Guest Editorial
By Maria Garcia
EL PASO, Tx., June 12, 2026: As a 23-year-old student, I watched the city council meeting on the Meta data center to see local democracy in action. I expected thoughtful discussions and a genuine effort by our officials to address our concerns. Instead, we got condescending speeches from them telling us that they know better than the many people who asked that they meet with Meta to discuss our future.
I always hear that young people don’t vote and what I saw before the city council is why we don’t vote.
I am disheartened by what my elected officials did reminding me that they only care about the people that fund their elections.
I won’t be voting until people that care about us and not their donors and who view the people as voices that matter run for office.
People will criticize me for not voting, calling me part of the problem but what I witnessed at city council proves that my one vote doesn’t matter.
After the meeting I took what I learned in my recent school assignment and used it as my voice to what I saw last Tuesday at our city council.
Maria Garcia used AI tools to create The El Paso Meta Song, June 10, 2026. Special to the El Paso Herald Post.
Lyrics: The El Paso Meta Song
The sun came up on El Paso,
The Franklin Mountains standing tall,
Folks walked into that chamber
Thinking they’d be heard at all.
They brought their fears and questions,
About the future coming fast,
But when the votes were counted,
Some felt they’d been left in the past.
Who did you vote for when you raised your hand?
The people in the neighborhoods or another big plan?
We asked for guardrails, we asked for a say,
But our questions hit a wall that day.
Cynthia Trejo Boyer, Alejandra Chavez,
Art Fierro standing with the rest,
Deanna Rocha Maldonado, Ivan Niño too,
Now the people are putting that vote to the test.
Some saw jobs and opportunity,
Some saw risks that needed review,
Some said, “Open up discussions,
Let’s see what safeguards we can do.”
The desert knows the value
Of every drop and every watt,
And the people kept on asking,
“What protections have we got?”
We weren’t trying to stop tomorrow,
We weren’t trying to turn away,
We just wanted our leaders
To hear what we had to say.
And the story isn’t over,
The ink is barely dry,
A city’s more than contracts,
A city’s more than contracts,
It’s the people living by them.
Editor’s note: The editorial was submitted to us in the form of a song. The song was created using artificial intelligence (AI) by the author. We asked the author to provide us with a short essay about the thoughts behind her song. As a digital medium, El Paso Herald Post encourages multimedia submissions.
About Maria Garcia
Maria Garcia lives in the eastside and is currently pursuing a degree in computer programming. She told us that she was motivated to create the song after watching the debate on the META datacenter. Maria Garcia asked us to let readers know that she wants people to freely use her song.
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