“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 [email protected].
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…