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On Sept. 16, I spoke at the Lewis County commissioners meeting.
This is what I said:
I am here today because I am concerned about recent commissioners’ actions where they have in my opinion compromised the community’s morals for fiscal reasons.
The two areas I see this happening are in declaring Lewis County a non-sanctuary county and in the discussion over programs for unhoused people.
Regarding the sanctuary county designation, Commissioner Sean Swope claims the reasoning was that the federal government was threatening to withhold funds that are designated and rightfully should go to Lewis County. By changing our policies because of improper threats made by the federal government, we are encouraging overreach by the federal government.
We should be standing up for our beliefs and not allowing ourselves to be blackmailed. I believe the federal government has been violating the due process rights and many other rights of immigrants. We should not be encouraging this behavior because the federal government has threatened to withhold funds. We should stand up for basic human values.
In The Chronicle on Sept. 1, it was reported that both Swope and Commissioner Scott Brummer were concerned that if we spent too much money helping unhoused people, we would encourage unhoused people to come to our area. So the logic for them goes, don’t help the poor and maybe they will go away. Is that what Jesus said?
I am not a religious person, but I believe all of the major religions have basic moral principles, and I don’t like hypocrisy. I looked on the internet about what Jesus said about how you treat immigrants. I found a passage from Matthew 25: 31-46.
Apparently they didn’t use the term immigrant back then. They used the term stranger. I will not read the whole passage but, to sum it up, it said that you will be judged by how well you treat strangers who are hungry, thirsty or in need of clothes. That makes sense to me.
I want Lewis County commissioners to treat strangers who are hungry, thirsty or in need of clothes well.
Daniel Meekhof
Packwood
