We thought when the announcement came that the Virginia Council of Churches office was to be closed in Hagerstown, MD, that that was the end of the bashing of those of us who questioned refugee resettlement. Oh, how wrong we were. Most fascinating to me is that the bashing and smearing continues by those very people who claim to have an inside track to God.
I’m writing this now to give courage to all of you across the country who have questions about this community- altering program of the federal government. Please speak up, ask questions and don’t be intimidated, just be prepared and know that many of those claiming to be on God’s side will be the most hateful in attacking you personally.
Some years ago, I founded a non-profit home for retired service horses (military, police and horses for the handicapped). It seems that this part of my personal life is fair game for attack by the Godly folks. First, the editor of our local paper, the Herald-Mail, said in an e-mail that perhaps I would have more compassion for refugees if they were four-legged grasseaters [he subsequently apologized for being unprofessional].
Nearly every day, editors at the paper work in something, even into a humorous editorial about antique airplanes, to lob another attack on us “unwelcoming” xenophobic, racist, hate mongering, vocal yokels.
And then there is this, an e-mail from someone I may have met once:
Receiving the message from the Ranger Foundation [the horse retirement home I founded] regarding the Open House has prompted me to ask a question I’ve pondered with events over the last past weeks: how do those who have been blessed with so much begrudge those fellow humans who have so very little a chance or opportunity to improve their lot? The “unwelcoming” label that has been placed on us in Washington County as a result of a vocal few is quite sad and is another situation where I think we make God cry.
——
While the care and protection of retired service horses is important and something to be appreciated, it’s difficult to reconcile with the issue above. Frankly, we want no part of it so we ask that you remove us from your contact list…..
Thank you.
Elizabeth Carnes, Publisher
Her withdrawal from our contact list is no great loss because she has never supported our old horses anyway. Her e-mail was just a mean-spirited smear—-the tactic favored by leftists who have no facts and no real intellectual arguments to make. Although Ms. Carnes, publisher, seems to know what makes God cry she hasn’t a clue about the facts of refugee resettlement in Hagerstown.
Oh, and I almost forgot this one, I live next to the little Civil War town of Sharpsburg and a couple of years ago about six KKK guys held a rally there. Richard Cline (Virginia Council of Churches) intimated to several people that I might be a member of the clan—-what, because I live next to the town that once had a clan rally.
Go ahead beat us up if that makes you feel closer to God, but it’s not going to shut us up!