Comments on: The West Virginia Hills

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:46:07 +0000

Oops… can’t post pictures in comments. OK, I’ll just link to it:

http://mamallama.smugmug.com/photos/291850223_oyqLc-M.jpg

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:45:29 +0000

By: Bryan Stealey

Bryan Stealey — Thu, 08 May 2008 01:51:25 +0000

Welcome, Rose!

By: Rose Hammell

Rose Hammell — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:07:50 +0000

I’ve lived in WV (Parkersburg) for twenty years now and saw MTR for the first time last year in May. The schools don’t teach about the Coal Wars never mind mentioning the devastation that has been going on with surface mining since the late sixties early seventies. Somehow big coal and political agents have to be hit where it hurts the most. For Big Coal it is their wallet for politicians their reputation. The biggest thing I can think of to do is to boycott the Friends of Coal Bowl WVU/Marshall football game– and get a whole heck of a lot of other people to do it with you—-loss of big money for supporters, Manchins baby (only thing he has done in office), and lots of media attention—–West Virginia needs to jump on the trend towards clean energy–research and produce solar systems, methane collection from landfills, etc—and teach coal miners those technologies–If Blankenship was slapped with a couple of real fines the EPA might be able to pay people to do some of the clean up of the messes his skirting of environmental protection laws has produced.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:17:10 +0000

mama, can i come out of the corner now? i’ve been standing here for a while now.

By: Bryan Stealey

Bryan Stealey — Tue, 06 May 2008 17:45:05 +0000

Eric, the DM doesn’t sit around and make sweeping judgments about people like that. You don’t know her or her political beliefs well enough to have that feeling with any kind of accuracy. I do, and you’re wrong.

As for your idea about a write-in campaign: That’s another form of bringing awareness, so I don’t understand what you mean when you say “and don’t say ‘continue to bring awareness,’ because the people who need to be made aware, are aware.”

Effectively bringing awareness results in people taking action. Whether it’s posting a video showing how you feel about it, or getting out and talking to people who are directly affected by the toxic byproducts of MTR, or writing letters, or creating or signing petitions, or getting on a picket line with other people and trying to let our politicians know how we feel, or writing a protest song — or initiating a write-in-vote campaign designed to let our leaders know we disapprove of MTR — that’s all bringing awareness.

Things won’t change unless enough people demand that they do, and bringing real awareness and understanding is the only way to make people care enough to demand it, in my opinion.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:26:02 +0000

if our last two governor’s were republican, I have a feeling it would be a democrat/republican issue.

By: TheDalaiMama

TheDalaiMama — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:49:27 +0000

I don’t really think this is a democrat/republican issue, as it seems neither party in our state really cares about doing anything about this. I’d vote for damn near anyone who was willing to try to ban this practice our state. Apparently, Tennessee is in the process of banning surface/mountaintop removal. Mining the coal the traditional, underground way would create many more jobs. You should read the article I linked above, if you haven’t already.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:34:48 +0000

this is obviously a hot button issue among a lot of West Virginians.

so what do we do about it?

and don’t say “continue to bring awareness,” because the people who need to be made aware, are aware.

do we continue to vote for democrat governors and representatives? seeing as how long we’ve had them, the problem only seems to persist, if not become bigger.

do we make it a point to not shop at the “town centers” that are built on the strip mines?

i guess it depends on if you want to ban the practice totally or limit it to certain areas. keep in mind, if it is banned totally, a significant amount of our coal reserves will be cut.

this is one of those tough issues b/c you can’t use the free market against them. you can refuse to buy from WalMart, but it’s not like we can not buy don blankenship’s coal. it all goes in one big burner.

i say we write in “No More MTR.” Manchin and the rest are going to win anyway, but if you can gather enough support for a candidate under a specific topic, such as “No More MTR,” it may send a signal. Ultimately, we put these people in power.

What’s the definition of insanity again?

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:42:04 +0000

Wow… that gave me chills!
I don’t see how anyone can know about this and not be outraged.