Three delegates from Bethlehem will represent Pennsylvania's 15th and 17th Congressional Districts at next week's Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.
View full sizeFrom left, Blue Star Mother Kathleen Miller, Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan and Northampton County Democratic Chairman Walt Garvin talk Friday afternoon on Main Street in Bethlehem about next week's Democratic National Convention. Each will be attending the convention for the first time. In the words of Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan, all elections are about the future.
A candidate proposes a vision of the future, and voters must take a leap of faith by voting for the vision they see as most beneficial.
Callahan, a Democrat, will serve as a delegate from Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, scheduled Monday through Thursday in Charlotte, N.C. There, the party will nominate President Barack Obama as its candidate for the Nov. 6 election.
It is Callahan's first time as a delegate. Two other delegates from the Lehigh Valley, Kathleen Miller and Northampton County Democratic Chairman Walt Garvin, are also first-time delegates.
For Miller, a Blue Star military mother, the privilege is particularly intense.
“I’m looking forward to the caucuses, the camaraderie of my fellow delegates and the honor of nominating Barack Obama for a second term,” she said. “He kept his promise of ending a decade of war.”
Miller has two sons in the military; one, a Marine, was injured in Iraq. She praised the expanded benefits to the G.I. Bill passed in 2010, and said she has a feeling of calm knowing American troops have been withdrawn from Iraq.
“Neither my two sons or any other mother’s sons will have to return to Iraq,” she said.
As for the future, there is a “stark contrast” between the visions being presented, but Callahan believes Obama is the one to bring the country in the right direction.
“We can’t go back to the failed economic policies we saw under President (George W.) Bush,” Callahan said. “Those budget-busting tax cuts will have a devastating effect on our economy, our ability to put our kids through college and to have infrastructure improvements.”
Garvin also referred to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's financial plans as "budget-busting."
“Whether you’re a senior who relies on Medicare or a parent trying to send your child to college, this November will matter to you,” Garvin said.
Under Obama, July was the 29th consecutive month of positive private sector payroll employment growth, even if unemployment remains high, Garvin said.
Republicans nominated Romney at this week's Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., to challenge Obama. In his acceptance speech Thursday, Romney sought to seize on the nation's unemployment and international challenges that have grown under Obama's tenure, such as Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.
“Four years from the excitement of the last election, for the first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future,” Romney said. “It is not what we were promised.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.