mtr, cancer, fourwheelin’, hell-raisin’, and harlancounty

I met a guy from Cumberland, KY yesterday while swimming on top of Pine Mountain. He worked for Arch Minerals for 32 years and had 4 different bouts of cancer, all stemming from his lungs. The company wouldn’t pay his medical bills, saying that it had nothing to do with working underground (if only this was the only time this happened) but he said that Arch is doing him a favor now— they’ve gotten a “re-permit” to mine 400 yards from his house, going 200 ft deeper than their original 400 ft. dig. They were really “kind” and came in and photographed his home’s foundation and inner structures to document the house’s condition before the horrific blasting they’ll be doing.  He’s lived in Harlan County all his life, worked for Arch, and raised a family here. But he said he’s moving away with his son this fall when they start blasting and he  can’t resell his home. He’s probably just going to walk away from it…

Now, admittedly, this guy kept using vile racial language to talk about his neighbors that were in the same boat. He talked about loving the Lord Jesus with one breath and hating %$#$%s with the rest. He wasn’t a perfect guy by any stretch, but he was a person. He was off four-wheeling for the day, carrying two pistols that he was shooting until we walked up, which I thought was pretty cool myself, but kind of freaked out my friends that were with me (and live in the city). I’ve gotten pretty used to cool people who might appear “scary” to city-folk who don’t know any folks that ride four wheelers and shoot guns for fun, who end up being really really cool and will sit and talk to you for hours about whatever, not rushing off to go somewhere…

But here’s a person that has lived underneath the thumb coal industry his entire life. He’s not perfect. His racist hate-spewing language helped dispel that possibility pretty quickly. But it was a good reminder that there is good and bad in all of us, and yet we deserve justice all the same. It’s nice to think of all the allies we have and that we are fighting for justice with them, but I think it’s important that we fight for justice for folks like this guy too. (and of course, his neighbors that he hates so bad) and not get caught up in this idea of a “noble and deserving” Appalachian people. Appalachia has seen this concept of the “noble poor” drawing in martyrs to serve here for decades (a type I never want to be), but it would be best not to repeat that trend when coming to work and/or organize here. It’s no fun to be disillusioned like that, accepting someone to be “perfect” and meet the romanticized ideals that you project on them… It does nobody any good, you or them. It’s a detterent for real conversation, real exchange, or growth.

People here are people. Just like everyone else. Some good, some rotten, some lovely, some not. But they all deserve clean water and intact mountains with some kind of hope for providing for their families…. even child molesters, wife-beaters, crooked preachers and crooked politicians.

The guy’s racist spewing sure made it harder to find the good in him, but I know it’s there. There is good in all of us.

It’s so easy to walk away from people spewing hate like that, but I’d encourage myself and anyone else to just plow on through it, as long as you don’t feel like you are in enminent danger. We didn’t try to change his mind (Which was SO hard to not try to do) but rather express that we didn’t really understand what he meant because we had had different experiences, and then just let him keep talking. I learned a lot from him yesterday, and I am glad we met him.

I guess I learned some tolerance for a racist, because I know that his life wasn’t easy, that his community is struggling, and he is enduring environmental racism that’s directed towards mountain whites (and of course mountain black communities too).

I think it’s why I respect my friend Chris, who’s a public defender and represents the worst kinds of people, because he believes they should have a chance too.

So I hate this system that nurtures racism and hate. It’s hard to encourage someone to see beyond color of people’s skins when the mountains are being blasted away all around him.

 

Zeb Mtn Action Day, July 20, 2008

 

Dave Cooper at the Zeb Mountain Rally

Sunday, I hopped in the car with Paco and drove to Elk Valley, Tennessee, for the march on Zeb Mountain. I was greeted by about 100 other activists and concerned citizens that are upset about the state of affairs with mountain top removal mining (ahem, i mean surface mining in TN, since they deny that they do MTR) and want to make a statement to the corporations, local government, and really, the world about how stupid it is for us to be destroying the watersheds and forests of Appalachia. Watersheds that we drink from, and need to drink from in the future.

 

Root Digger and woman extraordinaire, Carol Judy from Eagan, TN

I was humbled by the voices of so many other coalfield residents like myself (a new-to-the-coalfields but generations-long appalachian person) who are angry about what’s being done to their communities. Carol Judy is one of these that humbles me, encourages me, and fills me with peace, knowing that there are so many respectable, kind, loving, and intelligent people fighting mountain top removal. Being around people like Carol and our friend Vicki, who also showed up with her granddaughter (granddaughter below)

 

Vicki's Granddaughter's Brilliant Sign

I too, am an appalachian, not a rich activist (I think a “Rich activist” would need to make above 30k a year, but who am I to know?), but would say that I am an activist. Too many meetings and rallys and protests under my belt to say otherwise.

As a rally, this one was good. The cops were nice, (isn’t that strange to write) the sun was shining, and those that were arrested were arrested by choice/conscience. Shouldn’t they all go that way? Here’s a lil’ ole video clip from the action…

 

Bon Voyage, coming soon to a girl near you!

Okay, I’m leaving my job. I’m leaving my family. I’m leaving HOME. I’m leaving this monstrosity of a life that I have here in Aville, and trading it in for some hopes and ideas and anticipation for life in the Kentucky coal fields.

And I think that I’m okay with this. In fact, I am pretty sure that I am purt-near excited.

