Bethlehem Steel

There is an interesting column in the Baltimore Sun about the fall of industrial Baltimore, the loss of jobs, and the inaction of politicians. Mostly, the article is about the workers of Bethlehem steel who worked in difficult, often unhealthy conditions, only to lose their jobs and eventually lose the health care they thought they could rely on.

Where were the politicians while so many Sparrows Point workers were getting hurt? Reutter, a former Sun investigative reporter who is now business and law editor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, bitingly calls it "a bipartisan show of silence," citing U.S. Sens. Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski for allowing workers to be hurt so badly and saving harsher words for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.