The Real Crisis in Moore County

The root problem is our growing indifference to one another

6:20 a.m. Oct. 8, 2025

There is a divide in Moore County. Multiple fissures spreading across our land, really. 

I do my best to avoid being political on my social media platforms, within my journalistic voice, or anywhere else where my image can be seen. As a journalist, impartiality is a virtue, and in many cases, one of the strongest ones to have. You don’t need to know how I feel about a party, a person, or an event – my hope is that you can form your own opinions by reading unbiased writing. 

I must break that rule now. Moore County is smack dab in the middle of conflict. Solar farms, digesters, tiny homes, budgets, apartments – you name it, we’ve got it. These are issues that, for the most part, are foreign to a little ol' place like here. We don’t do commercial conflict because we aren’t geared for it. Small town life has cemented its cornerstone in its residents, not its capitalists. 

It is my duty to speak up. I’m not a true journalist if I don’t use my platform to bring attention to what matters to me, what is killing this sacred place I call home. And lately I’ve been feeling so full of rage and resentment that I’m fit to be tied. 

We’ve allowed things to invade Lynchburg that do little good for our residents. With these things, we have sown seeds of division that, if allowed to grow further, may resemble the division we’re currently experiencing at the national level. 

Residents in the northern part of the county are concerned about solar panels. They should be. People who haul slop are mad that their livelihood has been disrupted. Once again, they should be. People who own property near potential and existing developments are stirred up. They should be. 

So what’s the problem then? It sounds like everyone is doing their due diligence in being upset.

But that’s the issue in itself.  

We’ve come only to care about what’s in our own individual backyard, not our neighbors’. If you live in the southern end of the county, you probably don’t care that there are solar panels in a field of destruction going toward Tullahoma. If you don’t own livestock, you probably read the story about the digester and, after some commentary, moved on. And so on and so forth. 

This isn’t my attempt at pointing fingers at singular communities or groups. On the contrary, I’m glad that folks in those places or in non-agricultural professions aren’t having to go through what people who live near Cumberland Springs, Goodbranch, and other affected areas are. 

We’ve lost our ability to feel empathy, which, contrary to popular belief, is not a new or inherently wrong emotion to feel.

I’m asking you to give a damn, even if it doesn’t affect you. 

Care. Care about the folks whose land has very nearly been encroached upon. Care about the folks who are losing their livelihood. Care about budgets and apartments and local government and retirements and raises and solar farms and digesters and everything else, no matter how minute it may seem now. Attend government meetings. Visit with your neighbors. Form an opinion. And, most importantly, abide no hatred. 

Care, solely out of self-interest if you must. Because when the desperate hour rolls around, and you have also fallen victim to an injustice, you’ll be praying for someone to care about you, too. 

Dr. Seuss said it best in The Lorax: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” 

I’ve become somewhat of a poet these days, though not a very good one, mind you. It’s a process, as all artistic endeavors are. You must consume what you wish to become, so I’ve been doing just that by reading a lot of powerful words from the page. I’ll leave you with the words that have echoed within me lately, and I hope they come to mean something to you as well. 

First They Came

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
– Pastor Martin Niemöller