‘Worst nightmare’

It was not the opposition to potential annexation that made last Wednesday’s anti-Tryon spectacle so ugly. It was the tone set by some of those leading the attack. Neighbors setting neighbors upon neighbors.

After all, until the rumor surfaced that the Town of Tryon might want to enlarge its borders, in and out all shopped, went to church, volunteered and visited on the sidewalks of a beloved hometown together. All mutually share the village of Tryon, and without it community life in this corner of the county would dry up.

Yet, at the first hint that Township neighbors might be asked to help support the village – with money! – in-towners are painted as the electors of an “evil regime trying to foist its outrageous debt load off on others.”

Tryon’s reasonable debt is simply the financing of longterm assets which all of us in the region enjoy. Few of us can buy a house, an asset we expect to enjoy for decades, in one lump payment. The Town of Tryon, almost bankrupted some years ago, has had its financial house put in order by the current administration.

No one likes to pay taxes, but reasonable people acknowledge the benefits of civilization. Why do you suppose the settlers incorporated towns? Some even donate to improve civic life. Thus the purely mercenary self-interest expressed by anti-Tryonites was disheartening, to say the least. No one even knows what might be the finances and benefits. Specifics have not been discussed.

Did even one anti-Tryonite ask what’s best for all of us and the town our forefathers founded? What would Township homes be worth if Tryon became a ghost town?

If specific annexation proposals are ever made, arguments against, and for, should be offered in a spirit of goodwill and neighborliness. Not like this: In a blazing glory of pettiness, one neighbor vowed to become “Tryon’s worst nightmare.” Welcome to our village! – JB