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In seeking an injunction preventing Cobb County from continuing to violate the laws of the state of Georgia, local immigration activist D.A. King exercised his God-given right to insist on strict obedience to the law.

He has, in fact, decided to "fight city hall," as the old saying goes. He is to be commended and the lawful citizens of Cobb need to get behind him in his efforts to force the county to comply with the law.

It is a sad commentary on our county officials when, instead of working to comply with the law, they justify their noncompliance by trying to cloud the issue with semantics. If one searches the county code regarding business licenses, one finds that the terms "license" and "certificate" both refer to, in essence, a permit to do business, the possession of which is required to legally conduct business in unincorporated Cobb.

Whether it is called a "license" or a "certificate" matters not. The litmus test in this issue is so simple that anyone with reasoning power beyond that of a fence post can easily comprehend it: "Can one legally operate a business and collect revenue, within unincorporated Cobb County, without having applied for and received a business license/occupational certificate?"

If the answer is, "Yes, one can do so," then the county is guilty of extortion in deluding businesses into believing otherwise, simply to collect fees.

If the answer is, "No, they cannot," then, regardless of what name you give it, it is most assuredly a license to do business and is therefore a public benefit and subject to regulation under the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.

County officials are asking us to believe the law is written so a hypothetical Vietnam veteran who wants to open a poolroom must have his citizenship, or legal alien status, verified before he can open his business. But, an illegal alien or international terrorist can open a dry-cleaning establishment next door to him simply by filling out a piece of paper and paying a fee. No questions asked, no verification required.

I have a hard time believing our lawmakers are stupid enough to make such a law. If they, in fact, did write and pass such a law, then we have problems equal in scale to the illegal immigration crisis downtown under the gold dome.

Most patriotic Americans have all but given up hope the federal government is going to take action to stem the illegal immigrant invasion. Both leading candidates for the highest office in the land are practicing old-fashioned, spineless bootlicking in an attempt to gain the approval of the illegals. We hardly need our local government, our first line of defense, ignoring the laws in effect.

Both King and Cobb Commission Chairman Sam Olens are men of integrity and high moral standards. The difference in the two is simple. King is a citizen interested in seeing that the law is enforced, especially, as it applies to illegal aliens. Olens is a politician who has, in this case, as in the matter of the continued relationship of the county with the Facilities Management Group, received some poor and biased counsel. It would behoove him to seek outside counsel on both these issues, lest he be caught in a web of personal culpability when the final gavel sounds.

The illegal alien invasion has taken its toll on Cobb. Our educational facilities have been "dumped down" to accommodate people who have not learned or will not learn to communicate in English. Our social programs are all but drained of resources by their attempts to meet the increasing needs of indigent illegal aliens. Crime is increasing rapidly. Communities are inundated with multifamily occupation of single-family dwellings, with the resulting decline in property values. The ability of lawful workers to earn a livable wage has fallen victim to the illegal workers simply because people who do not pay taxes and who milk the community for survival can work for less than law-abiding, tax-paying citizens. Our business areas have become unofficial "hiring halls," with illegal aliens loitering on the streets hoping to be hired by someone looking for cheap labor.

Is this a description of the Cobb in which you wish to live, work and rear your children? It certainly is the antithesis of all that attracted me when I moved here almost 25 years ago.

If you are content to see Cobb turned into a second-rate, multilingual, multicultural gathering place for indigents and law-breakers, then do nothing.

If, on the other hand, you are as dissatisfied with these conditions as many of us are, you will support efforts to force our officials into compliance with the laws meant to control the illegal invasion. Let our elected officials know we are (to paraphrase a line from the movie "Network") "Mad as hell and not going to take it any more."

Pete Borden of east Cobb runs a masonry contracting business.

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