The Hypocrisy of Funneling Billions Into an Infrastructure Debacle: The Witness Beyond the System-and Solutions

Guest Opinion by Alicia Boothe Haggermaker

America is blanketed with surveillance systems: cameras on every corner, license-plate readers tracking us, AI-driven garbage trucks writing citations, drones overhead, and facial recognition scanning crowds. We’ve spent billions under the guise of "public safety."

Yet when Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at a Utah campus event, it wasn’t institutional surveillance that captured the moment—it was bystander cellphone footage that revealed what those systems missed.

Surveillance’s Failures: Safety or Control?

This isn't an isolated breakdown—it's part of a growing pattern.

Surveillance systems are effective at monitoring infractions like expired tags or unpermitted decks, but they fail catastrophically in moments that truly matter. Violent incidents, including those on public transit, are recorded—but not prevented.

And right on cue, after every tragedy, the institutional chorus swells:

Sweeping gun bans are demanded, even when the weapons involved are already restricted. After Parkland in 2018, Florida passed SB 7026, which raised the firearm purchase age to 21, banned bump stocks, and created a “red flag” law (Stateline, 2018; Florida Senate Bill 7026).

“Assault weapon buybacks” are floated—bureaucratic code for government confiscation (CNN, 2022).

Universal background checks and red-flag laws are pushed, which translate to more databases, more surveillance, and more reasons to put ordinary Americans on watchlists. In the aftermath of Uvalde in 2022, senators proposed expanding background checks for buyers under 21 and incentivizing states to adopt red-flag laws (Texas Tribune, 2022).

It’s the same script every time. The problem is never their systems failing; it’s you with too much freedom. The “solution” is always another layer of control—served up with a straight face, like we don’t notice the irony.

None of these top-down measures stop shooters in real time. What they do stop is sovereignty.

Open-Source Intelligence: People Before Systems

Ordinary people are often ahead of institutions.

The public exposed flaws in vaccine science before congressional hearings. Abuse networks were traced before official investigations took shape. The first draft of Alabama’s SB 267—which banned “vaccine passports”—was circulated while institutions were still formalizing lockdown definitions (Alabama Legislature, 2021).

When Kirk was shot, citizen journalists and platforms broke the story faster than mainstream outlets. Friends in the movement were posting the details before mainstream media even moved. My own AI couldn’t keep up with the pace of open-source chatter.This is exactly what Robert David Steele meant when he said open-source intelligence is superior to government intelligence (Steele, 2012). Not gossip. Not “Karens with complaints.” But people willing to connect dots without waiting for permission.

Institutions are always late to their own corruption. They cover, delay, and spin. Open-source communities catch it live. That’s why so many “conspiracies” end up being tomorrow’s headlines.

Steele’s Roadmap:

Transparency as DefenseRobert David Steele, former CIA analyst, foresaw the failure of secrecy: “The secret world of intelligence … represents everything wrong with the government … and our ethics.”He advocated for openness: “…to march firmly, non-violently, toward open-source everything.”

And he cast a vision: “The future of intelligence is not secret, not federal, and not expensive... Only ‘open’ is scalable.”(Steele, 2012)

His principles are alive today—open-source truths emerge faster than any secret system ever could.

AI Infrastructure: Powering Ideas, Draining Resources

The AI boom is stressing national infrastructure.In June 2025, U.S. data center construction reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $40 billion, driven by generative AI demand (Reuters, 2024).These centers are increasing electricity demand globally—and straining grids (PBS NewsHour, 2024; Associated Press, 2024).

By 2030, global electricity demand from AI data centers is projected to double, with AI centers potentially consuming as much power as major industrial sectors (Reuters, 2024; The Verge, 2023).

Yet despite massive tech infrastructure, public safety systems still fail when needed most.

We don’t need billions of dollars in AI infrastructure to do a “better job” of “safety” when those same systems can’t even catch rooftop shooters at large public events. But they will send you a ticket in the mail for tall grass or fine you for not pulling a permit on a backyard deck.

Good job, America. Here’s your gold star for missing the point.

The Big Tech Creep: Local Costs, Distant Profits

The burden of these AI and surveillance empires doesn’t fall on the corporations building them — it falls on the communities hosting them.

Take Huntsville: utility rate hikes, fiber-optic expansions, and infrastructure costs are quietly shifted onto residents, while companies like Google lease the lines and reap the profits. Huntsville families are paying higher bills so that Silicon Valley giants can run AI farms and surveillance platforms.

