WE DO MORE THAN BELIEVE, WE MAKE IT HAPPEN

Reading a wire service story last week out of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., I couldn't
help thinking: What if that had happened here?

Tar and feathers, anyone?

Here's what went down: The mayor's office created high excitement in the
struggling city of about 40,000 people by issuing a statement that
"Something UNBELIEVABLE is about to happen in Wilkes-Barre."

People were hoping Mayor Tom Leighton would announce that a major new
employer was bringing in thousands of jobs. Wilkes-Barre needs help. The
bottom fell out from under coal mining long ago, ending tens of thousands
of jobs in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, including Illinois.

Flooding caused by Hurricane Agnes in 1972 destroyed thousands of homes and
businesses in Wilkes-Barre and wiped out parts of downtown. In the
intervening years, the city's population took a nosedive and the city got
deeply in debt.

Voters had thrown out their old mayor in 2003 because he'd been unable to
turn the city around. Hopes were high that Leighton's UNBELIEVABLE
announcement was going to be something really good.

According to The Associated Press, 1,000 people showed up to hear what it was.

Leighton gave them a "pep talk."

AN EXCERPT FROM HIS speech: "The biggest obstacle that we must overcome is
the negative attitude of a small, but pervasive, segment of our population.
We must reverse this negative attitude. We must be taught how to believe
again."

The city's new slogan, which is printed on buttons and keychains, is "I
believe ... "

After the big buildup, it didn't seem like much to some people.

The visionary thing has to be carefully done. Larry Morrissey pulled it off
and got elected Rockford's mayor in April.

He's been pretty quiet since then. I get the impression that he's waiting
until there are real things to announce. He won't make the Leighton mistake.

Hope is a tough commodity to market, but it can be almost tangible, and it
feeds on itself. We're seeing signs that it's happening on various fronts.

One is the enthusiasm demonstrated by so many volunteers during the America
in Bloom competition where, all over the city, people who had never been
civicly involved started cleaning up and beautifying their neighborhoods.

Our enthusiasm made an immediate impression the judges. Judge Bill Hahn
told me at a reception last week that Rockford will get high marks for
hospitality, regardless of how we score for hosta and hibiscus.

THERE SEEMS TO BE a change in attitude on other fronts, as well. The city,
in cooperation with the Rockford Police Department, has signaled a lower
tolerance for drug dealing in neighborhoods that have been openly plagued
by it for too long.

Nobody expects the illegal drug trade to be eradicated, but the city and
the police can, at the very least, create an atmosphere in which users and
dealers are forced to hide under rocks.

Even kids can tell you where the drug markets are.

Dealers operate so brazenly in some neighborhoods that children think it's
a legitimate career option.

It's time the city put some shame back into the equation.