“Viewpoints” is a place on Chapelboro where local people are encouraged to share their unique perspectives on issues affecting our community. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work, reporting or approval of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com. If you’d like to contribute a column on an issue you’re concerned about, interesting happenings around town, reflections on local life — or anything else — send a submission to viewpoints@wchl.com.
The World at Our Doorstep
A perspective from Dustin Queen-Moss
As someone originally from Appalachia who grew up in Western North Carolina, I recognize the warning signs when I see them here in Hillsborough. The views expressed by Commissioner Hughes and the board at large last night on AI and data centers being “inevitable” hit a nerve with me. My grandparents, my parents, and I have heard this language before.
It is the same story folks from Appalachia have heard since the 1870s. We have been promised jobs, investment, and “economic progress.” What we wound up with was extraction and exploitation. Timber companies came and stripped the forests, then the coal companies came and hollowed out the mountains and poisoned the waterways. When manufacturing arrived, we were desperate enough to offer tax breaks based on promises that disappeared as soon as their profits fell. Wealth fled the region while locals were left to deal with environmental damage, weakened labor conditions, and communities that became increasingly dependent on industries they never truly controlled.
This is why it is so frustrating to hear elected officials talk about AI and AI infrastructure as though communities are powerless to stop it. Data centers are not acts of God or nature. They are political choices, backed by enormous corporate influence and public subsidies. Calling them “inevitable” sounds like being bought and paid for by a company, think tank, or political action committee rather than planning for a future for all of us here.
The same pattern is emerging with AI and AI Infrastructure. Massive tech companies demand huge amounts of land, water, and electricity while concentrating wealth and decision-making power further into the hands of a small number of people. Regular folks absorb the costs while executives and investors collect the rewards. We are told this is “the future” and resisting is unrealistic.
The people back home know better than most what happens when communities are pressured to sacrifice their long-term well-being for short-term promises. They know what it looks like when outsiders arrive, waving their arms, claiming to bring prosperity while treating local land and people as resources to exploit.
We, as a community in Hillsborough and Orange County, do not have to accept the idea that this is the future that has already been decided for us. Communities still have the right to ask hard questions about who benefits, who pays the price, and whether endless technological expansion actually improves people’s lives.
The moratorium should not just be about figuring out how to accommodate data centers responsibly. It should be about deciding whether our community wants to keep repeating the same economic story Appalachia has lived through for generations, before our children begin singing John Prine’s “Paradise” about Hillsborough.
Dustin Queen-Moss, Hillsborough worker for 4 ½ years resident for 6 months.
“Viewpoints” on Chapelboro is a recurring series of community-submitted opinion columns. All thoughts, ideas, opinions and expressions in this series are those of the author, and do not reflect the work or reporting of 97.9 The Hill and Chapelboro.com.
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