The city council decided to put the vote on the data center off until their June 2 meeting. There was standing-room only tonight at the meeting. People spoke against it for two and a half hours. I spoke against it on ethical grounds. The whole point of the amendments to the city ordinance was to mitigate the harm done by data centers. This implies that there is harm that will be done. I pointed this out and said that this did not benefit the citizens of Salisbury to which the council owes its allegiance.
I was mostly disappointed with the council’s decision to postpone the decision. The only council member to really speak out directly against the data center was Gemale Black. It is my recommendation that as many of us that are available should show up at the June 2 city council meeting.
On a personal note, this is not a fight that I wanted right now. I am so very tired. I am tired of the impunity and obvious proclivity that all levels of government seem to have in support of corporate interests above the interests of our communities. I put my hope in the adage that “all politics are local” and gained strength and hope from our local government, specifically city council. If they do not put forth some type of absolute ban of data centers in the city limits of Salisbury, then I will lose faith in government completely.
We have citizens being killed by ICE in the streets. We have people being kidnapped and placed in detention centers without due process. We have children separated from their parents. We have rich men who can rape young girls and not face any consequences. We have a president who is apparently above the law and can start wars as a distraction. The voting rights act has been gutted. Our democracy is in great peril.
We did not need this fight against data centers. It breaks my heart that we have to fight against this at all. The bottom line is how does a data center benefit the citizens of Salisbury and the answer is that it does more harm than good. I say this as a former professor of environmental ethics and I am not someone who just googles my information on this. Many of the speakers last night asked for a one-year moratorium for council to gather more information before making a decision. It is my opinion that we need an outright ban on data centers within the city limits. Anything less is just mitigating the harm these facilities cause. If the harm is not allowed at all, we don’t need all of the specific rules related to data centers. I hope the council will take this action simply because it is the right thing to do for the people of Salisbury. There is no amount of tax revenue or “jobs” that will justify the sale of our natural resources and water to corporate interests. We are not merely mortgaging the future of our children, we are outright selling it to the highest bidder.
Dr. Andria Porter lives in Salisbury.
