EMPTY PROMISES
I attended the Oct. 29 meeting at Lincoln Library and I was grateful for the presentations made by everyone (“Data center plans delayed,” Nov. 5). There are too many promises made that we see other cities now suffering through, because once the data center is built, it’s the companies with big money and big lawyers who get the laws changed to screw the average citizen.
Rosanna Pulido
Springfield
THINK LONG TERM
When it comes to data centers, the Sangamon County Board needs to have a complete picture of the complexity of the promise and reality of opening up to these companies. Greed or desperation should not be the driving force when approaching an agreement with CyrusOne for a data center.
When it comes to taxation benefits, companies have been known to deliver Year 1, then go back to court and cut their taxes by up to 90%. Property assessments can vary greatly with data centers, and don’t think the companies will hesitate to take advantage of it. Legal advice and representation fees must be considered possible expenses.
Six hundred megawatts is an enormous amount of energy, and when the grid is stressed, we all pay higher rates. On top of this, our global CO2 levels are at a tipping point.
Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Pisa reported that “U.S. data centers produced 105 million tons of CO2-equivalent gases in 2025 with a carbon intensity 48% higher than the national average. Santa Clara now requires new data centers to use carbon-free renewable electricity.
We need to tread carefully and examine the long-term consequences.
Anne Logue
Springfield
A POWERFUL PORTRAYAL
Before “Sanford and Son,” before “Good Times,” before “The Jeffersons,” the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson gifted us with Fences, portrayed at the Hoogland Center for the Arts.
In his concept of an ideal “Negro” man struggling from within, Wilson created a character, Troy Maxson (Kess Robertson), to represent the isolated and lost dreams of a generation barricaded by racism and self-doubt.
Maxson literally keeps his eyes on the ball while struggling with his lost esteem as a former Negro League baseball player, drenched in his own wisdom and alcohol. With lines like “Death ain’t nothing but a fast ball on the outside corner,” Robertson mesmerizes the audience to look within to find answers to life’s most perplexing problems.
Troy’s friend, Jim Bono (Michael Wallace), pushes to convict Troy of his ways that are harmful to all, a convincing command portrayed by Wallace.
Rose Maxson (Kelly Spencer) dramatizes the loving care of a wife and mother during the difficult struggles of a child (Raynell, played by Lele Jenkins) not hers born to her husband.
Spencer portrays three characters rolled into one person with a dramatic climax of losing the dreams she once had and the sacrifices she made to keep a family from falling apart.
Two sons, Lyons (Horace Ceasar II) and Cory (Johnathan Alamu), are set in their ways and directed by their dreams. Lyons plays it cool and collected, while Cory becomes a man in his final chapter of a war just beginning.
Seven characters and two generations depict what life is like during the transformation from “Negroes” (1950s) to “Black” (1960s). Those barriers are broken at the sound of the first trumpet blown by Gabriel (Reggie Guyton), leading the way for the civil rights revolution of the 1960s, and the rest is history in the making (See review on p. 23).
Douglas Yul Holt
Springfield
This article appears in November 20-26, 2025.
