Coal.

[Withywindle]

I grew up in a coal region. The interstate cuts of my childhood looked like this:




I grew up in a union household. I grew up hearing about Sid Hatfield:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sid_Hatfield

Mother Jones:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Harris_Jones

And the Battle of Blair Mountain:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Mountain


Now, the union household I grew up in was law enforcement (Park Ranger, devoted to preserving natural beauty, my dad's job having been created during the New Deal), but we were no fans of Felts or Pinkerton thugs (akin to Blackwater today) and I was taught to respect working people, like coal miners.




But I was also taught also never to compromise when some people decided they wanted short-term jobs for a few people in the current generation even though it would leave environmental trauma for millennia to come.




Newsflash: If we had the political will, none of this rape would be necessary. Obviously, with our collective money and intelligence and the "entrepreneurial spirit" that Repugs love to use in rhetoric but will really crush down as soon as it threatens corporate profits, we could have found a way to harness solar and wind power to run all our important stuff decades ago. Why haven't we done so yet?

Because the old-grade energy companies value their short-term profits above the lives of their workers and the ancient vitality of our land. 'Twas ever thus. I have so much sympathy for the Appalachian people I grew up with, because those coal companies were down in their business in the late 19th century, taking the rights to the minerals under their land for a relative pittance and a signing of a contract most of them couldn't read.

There is nothing "clean" about coal. It caused the toxic smoke that nearly choked New York and London to death last century, and it causes the tragedies I've talked about above.

I'm posting this now because of this thread in LBN: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4333349

At least 6 people, maybe more, have died for coal tonight. 6 people too many.

[EFerrari]

1. K&R

There is no such thing as clean ooal, no matter who says it.

[Withywindle]

2. Thanks!

It's close to my heart. This is my homeland. And coal has NEVER done anyone in this region any good in the long term.

[EFerrari]

11. I only know that beautiful country from snapshots.

We have to stop this.

[Withywindle]

14. You really ought to come visit.

The land is SO incredibly beautiful and rugged. Mostly vertical. Black bears and bobcats.

My father's specialty is plants, mosses, and lichens - wherever we go on the road, the car comes to a screeching halt often because he's seen something interesting on the rocks. But I'm a birder so I always want to hold out for the golden eagle mating season. I also love old-time music SO MUCH. Whenever I go back to visit, I always scan the local papers for the fiddle jams.

It's MY HOME. Most of my favorite childhood memories involve clawing my way upward into the mountains through the rhododenron caves.

This land is your land, this land is my land...and I always knew, even as a child, that it was here long before I was born, and all my acceptance of death is based on knowing that the land I love will be there long after I'm gone.

[Withywindle]

16. Also I must say...

when I was tubing on the New River as a kid, I think I was deflowered by a rock. :blush:

[EFerrari]

19. That's probably consistent with most young women's experience.

lol

:yoiks:

[Withywindle]

21. It might've happened on horseback too when I was in grade school.

:shrug:

[elleng]

33. Crying now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN86d0CdgHQ

[Petrushka]

35. Thank you for the link, elleng. I haven't seen any hills for seven months now, and . . .

. . . I'm missin' 'em.

[elleng]

36. You're welcome, Petrushka.

Where are you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbWDG3LU4bc

[Petrushka]

37. Flatland . . .

. . . in central Ohio.

Thank you for the second link also! I've bookmarked it to enjoy
more fully after I've given my eyes a bit of rest.

Hugs!

[Greyhound]

3. But "clean coal" is the NewBlue3rdWay Coal! It's Coal that's Cool.

:puke:
:kick: & R

[Withywindle]

4. Thanks!

Fuck coal. Let the dead dinosaurs lie. It's the 21st century; we can definitely do better.

[Petrushka]

18. Psst!

"Fuck coal." ?? How is that possible?
(Curious how these young'ns seem to 've acquired a real taste
for that bar of Ivory soap.)

:spank:



BTW: In the Age when coal beds were laid down, dinosaurs
didn't yet exist.

I know . . . because I was there!

[Withywindle]

20. Yeah, no shit, I was being hyperbolic.

I know coal is pre-Cambrian at best.

And yes, I shouldn't have said "fuck coal," because it always bugs me on some level when people say "fuck you!" as an insult...fucking is something really fun, most adults do it and enjoy it at some point, and wishing fucking upon someone really ought to be a blessing, not an insult.

So instead, what I really mean is, "Annihilate coal! Wipe out all the weaknesses in human nature that still superstitiously and ignorantly believe it's worth money and lives! Grind it back into the ground where it belongs, and never let anyone, not even a teenager who could make more money at McFeedbag, ever have to regard it as important! Let future generations treat it as what it is: a ribbon of black rock in the mountainside, of no particular value."

