LETTER: Supervisors seem to be rushing data center decisions. The question is: Why?

July 14, 2022

Opponents of the Prince William Digital Gateway have spent eight months presenting evidence, rational arguments and reasonable alternatives to our Board of County Supervisors in an effort to get them to consider the significant risks and dubious benefits of this proposal.  It seems to have had a negligible effect, not because those arguments were without merit, but because they pose inconvenient obstacles to minds made up long before the debate began.

 Attendees at Board meetings have heard several variations of “don’t confuse me with the facts” and “let no good information stand in the way of a bad decision”.  Chair Ann Wheeler makes it apparent that expedience trumps prudence, and the question is – why?  

Doesn’t the Board have an obligation to thoroughly conduct its due diligence before approving such an impactful project of unprecedented magnitude?  What unseen urgency justifies shortcutting that process?  Anxious landowners?  Impatient developers?  Electoral calendars?

When logical explanations elude us, skepticism fills the void.  Marcellus, a character in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, may have been onto something when he observed: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark”. 

The Turks say: “A fish rots from the head down”.  But there’s no need for any such rot when responsible options are still open to us.  Our elected officials just need to properly perform their prescribed duties and resist pressures to do otherwise. 

The Bible has a lesson for public servants who run roughshod over their constituents on the way to unexplained rewards: “Whatever one sows, that will he also reap”. 

Bill Wright

Gainesville

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  LETTER TO THE EDITOR   Anti-Digital Gateway Activist Endorses Deshundra Jefferson for Chair   Gainesville resident Bill Wright supports Jefferson-D for Chair of Prince William County Board of Supervisors   Posted Wednesday, April 12, 2023     ( Anti-Digital Gateway Activist Endorses Deshundra Jefferson for Chair - Bristow Beat ) Ask yourself: Are you better off than you were four years ago, or have your dreams been hijacked to serve the selfish aims of others? Prince William County is at a crossroads and the 2023 elections will decide whether we free ourselves from subservience to developer exploitation or slip permanently into the abyss.    A positive change awaits in the candidacy of Deshundra Jefferson for County Board Chair.  She vows to restore transparency and integrity to a government that has been quick to abuse your trust and give away the store to big tech predators who are gorging on your slice...
Read more
Image
  Subject: A Trojan Horse at the Gate On March 7 th , members of the Heritage Hunt Homeowner’s Association met with representatives from QTS to hear about their plans for developing the adjacent Prince William Digital Gateway.  They had previously met with representatives from Compass Datacenters on February 28 th .  The Heritage Hunt Board of Directors is justifiably wary of interlopers who have demonstrated they will employ any tactic that serves their interests.  The Heritage Hunt Board wrote: “Our previously stated concerns that the Digital Gateway is inappropriate for the Pageland area and that there are more suitable uses for that land has not changed.”  Citizens of Prince William County are still irate over the unethical practices employed by QTS and Compass in strong-arming their way into our area despite broad public opposition.  Both corporations negotiated plans secretly, under the cloak of non-disclosure agreements designed to inhibit publi...
Read more

Pay-for-Play on Full Display

Image
  Friends and Neighbors, In light of the shameless Devlin Technology Park betrayal ( UPDATED: Prince William Supervisors OK Devlin data centers despite residents' objections | News | princewilliamtimes.com ), how many of you have been wondering how public officials sworn to represent your interests can not only be indifferent to your welfare, but actually take the side of predatory corporations determined to exploit you? Peruse the multiple tabs of the spreadsheet at:   Donations Driving Data Centers - Google Sheets   and wonder no more.  Instead, wonder why any of us ever thought we might get the time-of-day from blatant political prostitutes masquerading as supervisors.  If you want their attention, you’re going to need a bigger suitcase full of cash.  If the obscene amount of money showered on our current crop of Democratic supervisors isn’t a corrupting influence, I don’t know what is.   Now prepare yourselves for the next public fleecin...
Read more