Them that’s got vs. them that needs

Twenty-something years ago, Northeast Texas investor and chicken magnate Bo Pilgrim reached agreement with the Sulphur Springs Economic Development Corp. and the city council to build a pork processing plant in Sulphur Springs. Supporters of the measure said Pilgrim would employ more than 500 people.

The words “pork processing” led to immediate protestations concerning quality of life, overburdening water treatment and wastewater treatment and increased enrollment in city and area schools. Muted and quiet-stated protests also alleged that thousands of Mexicans waited just south of the Rio Grande, ready to storm north as soon as the first shovels of dirt were turned at the construction site.

All of those protests dimmed, in my mind, with a statement by a woman from my wife’s church congregation. At a dinner, conversation about the plant began. The woman said, “Nobody I know will work for $10 an hour.” She added, “Everybody I know has a job.”

That is the separation between them that’s got and them that needs.

The city council later withdrew its approval of the plant, when council members counted heads at the community protests.