change the course of history. Of course they failed. It is often said that the best things in life are free and perhaps that is true in public policy as well.

Every day newspapers print letters to the editor for free and this is the story of how I changed the course of history in Luzerne County simply by publishing a letter to the editor. In the late nineties, Luzerne County was dominated by two commissioners, Democrat Tom Makowski and Republican Steve Urban . These two leaders were quite educated and talented and were capable of doing great things for Luzerne County. Unfortunately, they let their relationship deteriorate down to a traditional Luzerne County mud-slinging contest.

Mr. Makowski is a lawyer from Georgetown University who worked for Congressman Dan Flood on Capitol Hill. At one time, he wanted to the Congressman from our area. Steve Urban is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army who had many impressive assignments in the Army. It was obvious that they were not living up to their potential.

As a citizen and a taxpayer, I was quite disappointed in these two men. So I published a letter to the editor and challenged these men to live up to their potential. I said that they are part of a bi-partisan government and that they should act like responsible statesmen and not traditional politicians. I was also trying to improve public opinion on the nature of politics and how politicians are to behave.

I argued that Urban and Makowski were in the same position that President Clinton and Senator Dole were in when they produced some of the finest bi-partisan government in the history of the country. At that time President Clinton had lost control of the Congress to the Republicans and had to negotiate with the Republican majority led by Senator Dole. In the beginning of their relationship neither side wanted to compromise. They could not pass a budget and let the government close down. Closing the government proved to be very unpopular and both men learned that they had to find common ground and compromise. From that point on both men learned how to find common ground and produced good public policy and some of the finest bi-partisan government in the history of the country.

After the letter was published, Makowski and Urban began to live up to their potential, find common ground and produce good public policy. The two men achieved a great deal. They were able to agree on budget cuts, to build a new juvenile detention center and to enact property tax re-assessments. To be sure some of the bickering continued, but the nature and the quality of their relationship was dramatically improved. Overall, politics in Luzerne County has also improved as the public now demands good public policy from its leaders and will not accept the same old mud-slinging.

Learn more about this author, Mathew Paul.
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