Editor:

I read with dismay and great disgust of one Larry Oaks, a poor disabled veteran, who is being hounded to bankruptcy by our county officials simply because he cannot afford to clean up his place.

How can it be that Martin County, the place where the War on Poverty began, now is making war on the poor?

This is the same county that for decades has gone hand in hand to shake up federal agencies for help in cleaning up its own bulging missteps at the water and sewage system treatment and other systems.

Shame on our county officials who, from their ritzy new digs at the courthouse and living at taxpayers’ expense, can’t seem to stand the sight of poverty. Shame on them for passing such an erroneous regulation. Shame on us for electing them.

The sheriff has a detail that does some cleanup around the county. Could they be used to help Mr. Oaks? Ah, you may say, “That’s private property.” Well, if that is so, why is the county making it their business?

The Good Book does speak kindly toward those who help the poor but harshly to those who abuse them. Proverbs 17:5: “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his maker and he that is glad in calamity will not go unpunished.” Psalms 10:2: “The wicked in his pride does persecute the poor, let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.”

The Good Book does not speak kindly to those who treat the poor harshly. Psalms 10:2: “The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor, let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.”

May the Lord have mercy on us.

Glen F. Kirk
Beauty