Andrew Wyeth
Maine Fisherman
(1936)

"…grateful we can actually employ our old, reliable Walla Walla Way."

True Prosperity might be NonBinary, defying specific classification. It seems to be anything but all-or-nothing, eschewing either/ors in favor of some flavor of both/ands. It tends to smother under clever definitions, and might sometimes even be mistaken for degradation. Environmentalists often get sideways with Prosperity because they treat externalities as if they define an entire context. They seem to entrap themselves too easily in impossible imperatives, casting themselves as the only noble ones and defending traditions nobody else seems to fully appreciate. They perceive change as degradation and stasis as somehow possible in a world that’s necessarily either economically expanding or contracting. Those pursuing Prosperity must remain mindful, too, of the environmental stewardship every development demands, though they risk being cast as an adversary to apple pie when they suggest that perhaps a diet of both butter and guns might be necessary and not impossible or necessarily degrading.

Our controversies devolve into strict dichotomies these days. Perhaps this happens as a resonance of the legacy left over from the old Red Scare terror of the fifties, amplified by conservative scare-mongers as well as conservationists since. We’ve grown far too accustomed to staring into this Medusa face, capable of turning every dichotomy into a hair-on-fire, life-or-death controversy. We too easily assume our sides, defending our personal misconceptions of our shared constitution. We become battling Patrick Henrys, insisting that our opponents grant us liberty or death, though neither state would accomplish much. Whoever insists they are right, what would be left under either scenario? They battle across an invisible middle ground that might remain invisible as long as either side insists it must remain invisible. Each might fear losing and thereby going straight to Hell. These feelings perfectly encourage sharing a self-imposed Hell-on-Earth experience.

Who wins? What’s left if either perspective remains rigid? In our Data Center controversy, we seem to have lined up perfectly according to the new rules of engagement. The neithers and the nors, seemingly preparing themselves for battle, each with their little-huge controversies fueling distrust. Is either side above slander in defense of their quintessentially indefensible positions? What if they are not as they have been so crudely characterized, or even as they might have so crudely characterized themselves? What if no bribes ever even needed to change hands? What if the environmental concerns misrepresent the actual underlying situation? What if each defends against essentially non-existent threats? What if nobody ever once intended to offend anyone, and everyone was trying to preserve Prosperity in their own way? It almost seems as if the binary nature of the proposed Data Center processing nothing but zeros and ones encourages binary thinking, the eithers and ors representing the interests of the zeros and ones they’ll be hosting. All concerns might well be understandable, but if they cannot be addressed by any reasonable means, they degrade into demands that cannot be satisfied without someone with actual skin in the game losing what could have been a win/win. Resolution often requires more imagination than insistence.

The anti-data center crowd was surprised when The Muse encouraged their questioning, because that was exactly what they had been lobbying for since the controversy began. The SEPA process has always been legally mandated to include a formal questioning and answering period, where the legal rules of development are formally questioned by anyone with concerns, and those questions are compared with what’s mandated by existing regulations. The antis tried to convince our County Commissioners to impose a one-year development moratorium so the proposed development details could be clarified to their satisfaction, but the commissioners wisely rejected that binary proposition as beyond their purview. Amazon seemed to embrace the genuine hassle the environmental scrutiny entailed, though they understandably opposed the anti’s insistence upon an additional full environmental review of land already earlier subjected to precisely that review. A second review would be nearly unprecedented and unquestionably unnecessary, nothing more than a carefully crafted, expensive waste of time.

Many complaints from the antis centered around their notion that they were not given sufficient time to rally an effective opposition against what hadn’t even been specified then. They seemed to believe that if people had known Amazon would be developing that land, everyone would have naturally opposed the Port even selling to them. The Muse had done her due diligence, though. She reviewed Amazon’s actual track record in Data Center development. She even interviewed commissioners from hosting counties to learn of their experience. The company more than passed scrutiny. When informed of Amazon’s actual track record, the antis most often respond with disbelief, as if their skepticism could somehow nullify Amazon’s enviable Data Center track record.

Had we not needed this Data Center, we could have sidestepped all controversy, but we’re desperate. This is no sacrifice. We are not slaughtering our legacy lamb or anybody’s inheritance to approve this, but merely attempting to extend a Prosperity we fear we will forfeit if we fail to act. We live in a boom-and-bust valley, currently experiencing a terrible bust cycle. Our farmers cannot break even selling their crops. We’ve passed peak wine. Our Main Street has been hollowing out, and every employer in this valley is presently operating with layoffs and hiring freezes. We’re down at least 500 living wage jobs right now, and heading even further South. Austerity has never once in the history of this world so far spawned Prosperity, though it sometimes manages to head off absolute destitution, but rarely to anybody’s satisfaction. It seems likely now that Amazon will pass its SEPA environmental review, if not with flying colors, then at least with addressable issues. They are experienced professionals, and they carry a compelling story of stewardship and community collaboration. We seem to be ripe for a win/win, a truly NonBinaryProsperity, though those who won’t get everything they wished for might lose their belief in tooth fairies. After the controversy could come some satisfying resolution, one we’ll get to live with for generations going forward. Better if we can frame it to each other as a win/win we created, and be grateful we can actually employ our old, reliable Walla Walla Way.

©2026 by David A. Schmaltz - all rights reserved

Tags: #Prosperity, #PureSchmaltz