By SAMANTHA PERRY
It was the first e-mail I opened on Wednesday — the morning after the tumultuous “windmill vote” had taken place at the Tazewell County Board of Supervisors meeting. After more than 14 months of study, debate and dialogue, board members had finally cast their votes for the so-called ridgeline protection ordinance Tuesday evening, which would — theoretically, anyway — halt a proposed BP/Dominion wind turbine farm on East River Mountain. And this particular Letter to the Editor presented an emotional, compelling and well-written opinion on the important topic.
The windmill project generated months of heated debate — not just from those living in Tazewell County, but from residents across the region.
Virginia, West Virginia. Tazewell, Mercer, Bland, McDowell and Giles counties. North Carolina, and beyond. Opinions for and against the project poured in to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph from people across the two Virginias and the U.S.
No matter how one felt about windmills, one thing was obvious: The issue was dividing the people of Four Seasons Country.
Intellectual debates were heated. Sentimental passions inflamed. Right was wrong, wrong was right. And, it appeared, month after month was passing by with no decision about whether wind turbines would, or would not, be welcome in Tazewell County.
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Opening the e-mail, I prepared myself for words of frustration, indignation and outright anger. After all, these were the emotions underscoring a host of letters from the previous 12 months. Instead, I read a letter that accentuated pride in the people and officials of Tazewell County.
Penned by Dawn Skidmore of Williamsburg, Va., who identified herself as a proud 1999 Graham High School graduate, the initial paragraph noted the importance of the supervisors’ meeting, and continued with the following: “... I was proud of my hometown. My pride was rooted not in the outcome itself, but because I believe this process has been a true example of what democracy should look like.
“From the earliest stages of the BP/Dominion proposal, residents and former residents of Tazewell County set out to learn about the impact windmills would have on our mountain, the environment, and the region as a whole,” Dawn wrote in the letter, published in the Telegraph last Thursday. “It was easy to find information supporting both sides, and interested parties discussed and interpreted their new knowledge to develop opinions about the project. I believe that Tuesday night’s vote represented the wishes of the citizens, and that each member of the Board of Supervisors took his responsibility as a representative to heart. Way to go, Tazewell County!”
I was immediately inspired. Dawn was not casting about heated words for or against the project. Instead, she was advocating the democratic process.
Dawn’s next paragraph was particularly enlightening, and moving.
“This debate was particularly inspiring to me as it took place against the national backdrop of questions around health care reform and the budget deficit,” she wrote. “As a concerned and interested citizen, I’ve made real efforts to find reliable information about both topics — and I’ve come up short. Our representatives, Republicans and Democrats alike, are so focused on party lines and speaking in buzzwords that it’s impossible to make sense of it all. The men and women who have been elected to represent our interests as citizens are instead responsible for blocking information and misrepresenting facts until we simply aren’t able to form educated opinions.”
This young women, a proud native of Tazewell County, had summed up a national issue wisely and succinctly.
“Perhaps it’s time for our state and national elected officials to take a lesson from little old Tazewell County,” Dawn wrote. “My hometown isn’t perfect, but Tuesday night showed that our local government remains ‘Of the people, by the people, for the people.’”
I was inspired. Dawn hadn’t cast stones, instead she had focused on the positive aspects of the windmill debate and her hometown.
Although I was caught off guard by the tone of the initial letter, it was a nice surprise.
It truly felt like the calm after the storm. The vote appeared to have soothed the windmill hysteria, and brought a return to normalcy and rationality.
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It’s likely the windmill issue will wind up in court, and remain there for quite some time. For now, however, we can breathe a sigh of relief that the ordinance issue has been debated, and decided.
Whether or not the supervisors made the “right” decision will likely not be known for years, if not decades, to come. Yet, as Dawn so succinctly noted, we can all be proud that democracy cast its light on Tazewell County
In the face of a tumultuous debate, Tazewell County’s elected officials listened, learned and then, finally, voted.
We can’t ask for more than that.
Samantha Perry is managing editor of the Daily Telegraph. Contact her at sperry@bdtonline.com
