CHARLESTON — Ahead of this afternoon's Colleton County Zoning Board of Appeals Regular Meeting, Mullins McLeod, a native of Walterboro, sent the below latter urging the Board to reject the proposed Special Exception to permit a Data Center Campus.
The letter reads:
To the Colleton County Zoning Board of Appeals,
Our very way of life in South Carolina is under attack by foreign for-profit corporations who seek to build data centers (hereinafter referred to as “death stars”) all over rural South Carolina. Right now, in my home county of Colleton these for-profits have submitted nine permits for data centers in a County whose population is less than 40,000 people.
Make no mistake, these death stars do not represent progress. They do not represent growth. If allowed, these death stars will drive up the cost of living, destroy our natural resources and interfere with our precious quality of life.
The power companies and Silicon Valley are two of the deepest pockets in American political history. They only know one language: money. These for-profits are not for us. They are for themselves. They don’t understand that South Carolina’s heartbeat is found in rural South Carolina. It is found in towns like Walterboro, Kingstree, Allendale, etc. These for-profits don’t understand that in rural South Carolina there are things that are so precious to us that money can’t buy them. These for-profits think a whippoorwill is something you buy at the fair. They don’t understand that the sound of the whippoorwills in the early morning is a sound that feeds the soul of every person who has ever called rural South Carolina home. These for profits think the black waters of the Little Salkehatchie swamp are dirty. They don’t understand because they have never caught crawdads during the month of May, they don’t know that a small spinning rod and a black rooster tail is all you need to catch one of the finest meals money can’t buy. These for-profits don’t understand that mother nature herself cleans the waters that flow through the little Salkehatchie and that if you look close enough you will see her waters are as clean and as pristine as any waters on earth.
God made man and God made this earth. God did not make these for-profits nor did he create State Government. But make no mistake – what is happening right now across rural South Carolina is one of the most shameful things that has happened in our state’s history. These for-profits are descending upon rural South Carolina because of the water that is under our feet. They want to steal our water right out from under us in order to cool the death stars in furtherance of their for-profit desires.
The water that is under our feet is God’s gift to us. It was never intended to be used in furtherance of these for-profit’s financial desires. Instead of protecting God’s gift to us the political establishment in Columbia has fed us to the for-profit wolves. They have done so because they use these for-profit’s money to get re-elected and to stay in power.
The fix is in. These for profits have greased both sides of the track. You know how I know? I know because Ro Khanna, a Democratic Congressman from California and Republican Senator Tim Scott are telling us the same thing: this is good for us- it will create jobs.
These death stars do not create jobs. All they do is drive up the cost of living, rob us of our natural resources and destroy our precious way of life in rural South Carolina. Please don’t believe in the snake oil they are trying to sell you.
I ask that you please deny the permitting requests of these for-profits and send a message to the power companies and Silicon Valley that you cannot California our Colleton County.
Sincerely,
W. Mullins McLeod, Jr.