Wrighteous Indignation

  On November 4th, 2021, residents of the active adult community of Heritage Hunt in Gainesville, Virginia attended an inspirational and informative presentation from members of The Coalition to Protect Prince William County, the Prince William Conservation Alliance and the National Parks Conservation Association about how we could fight to protect our community from the onslaught of an immense and incompatibly sited industrial development called the Prince William Digital Gateway.  We responded immediately by forming the Heritage Hunt Data Center Working Group, which was the beginning of a 15-month struggle against an irresponsible and indifferent local government that continues to this day. We overcame initial false complacency, because we were told “not to worry” from the beginning. On August 12, 2021, Heritage Hunt residents were told by long-standing (and formerly trusted) Gainesville District Supervisor Pete Candland that the proposed data c...

  Opinion: Deshundra Jefferson is a tonic for what ails Prince William Democrats Letters to the Editor     January 12, 2023   ( Jefferson to primary Ann Wheeler for Prince William Chair in 2023 - Potomac Local News )   The Democratic Party charter states: “What we seek for our Nation, we hope for all people – individual freedom in the framework of a just society, political freedom in the framework of meaningful participation by all citizens.   Bound by the U.S. Constitution, aware that a party must be responsive to be worthy of responsibility, we pledge ourselves to open, honest endeavor and to the conduct of public affairs in a manner worthy of a society of free people.”   Those principles have been repeatedly violated by the current Chair of the Prince William Board of County supervisors, Ann Wheeler.   Her blatant servitude to business interests has undermined a just society.   Wheeler inhibited meaningf...

  A Re-Election Announcement Re-Edited   On December 29 th , Prince William Board of County Supervisors Chair Ann Wheeler made her New Year’s resolution a declaration to tarnish our county for another four years.  Unfortunately, her announcement suffered from either bad proofreading or an excessive use of “alternative facts”.  I will do my best to bend this pretzel straight.   “It has been an honor to serve our community as the Chair-At-Large on the Prince William Board of County Supervisors for the last three years. I love what I get to do every day for all residents and businesses, moving Prince William County forward.  Today, I announce my plans to run for re-election for Chair-At-Large in November 2023.” * OK, not a bad start.  But it should have read: “I love what I get to do every day for businesses and to the residents.”   * See: Wheeler seeking reelection as Prince William County board chair | Headlines | insidenova.com “I promis...

    January 11, 2023 The State of Denial   In her fourth State of the County address, Chair Ann Wheeler remarked on the community’s diversity and inclusivity, investments in education, economic development, collective bargaining, public safety, and transportation. Inexplicably, she omitted the topic that has dominated the county’s business over the past year: data centers. She touted the county’s adoption of a collective bargaining ordinance, allowing employees to negotiate collectively over terms and conditions of employment.   However, on the same day she claimed credit for expanding advocacy for county employees, she concurrently proposed to curtail rights of self-expression for the rest of the county’s residents.   In a January 10 th memo, Chair Wheeler put forward several recommendations for limiting public comment at Board of County Supervisors meetings. It is no secret that public comment has been a source of consternation for the BOCS. ...

    LETTER: Supervisors’ data center vote offers twist on ‘Let them eat cake’ December 29, 2022 When 18th century French peasants were starving for want of bread, Marie-Antoinette purportedly quipped: “Let them eat cake”.   Our similarly detached Board of County Supervisors has updated this condescension to: “Let them drink salt”. The city of The Dalles, Oregon recently abandoned its 13-month Google-funded lawsuit against Oregon’s largest newspaper, The Oregonian, to keep a Google data center’s water consumption secret from its citizens.   It was since revealed that Google’s water use nearly tripled in the past five years, now consuming 29 percent all water used in the city in the midst of a multi-year drought. Two more data centers are planned. How different is that from what is happening right here in Prince William County?   Your government signed non-disclosure agreements with multi-billion-dollar c...

    LETTER: In 2023, Don’t Vote for Laundry   December 22, 2022 Jerry Seinfeld had a term for blindly supporting sports franchises despite the quality or character of the players donning their uniform.   He called it “rooting for laundry”.   Many people do the same thing with political candidates.   They support the candidate claiming the same label as them, regardless of whether the candidate faithfully embodies that label. I faced my personal laundromat moment this year when, as Treasurer of the Gainesville Democrats, I was appalled at the conduct of Democratic supervisors I saw as betraying the principles they professed.   Democrats are supposed to support environmental responsibility and sustainable growth and safeguard the public from corporate exploitation.   Yet here were people wearing my team colors doing precisely the opposite.   When my constructive criticism was rebuf...