Story Archive

You’ve Got to Draw the Line Somewhere

In 1735, King George II sent surveyors with instructions on how to divide North and South Carolina. Using the technology they had available, the surveyors identified the boundary and marked it on trees. But those trees are long gone, and people have gotten the ancient boundary wrong — to the extent that people who are technically in North Carolina have been living as if they were in South Carolina, and vice-versa. Dee Martin, for example, has been paying South Carolina’s property taxes (probably lower than she’d be paying in North Carolina), and she’s been getting home health care for her 89-year-old husband that North Carolina may not pay for, from a company that doesn’t do business there. Nevertheless, modern technology has discovered that her house is legally in North Carolina, and starting January 1, she’s supposed to live like it. To change the border to what people thought it was would require Congress to pass a law. (AC/Columbia State) ...The Continental Congress fought a live king. Can’t this Congress fight a dead one?
Original Publication Date: 05 June 2016
This story is in True’s book collections, in Volume 22.

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I believe humanity is held back by the lack of thinking. I provoke thought with examples of what happens when we don’t think, and when we do. This is True is my primary method: stories like this come out every week by email, and basic subscriptions are free. Click here for a subscribe form.


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