I strongly oppose the plan to bring in the refugees to Ravalli County, or to Montana at all. There are several reasons for this. I will give five.
1. The local officials will have no say in how many come. The government may say 100, but can change that any time. Also, they will be allowed to later bring in other family members, which can be a large number, and can easily double the population.
2. The local government will end up footing the bill. The feds have a way of starting something and then leaving it up to the locals to support it. This will cost a fortune with food, housing, education, support, etc. Are you ready to take this on? Are the schools and the health care system ready for this? Is the police department ready for more crime, which will increase dramatically?
3. These will not all be the little children and mothers that you see on TV. Mostly it is young Muslim men, ingrained in Muslim culture that is much different than ours. They have no regard for women and they kill homosexuals. Consider what has happened in Germany with hundreds of women being assaulted and raped. Those countries now recognize their mistake. This is a quiet country town. Do you really want the changes to happen here that have occurred in Europe?
4. True, not all are violent. But if only 10 of 100 are extremist, think of the destruction and death these 10 can bring. One little bomb at a football game, a parade, a theater, a school, etc. Is it worth the lives of our local citizens? The lives of our children?
5. The Muslim culture and religion teaches them to kill “infidels.” That means you and me. To bring in the refugees means we would be bringing in the enemy, feeding, educating, and protecting them so that at a later date, when they are ready, they can kill us. Does this make sense?
I know you may think you are helping them, but unless there is a strict screening of each individual (which there isn’t), we must say NO ,NO, NO, to protect our citizens, and our way of life.
Please have the courage to stand up against this unlawful and frightening influx of refugees.
Grace Wilson
Stevensville