Letter to the Editor
To the Editor,
For 2024, my family and I paid Scotland County a combined total of almost $8,000 in property taxes. I don’t know how much of that goes to the sheriff’s department, but undoubtedly some of it does. And rightfully so. I’m thankful for the services our taxes pay for.
We love living in this area. It’s a good place with a lot of good people. We love our neighbors.
Now chances are, some of our neighbors are worried. Because of paperwork, they may feel scapegoated, made into targets. Anyone lacking official documentation to be here is suddenly under threat, no matter how genuinely good of a person and neighbor they are.
This year, big Washington D.C. might push county sheriffs, including here in North Carolina, to help hunt down — kidnap — imprison — forcibly remove our neighbors who are harmless, hardworking immigrant families, humble people who’ve taken refuge among us so they can live a wholesome life.
My grampa was an immigrant. Coming to America saved his family from desperate poverty and hunger when the coal mines of Wales shut down. Even after becoming fluent in English, it took grampa well over a decade to finally get citizenship.
In the decades since then, the process has only gotten longer, harder, more expensive and more complicated. But how do we address those who’ve failed to navigate the process successfully? Some of us insultingly call them “criminal aliens” or similar slurs and support the idea of kicking them all out.
How arrogant, to kick out the kind of strangers that Jesus of Nazareth said to welcome like we’d welcome him. “When did we see you a stranger and welcome you?” asked the good people in a parable of Jesus. He answered, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
What if we have enough faith and enough love, if that time comes, to respectfully say no to Washington D.C. or any false authority that tells us to go against basic human decency, conscience, and the clear and timeless spirit of Jesus Christ?
My county tax dollars don’t carry too much weight, but I want each of those dollars to be a vote for Scotland County standing up against evil, standing up like free, brave people, standing up to defend and do the right thing by our neighbors, papers or no papers.
Nate Crew,
Wagram