[leftstreet]

5. K&R

Thank you for putting this together!

[Withywindle]

6. You're welcome and thanks!

I think coal ought to swiftly become a dead industry.

I feel it so hard now because of the miners who died today. I don't think they died in vain - they were just trying to make an honest living and feed their families. I blame the companies who took shameless advantage of WV poverty and offered them false hope.

[Skittles]

7. I won coal in a bingo game when I was 12

in England. Yup.

[Withywindle]

8. I have weird coal-made folk-art bullshit scuptures from a WV souvenir shop.

That's all it's good for, IMO.

[Petrushka]

9. News reports say 25 miners were killed in a West Virginia underground longwall mine . . .

. . . but rescue operations have been suspended for now.

So, for the time being, when it comes to the kind of surface devastation shown
in the photo you posted of a mountaintop removal mine site, I want to shrug ans say,
"So?" But, I won't. Not this time.

Instead, I think I'll direct you to a website where you'll find some
indication of what has been happening in northern Appalachia since at least
the early 70s where longwall mining and intentional subsidence are a daily
occurence. If nothing else, I suppose you could call longwall's damaging and
destructive effects on water sources, homes, communities, people's way-of-life, etc.,
"collateral damage":

http://www.citizenscoalcouncil.org/blog/


Edited to add:
P.S.
I'm a West Virginia native . . . spent my first 74 years there . . . 26 of them above a longwall
mine that destroyed our natural water sources and supples as well as our house and barn.
I come from a family of coal miners . . . one grandpap blown away in a mine explosion and the
other grandpap coughed until his heart couldn't take the effect of black lung anymore. I'll be
praying for those miners and their families in downstate West Virginia.

[Withywindle]

10. 7 deaths are confirmed right now, as I post...

So I'll base my posts on that right now. If you don't mind.

The picture I posted of the "surface" devastation goes way further than that. The outrunning from that "mine" poisons the water for countless people and animals.

Yes, I condemn it. Freely. I'm from SWVA, and I want the mountains and forests I loved as a child to be there for future generations. Sue me. I want us to harness the same kind of innovative "reach for the stars" energy that President Kennedy invoked to get us to the moon....it finally shook out the summer I was born, 6 years after he died. That's the whole point. Do we have the smarts and spirit to invest in hopes and needs that will take place in the future?

If you want to make a pro-coal case, please refrain from linking to corporate-owned blogs, OK?

[Petrushka]

13. Pro-coal?? Corporate-owned blogs?? Are you serious??

The Citizens Coal Council is a citizen action group formed back in 1987, when
the Surface Mining Act was 10 years old. It was formed by citizens from 18 coal
mining states and 3 native tribes. I know that much because I was there.
We went to DC that year and took part in Congressional Oversite Hearings.
Anyway . . .


Here's a link to the CNN story saying 25 miners died in that downstate explosion:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/04/06/west.virginia.mine.explosion/index.html?eref=rss_topstories&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_topstories+%28RSS%3A+Top+Stories%29

[Withywindle]

15. I'm not impressed by a site calling itself "citizens coal council" that only has two entries on its

main page, sorry. (Oh, and 2 others in the archive - August '09 and May '09.) Weak. Whoever's getting paid to write for that blog is badly slacking.

I'm watching the coverage on TV. Right now's saying 12 miners confirmed dead. We'll wait and see what the numbers are in the end when it shakes out.

My point still stands. use of coal for energy NEEDS TO STOP. NOW. It's not efficient, it kills people, it destroys land, and we have the power to do much, much better. If you're telling the truth about the activism you did in '87, well, good for you--but still, that was almost 30 years ago, and the whole point of futurist-America is finding better energy sources than the old ways.

[Petrushka]

22. Here's the URL for the Citizens Coal Council's main website --->

http://www.citizenscoalcouncil.org/

FWIW: My coalfield citizen activism ended recently---within the past couple
of years---since I became a widow. Though I live with my daughter and her
family in Ohio now, I remain a member of such groups as the Ohio Valley
Environmental Coalition in downstate West Virginia; and I make donations to
coalfield citizen activist groups in West Virginia and elsewhere.

And . . . in case you haven't heard: Coal is used for more than energy. Have you
never seen a "coal tree"? Here's the one I remember from the fifth grade in a
2-room West (by God!) Virginia schoolhouse:

http://www.coalcampmemories.com/coaltree.html



Hang in there!


:fistbump:

[Withywindle]

23. Yeah that's nice.

How does anything on the front page of that site contradict what I've said?

I want the coal industry to STOP. I've said that all along. It destroys the land and kills people, for gain that is very short-term. (and in Appalachian Mountain terms, a few hundred years is VERY short-term.)

I'm from SW VA, born 1969. The emergency footage on CNN right now is full of places I recognize (My first love, in 1985, was from SW WV).