And the irony writes itself: We can profit from your data, but don’t count on our surveillance to keep you from getting shot or stabbed in public. Nope, that wall-to-wall surveillance grid is reserved for the “important” things — like catching someone stealing groceries, or mailing you a fine because your grass is an inch too tall.

I cannot be the only one that sees a problem here.

At what point do we recognize that prioritizing tech infrastructure over people isn’t rendering desirable results for the people themselves? If the measure of success is citizen safety, stability, and freedom, then the scoreboard is clear: tech is winning, people are losing.

From Broken Systems to Community Solutions:

When systems fail, the knee-jerk response is “more surveillance”—yet this misses the deeper issue.

Steele pushed back: “The persistent unethical … emphasis on secrecy … is not sustainable. We … have an opportunity … to bury ‘rule of secrecy.’”(Steele, 2012)

The smarter path is building open-source community intelligence: scalable, transparent, and rooted in trust—not control.

But let’s take it further: the answer isn’t better algorithms or stricter laws. It’s decentralization.

Decentralized energy → local grids, rooftop solar, micro-hydro, and community storage so no family is hostage to Google’s data centers or rolling blackouts.

Decentralized media → people-powered reporting and open platforms where truth flows without filters or corporate permission.

Decentralized intelligence → neighbors, churches, farmers, and local networks that actually know what’s happening in real time.

Decentralized supply chains → farms, workshops, barter, and local logistics that keep families fed and supplied even if national networks collapse.

Because when you rely on Big Brother to supply your every whim, you also accept the risk that when catastrophe hits, the entire lifeline snaps.

We’ve already seen the previews: empty shelves during COVID, baby formula shortages, energy rationing, ports in gridlock, farmers paid to destroy crops while grocery prices climb. Centralization creates fragility. Decentralization builds resilience.

Learning from Self-Sufficient Success Stories:

This isn’t theory — history already showed us the model.

Take Black Wall Street in Tulsa: a thriving, self-sufficient community with local banks, shops, theaters, schools, and farms. They weren’t waiting on federal programs or multinational corporations to feed them or finance them. They built wealth, independence, and resilience from the ground up.

Or look at the farming co-ops and immigrant neighborhoods across early America, where people pooled resources, bartered, and produced locally what they couldn’t get from afar. These were decentralized supply chains before we even had the word for it.

And what happened? Centralized power saw independence as a threat. Black Wall Street wasn’t destroyed by market failure — it was burned down by fear and force. Other communities were starved, displaced, or legislated out of existence.

The lesson is clear: when people thrive outside of Big Brother’s grasp, the system feels threatened. But that doesn’t mean we abandon the model — it means we double down on it.

Now imagine if cities across the South built that kind of resilience together.

Chattanooga already tried to diverge from TVA by building its own fiber and utility model — proof that local initiative can work when people are willing to take risks. Knoxville, too, has institutional knowledge worth tapping; even former staff like Ron Rizzardi, who once worked there, carry perspective that could strengthen regional collaboration.And here’s the craziest twist: institutions like TVA and the Department of Energy actually provide grants for self-sufficiency infrastructure. Yes — the very agencies that enforce centralization are also funding communities to decentralize, if only we’re bold enough to take them up on it.

TVA’s Connected Communities program offers up to $750,000 per project (TVA).

DOE awarded TVA + 10 local power companies a $250 million grant to strengthen the grid and expand clean energy (TVA CMA).

USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) provides grants and loans to farms and small businesses for renewable energy and efficiency upgrades (USDA).

Even Huntsville is seeing this already: Hazel Green High School received $210,000 for energy upgrades (HSV Utilities), Huntsville Utilities secured a $125,000 grant for battery storage resilience (HSV Utilities), and residents can already participate in TVA’s Green Connect solar program (HSV Utilities).

Instead of each city fighting uphill battles alone, a Southern alliance of independent utilities could create leverage against TVA’s monopoly, Big Tech’s contracts, and the federal pressure to centralize everything.If they feared it back then, it worked. If they destroyed it, it mattered.

And now we have the chance to build it again — smarter, more resilient, and this time, harder to erase.

Conclusion: Sovereignty in Sightlines

Surveillance systems—designed to protect—frequently fail. Meanwhile, ordinary individuals with cameras consistently provide the truth.

