By FRAN ABEL
I could quibble with what I believe are unvetted facts presented in article, “Trump’s sanctuary city order could cost Langley $1.4 mil” (The Record, Jan. 28), but if my town leaders are willing to reduce our citizens’ value to a dollar figure, my arguments would fall on deaf ears.
The issue of human rights is not a balance sheet question. How can we hold the safety of our community members up against road monies and not lose our humanity? Rather than a line item on the budget, this is an issue of safety for each of us, especially those vulnerable to targeting — people of color, members of the LGBTQ community, people of different faiths or the undocumented. Being an inclusive city means extending a protective hug-of-community to the most vulnerable among us.
Right now Langley does not collect immigration information. I’m grateful. We pride ourselves on being caring and inclusive. Again I am grateful. But what will Langley do if ordered by the federal government to report targeted groups? What if we were ordered to shun what we know to be ethically right to uphold a legal wrong? The issue of becoming an inclusive city is to answer that question now, before we need to answer it under fear and pressure. The fact that Langley does not now collect data on people is admirable. Without an ordinance many fear that position would break down under pressure.
Throughout history, our admiration has fallen to those who clearly stood on the side of morality over legality. Think about who we admire: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, Underground Railroad participants — men and women who put rightness before money and danger, morality before wrong-headed government demands. They were able to overcome the law of slavery to remove the bondage of blacks. They were able to overcome the law of discrimination to give women the right to vote. They were able to overcome the law of Hitler’s Germany to help the Jews escape.
During World War II, Japanese citizens were rounded up and sent to concentration camps. A cruel act against our community members, right here in America! Japanese friends and neighbors were ripped out of their homes and sent away. Fear won out over reason. My college roommate spent her early years in a concentration camp. We must be able to answer, without hesitation, what will we do to protect one another. We do not want to repeat our ugly World War II history.
A resounding refusal to cooperate in turning over targeted citizens can be more tightly secured with an ordinance of resolve. That is the heart behind my plea for asking Langley to put its intention of inclusivity into ordinance form.
Editor’s note: Fran Abel is a longtime Langley resident and one of the organizers of Thursday’s public discussion concerning the sanctuary city proposal.