I am sorry for your loss.

What I care about most of all is protecting the land. It's not just sentimentality: it's the fact that these mountains are millions of years old, and we have no right to undo all that creation (if you believe in God, as I do) for brief material gain.

And supposedly we are the Can-Do nation. That's the American Dream, right? We built a trans-continental railroad in the 1880s. We put a man on the moon in the 1960s. Obviously, non-toxic energy sources should be child's play for us, right? RIGHT?

[Petrushka]

24. Since you live in Illinois . . .

. . . you might be interested to know there are three Citizen Coal Council member-groups fighting against
longwall mining in Illinois . . . member-groups that also help other groups fighting mountaintop removal mining.

For the names of those three groups, see:

http://www.citizenscoalcouncil.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=19&Itemid=19


(**sigh**) Looks like that link isn't working. So, go back to the blog and scroll down to the link for more information
about the "Longwall Mining Issue section" . . . where you'll find the names of the groups fighting in Illinois: Citizens Organizing
Project; Citizens Against Longwall Mining; and Illinois Citizens Opposed to Longwall Mining, which has a website at:

http://www.ilcolm.com/

Note: Weird! That CCC link is working now. :shrug:


You say you "...want the coal industry to STOP."? Well, ranting on DU ain't gonna hack it, m' dear. You must
want it enough to work with others to do something about it. For starters, you might like to join the
Citizens Coal Council or one of their member-groups in Illinois or elsewhere.


Anyway . . .
Nothing on the front page of that CCC website contradicts what you've said; and I know "It's not just sentimentality"
that makes you care so much about protecting the land . . . because my husband and I, too, wanted to protect the land and,
also (most of all) our natural water sources and supplies from irresponsible mining practices. We participated actively
until serious medical problems prevented it . . . because we know that the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act---
also known as "the people's law"---cannot be made to work without citizen participation.


(Oh, no . . . look at the time. I should have been in bed hours and hours ago!)

Have a nice day!

[Withywindle]

25. Yup, I live in Illinois now...

...like a lot of Appalachian people who moved out when they were young because there were no frakkin' jobs at home. I admit I was part of the brain-drain, and I went to college in Ohio, and picked the nearest huge city that I could afford to live in, which was Chicago. Been here for 16 years now.

Thanks for the links. :hi: G'night!

[Withywindle]

12. Saw your edit, and I respect it.

Your first 74 years? How old ARE you?

But that's not the point. I pray for a time when neither men nor mountains have to die to put money in the pockets of corporations run by people who don't live there and don't give a shit. If you REALLY know your coalfield history, you'd know we're living through the 1890s-1920s period all over again, and the promises of jobs and money for land-death are just as false as they were 100 years ago.

[Withywindle]

17. And frankly, I have to say, why did Appalachia go for Hillary in the primaries?

It's not JUST racism--although yes, frankly, that is a factor.

It's the fact that she was the last Democratic politician to really come out into the hills and kiss babies and shake hands since RFK.

[Petrushka]

26. You grew up hearing about the Battle of Blair Mountain . . .

. . . so, before I hit the sack, here's a URL for
what's happening re: Blair Mountain in the 21st Century
(just in case you take a notion to help 'em battle):

http://www.friendsofblairmountain.org/index.html


Hugs!

[Withywindle]

27. I've been lurking at that site for a long time

and posted it here a few times in threads that were relevant. Thanks for boosting the signal again, though.

[Petrushka]

28. Good for you! My husband and I hiked up that mountain back in '92 or '93 . . .

. . . I think we were all on coal-company property
but we wanted to get a really close look at the
mountaintop removal in progress behind Jimmy
Weekly's place. That hike just about did me in
back then and it'd more than likely finish me off
if I tried to do it again today.

Oh! And! Did I tell you I like the photos you posted?



:*

[Withywindle]

29. Nope, but thank you!

Like I said a few posts up, going tubing on the New River was ecstasy when I was a little girl.

The pic of the Prince, WV train station is where my parents pick me up when I go home to this day. (It's way closer to them than any airport, so I take the overnight Amtrak trip from Chicago for their convenience)

I want to defend those mountains with my life. They were the first place I ever got a sense of mortality and the divine.

[Petrushka]

30. These people can use your help, too, I'll betcha --->

http://www.ohvec.org/




:patriot:

[Zomby Woof]

31. Thank you Withywindle

I always appreciate your insight on this issue.

My great-grandfather was a coal miner, albeit in Wyoming and not Appalachia. But the risks and hardships were just the same.

The changes we must make are more urgent now than at anytime in our lives.

[Greyhound]

32. Kicking for exposure. n/t

[Lugnut]

34. I'm a coal miner's daughter, granddaughter and wife.

Thank you for your post.