PM is an amazing place. There are great people that work there, and great people that have worked there in the past. It’s in a totally different place than my blue ridge mountain home of generations (spanning centuries), but it’s in a place that warrants attention and energy.

I guess one of the harder things about all of this is that I am genuinely sad to leave my work at the Hill. There are so many projects that will be left unfinished, so many ideas and dreams that I had about things here left unfufilled. I never really thought that I would leave, I never thought that I would follow through with my desires for wandering or exploring other places, I was convinced that I wanted to be HOME, where I could have a family, be with my family, and raise our future kid in consistency and comfort in our ancestral homelands. I had not thought that I could be enticed enough to leave that for anything.

However, the PM is an amazing place. The opportunity to do meaningful work with my sweetheart cannot be undervalued. The opportunity to work under a capable and wise director cannot be underated. The gift of working in a place with wonderful forests to explore cannot be disregarded. H County is an amazing place chock full of real life examples of the complicated relationship between land and people, energy companies and local residents, and the many hardships for people and their environment because of the extraction of natural gas and coal mining, especially mountain top removal. I am excited about going to PM and meeting people in the community as well as the school— people who have interesting stories and struggles to share and people that I know we can really learn from.

I don’t want to go up there with some convoluted “do-gooder” attitude that several people have tried to pawn off on me when I’ve shared the news about our move. I know what roles (both the good and bad) that outsiders play in a community. I don’t have grandious plans of “fixing” H County. I don’t want people there to lump me in that category of furriner/do-gooder. I know that it’s probably inevitable that that will happen, but my intention is to go and participate. I am excited to share anything that I know that is of value to folks or that can create more efficiency, but I am also really excited to learn various things from the great people that live up there.

Outside of Caretta, WV, I met a wonderful woman at the Muncy Cabin who I plan to meet back up with this spring to learn more edible/medicinal plants that she knew. There are numerous musicians and ballad singers that I want to sit knee to knee with and talk/learn about their music. I am excited about the quilters that get together at PM. I am eager to meet the school children that come, and excited to learn from all the staff there.

 

Mountain Top Removal

  Here’s an image for those of you curious about what exactly Mountain Top Removal is. This photograph was taken on a recent flyover of MTR sites with Southwings, at Mountain Justice Summer Camp. The photographer, Liz Veazey, has a whole slew of photos on her flickr site.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the definition of mountaintop removal is:
“Mountaintop removal/valley fill is a mining practice where the tops of mountains are removed, exposing the seams of coal. Mountaintop removal can involve removing 500 feet or more of the summit to get at buried seams of coal. The earth from the mountaintop is then dumped in the neighboring valleys.”

From the EPA’s Website: Why Should We Be Concerned?
Mountaintop removal began on a small scale in West Virginia in the late 1960s. Beginning in the 1990s it became the dominant coal-mining technique for several reasons:
*Americans’ demand for electricity has jumped 70 percent in the past 20 years;
*The demand for clean-burning, low-sulfur coal by utilities shot up after Congress passed the 1990 Clean Air Act; and
*The development of massive “drag line” equipment has made it possible to shear off mountaintops to get at multiple seams of coal.

The impact of mountaintop removal on nearby communities is devastating. Dynamite blasts needed to splinter rock strata are so strong they crack the foundations and walls of houses. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others. In many coalfield communities, the purity and availability of drinking water are keen concerns. Blasting and shearing mountains have added to the damage done to underground aquifers by deep mines.

Appalachia’s waterways are among the regions’s most valuable tourist attractions. Canoeists and fishermen come for the pleasures of rivers meandering under umbrellas of green or dancing in sunlight. The valley fills bury streambeds and contaminate streams with sediment from the mines.The forests covering the Mid-Atlantic region are unique – the largest contiguous temperate forest in the world. The land is rich with wildlife and native plants. But in mountaintop removal areas, the native plants are being destroyed, and the wildlife chased away.

~From the EPA’s Website.

 

Mountain Justice Summer, 2007

So I spent Wednesday night to Sunday up at Narrow Ridge Earth Literacy Center, camping out with tons of other folks involved with Mountain Justice Summer 2007. It was a wonderful four nights, five days with a pretty diverse group of people. It was amazing how well everybody got along. We had lots of workshops and trainings on mountain top removal issues, climate change, direct action, non violence/civil disobedience, media work, mountain music, plant identification, Appalachian history, etc. It was wonderful! There were wonderful impromptu swims in a nearby TVA lake (we were near Washburn, Tennessee), and the temperature was JUST right. We had magnificent food all week, (thanks to Joe and Scott, field cooks extraordinaire) and great music (For the Long Haul, Mountain Women Rising, Jake Legged Stompers, and the talent show wonders). I met so many wonderful young people (and older folks too) who were driven with strong minds and hearts for the mountains of Appalachia. I was inspired at the eagerness and willingness by the group, and motivated by the critique and dialogue concerning the movement.I have upped my commitment to working to end mountain top removal as a result of this past week. I am hoping to continue to find creative ways to bring mountain top removal issues to the forefront of the minds of those I interact with, and hope to find new mediums to deliver this message. I also am looking forward to serving MJS Virginia is multiple ways this summer. Some great photographs, taken by Liz Veazey, can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/mountainjustice/

I will post on the CCC/KKK rally we attended in Knoxville at a later date. I’m still processing all the emotions I had in confronting the racism and fear that I am insulated from in my everyday life. It was very disturbing.