It’s so quiet.

That’s one of the things you notice while standing in the debris field at the site of the former Color-Tex plant off U.S. 29 near the Davidson County line.

It’s amazing to think about how the site, for decades, was filled daily with hundreds of workers who were part of a thriving textile plant in a region where the textile industry was king.

Whole communities were supported by the textile industry.

And it’s amazing how fast it all ended when companies went out of business or shipped production overseas, leaving cities and towns with abandoned industrial sites.

It’s a common sight in the Southeast and other places, like the Midwest, across the country. Drive through a town, any town, and chances are you’ll pass a huge factory building that looks like it hasn’t been used in years. It’s almost like the buildings become invisible to people who live in the towns. Or maybe people choose not to look because it fuels a sense of anger or sadness.

In the case of the Color-Tex property, Spencer and the rest of Rowan County were dragged along for years by hopes of an upscale development with a racetrack at the site. But it never happened, never even came close.

And the community again was left with an “eyesore,” as Spencer Mayor Jody Everhart put it. Only this time the eyesore is also a big mess because the textile plant was demolished, but the debris from the demolition wasn’t picked up.

Sacrifice zones — it’s a term used to describe places like the Color-Tex property where economic disinvestment has left a ruin. And, in some parts of the country, there are whole communities that are sacrifice zones.

The town of Spencer, which annexed the Color-Tex property around 10 years ago, doesn’t have the money to clean up the site — it’s likely the cost would be in the millions. The property owner doesn’t have the money. And the county doesn’t have the money.

So the bricks, wood and other debris at the site just sit there.

Over the years, maybe people simply stopped paying attention. Everhart said the town hardly hears complaints about the mess from residents.

Years have passed and nothing has been done. And what can be done without financial backing — someone has to pay and someone has to get paid before a cleanup will happen.

The site is a product of capitalism. And capitalism isn’t very good at cleaning up the messes it creates — especially if there’s no profit to be earned.

If anything positive is going to happen at the site of the former textile mill, the process will have to start within the community. Citizens will have to demand action, and elected leaders and officials will have to come together to find solutions.

Sitting and waiting for help to arrive, or ignoring the problem, won’t lead to results. All of those bricks aren’t going to just disappear.

Sometimes, the best help is self-help.