If America truly values safety, it must honor people—not systems. Intelligence by the people, for communities—that’s how we move from illusion to accountability to hope.

And maybe—just maybe—we can stop pretending that bureaucracy is bravery and finally admit: the fire’s been in the people all along.

And that brings me to one final note: to the people inside the system itself.

A Note to Those Inside the System

This is not an attack on the people who show up every day. To the linemen at Huntsville Utilities, the engineers, the nurses, the teachers, the clerks, the technicians, the first responders: I see you.

You keep things running even when the system makes your job harder than it needs to be. You solve problems in real time with fewer resources than the billion-dollar programs supposedly designed to “help.”

My grievance is not with you. It’s with the structures that treat human beings as afterthoughts — pouring billions into centralized infrastructure that fails where it matters most, while the people doing the actual work are sidelined, underfunded, or ignored.People — not bureaucracies, not algorithms — consistently prove they can do the job better, faster, and at lower cost. That’s the lesson of open-source intelligence, decentralized supply chains, and every thriving local initiative that ever scared the powers that be.

So this note is to you: the employees, the insiders, the quiet heroes. Imagine what could happen if the same creativity, grit, and integrity you already show every day were unleashed outside the cage of bureaucracy.

Source List

Gun Control Responses

Stateline – After Parkland, States Pass 50 New Gun-Control Laws (2018) https://stateline.org/2018/08/02/after-parkland-states-pass-50-new-gun-control-laws/

Florida Senate Bill 7026 – Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act (2018) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Senate_Bill_7026

Texas Tribune – U.S. senators reach deal on gun legislation in aftermath of Uvalde shooting (2022) https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/12/senate-uvalde-gun-john-cornyn/

CNN – Highland Park mass shooting renews calls for assault weapons ban (2022) https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/05/politics/assault-weapons-ban-highland-park-shooting/index.html

AI & Infrastructure

Reuters – U.S. data center build hits record as AI demand surges (2024) https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-data-centre-build-hits-record-ai-demand-surges-2024-06-12/

PBS NewsHour – How AI infrastructure is driving a sharp rise in electricity bills (2024) https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-ai-infrastructure-is-driving-a-sharp-rise-in-electricity-bills

Associated Press – Ireland’s data centers consume more electricity than all urban homes (2024) https://apnews.com/article/ireland-data-centers-electricity-use-7f5a3532f18c4f54b9a2ffbbfd7e74f4

Reuters – Google agrees to curb AI data centre power use during demand surges (2024) https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-curb-ai-data-centre-power-use-2024-07-18/

The Verge – Biden signs executive order to speed AI data center construction (2023) https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/30/23938929/biden-ai-executive-order-safety-privacy

Open-Source / SteeleSteele, Robert David – The Open-Source Everything Manifesto: Transparency, Truth, and Trust (2012) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13642735-the-open-source-

Grants & Regional Programs

TVA – Connected Communities Pilot Project Funding Opportunity https://tva.com/energy/technology-innovation/connected-communities/tva-connected-communities-pilot-project-funding-opportunity

TVA CMA – TVA & 10 Local Power Companies Selected for $250 Million DOE Grant https://tvawcma.com/news-media/releases/tva--10-local-power-companies-selected-for--250-million-doe-grant-to-strengthen-grid-and-increase-clean-energy

USDA – Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) https://www.rd.usda.gov/inflation-reduction-act/rural-energy-america-program-reap

Huntsville-Specific Examples

Huntsville Utilities – Hazel Green High School Awarded $210,000 Energy Grant https://www.hsvutil.org/news_detail_T15_R277.php

Huntsville Utilities – HU Awarded $125,000 DEED Grant for Battery Storage https://www.hsvutil.org/news_detail_T15_R156.php

Huntsville Utilities – Renewables Programs & Green Connect https://www.hsvutil.org/community_resources/programs/energy_services_menu/renewables_programs.php

Alabama Legislature – SB 267: Prohibiting vaccine passports (2021) https://legiscan.com/AL/bill/SB267/2021

Alicia Boothe Haggermaker is a lifelong resident of Huntsville, Alabama, and a dedicated advocate for health freedom. For more than a decade, she has worked to educate the public and policymakers on issues of medical choice and public transparency. In January 2020, she organized a delegation of physicians and health freedom advocates to Montgomery, contributing to the initial draft of legislation that became SB267.

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