Let’s just not talk about sister city

Dear Editor,

I just watched the last Pickens County Council meeting video of May 14. Here is the link on Facebook, as they had not posted it on their main web page at the time I wrote this letter to the editor (chairman Roy Costner discusses sister city at approximately the 1:09:38 mark in the video): https://www.facebook.com/PickensCountySC/videos/581643405548502/.

Chairman Costner recommended they “not talk about sister city” any more and should pull it out of the budget and not fund this idea.

Watching the video made it clear to me the chairman is advocating to still pursue a connection with Karlsruhe through other means.

Costner seems to think there are only “seven people” who object to the sister city program initiative and that those seven are just throwing stones and being judgmental. He furthermore states that the majority of the Karlsruhe citizens attend church more than Pickens County citizens do and we shouldn’t be worried about the unvetted Syrian Muslim refugee problem they have or the fact the majority of their citizens are liberal-minded. My research shows that Germany is far from being churchgoing (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_attendance).

I don’t know about you, but I know liberals who go to church every Sunday … just because you go to church on Sunday doesn’t mean you are a conservative and have conservative family values. Is it just that Costner doesn’t understand the threat of liberalism ideology on our county, or is it he’s fine with our students “exchanging ideas” with liberals and being in an unsafe environment with Islamic refugees when they travel to Karlsruhe for cultural exchange? I am not sure which. But please know that the idea of student exchanges is not dead with this council. They just aren’t going to “talk about it” with the public any more, according to the video.

The No. 1 job of government is to protect its citizenry and keep them safe. Sending students over to Germany right now is not being safety-minded.

Stay vigilant, my friends, as they will be meeting behind closed doors calling it economic development and “not talking” about sister city and hoping you forget what they are up to. In other words, they are taking sister city out of the budget and not funding it and not talk about it … however, they will continue to pursue the idea of it in other ways.

Reminds me of a previous council who ignored the will of the people on building new schools and made it happen via the “Greenville Plan.”

Johnnelle Raines

Pickens