Well Done to the Salem City Council for Refusing to Throw More Good Money After Bad

Congratulations to the Salem City Council for being willing to walk away from a sucker’s deal on a fancy new bridge, with a liar’s budget of $425 million.

Like the people in Congress brave enough to point out, in advance, that the 2003 invasion of Iraq would not solve the problem it claimed to address, would cost a fortune, and would only make things worse in the region where we were supposedly “helping,” those council members who did the right thing will face a lot of bitter hostility from a deluded “Build it Now’’ cult that claims that the secret “silent majority” opinion in Salem is pro-bridge — even though the council members opposed are a solid ⅔ supermajority of the council.  A fan letter to the council majority who stood tall tonight:

Tough crowd, tough vote, but I hope you all know you did the right thing. You won’t be thanked enough by those who appreciate what you did, and you will be bitterly and unfairly criticized by those for whom “come together” meant “Do it our way.” 

The philosophy of this project has always been to get the camel’s nose under the tent, and you are the first folks to stand up and say “No.”  

Good for you — regardless of how much hate and discontent is thrown at you, you should feel good about yourselves for having the courage to go against the boom boom boom of a wrongheaded drumbeat trying to stampede you down the wrong path.