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Us vs Them
fo the editor: I’m concerned that public lebates in Rappahannock >ften take on an “us vs. hem” character, usually xpressed as “natives vs. lewcomers.” So far, the •antering seems mostly goodpirited, and I sure hope it tays that way. In some tearby counties, similar lifferences over key issues lave grown deeply emotional tnd divisive—evolving to ‘townspeople vs. farmers” as levelopment occurred and axes began to climb—with nuch heat and very little ight created in the process. This letter, I confess, is written by a newomer —■■—though I have oved and tended a part of Rappahannock since my late eens, a quarter century ago. Worse yet, I suppose, my wife s a Yankee—but I refuse to ipologize for that fact, and submit in her behalf that x>th land and people have nore in common between Rappahannock and the hills if New Hampshire, than oetween Rappahannock and urban Virginia. Everybody, of course, is a native of someplace. I guess I’m a native of Falls Church or Fairfax County, though I have long felt personally more attached to Rappahannock.
There’s no question that newcomers helped mess up my native area, and I readily undersatnd why some Rappahannock natives wish that newcomers here wouldn’t butt into County affairs.
But that won’t happen. Newcomers pay taxes and vote and care, and no one should expect them to keep silent about basic issues. As a matter of fact, the more lots are carved out of Rappahannock and the more development occurs, the more newcomers there will be to butt in.
So far, most newcomers to Rappahannock are ruraloriented. We are here because Rappahannock is the way it is, content in effect to accept—indeed, to embrace—Rappahannock on its terms.
Let's face it, most of us
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