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Foreigners, Outsiders, and What to Do

By Ethan Cotton

If you read that headline, you might think you’re going to see a rant about the scourge of outsiders on a small mountain town that wishes to be left alone. But that would be ridiculous, and yet some people would have those beliefs.
The reality is different. Every person in the world has their own interests and values. In communities, people like festivals, people like fitness, and most of all, everyone likes food.
But what could someone living in the corn fields of Indiana or the suburbs of New York City possibly see in a town like this?
East Tennessee is well known for its beauty, and that’s why Sevierville looks like a traffic jam you annoyingly got stuck in on your way to a medical appointment in Knoxville. Sevierville was already big, and most people want a lot of shops and restaurants with the views. Scott County has the views, but we’re not exactly the size of Oak Ridge yet so we don’t have to worry about becoming that congested anytime soon.
Scott County does have a few things besides the views. Someone who enjoys a good beer and hears about our tap house and potential breweries will get interested. Someone who enjoys leisurely pastimes would be interested in our golf course and would fall in love with the Oneida City Park or the hidden picnic area behind the historic Scott County jail. Someone who is looking for big tech opportunities and 20 acres….well, you won’t have to worry about them.
Outsiders that intentionally come here see our town as special. If people are willingly coming here, we’re doing something right.
How about those foreigners? First, I want to point out that if the vast majority of individuals in our county found themselves in Brazil or Japan, they’d struggle. If someone who’s lived in Winfield her whole life moved to Japan to start a new life, what are the chances she excels with her small business and swims in their currency? Honestly, for most here the skills they brought with them won’t help much in a very different cultural setting. If someone made great, popular sandwiches or sold goods in bins here with success, that could mean failure in a place like Nagasaki or Manchuria.
That’s the hardship of being a foreigner in a foreign country. But what do foreigners see in our humble town? Again, the beauty, the activities, but mixed with the hope for opportunity. They also see us as unique. Outsiders and foreigners look at what our county is made of. They look attentively at the parts to figure out the whole.
They can look at us and say, “Maybe we’ll like it here, I can’t wait to go hiking each warm week.”
Imagine a Manhattan man, sick of traffic and steel horizons, falling in love with a Knoxville native. He and his girlfriend get on Highway 27, soon squeezing between those stone cliffs we know. He drives down Alberta Street but is tired of fast food. He pulls into the Save-A-Lot area, and looks at his sweetheart with wide eyes, “New York Style? HERE?” And just like that, interest is sparked. Sometimes that’s how residents are made.
Does Whitley City have a brewery? Does LaFollete have a New York Style pizzeria? Does Lake City have a place for a huge rack of ribs, or a big [redacted] steak? Buddy’s BBQ is common in cities, but it’s not the same as what County’s BBQ has. I just mentioned food, but the idea is the same:
We are unique. If I remember correctly, and I may be wrong, LaFollete has a larger population than us. But we have things they don’t have, and vice versa.
Our uniqueness, the cocktail that is a mix of beauty, variety, and activities, is something that is ours. Just as history’s monarchs had crowns of different shapes, towns are just as different as what rests on the heads of conquerers. Uniqueness makes us valuable to people who aren’t from here.
Some of us can grumble about it, maybe even with prejudices, but if out-of-staters and foreigners see something in us, then that must mean it’s there.

We need to treat them with empathy and open arms, and if one of them neglects our home, let the blame be on him and not his state or people.
Raise a glass to the coming of Spring, and to the great things in this county.