Honor Miners, Not Machines that Take Their Jobs
(Keep the Mountains, Remove the Plaque!)

October 21, 2002
Photos by Vivian Stockman

Statements and Speeches from the Protest
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Opening statement delivered by Donna Halstead
Bill McCabe's Speech (Citizens Coal Council)
Donna Price's Speech ( Coal River Mountain Watch)
Closing statement delivered by Vivian Stockman, OVEC

Opening statement delivered by Donna Halstead

Honor Miners Not Machines

Environmental and citizens groups fully support a monument that honors coal miners. However, the WV Coal Association has not been forthcoming with the general public about the extent of their plans. The base of the statue includes plaques which serve to move the Coal Association's public relation's efforts off billboards and onto the State Capitol grounds. One plaque features the controversial and legally questionable practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. Another proposed plaque may include wording that is a virtual coal industry ad: "In recognition of the men and women who have devoted their careers to providing the state, country and world with low-cost household and industrial energy."

In 1999, the Legislature passed a resolution authorizing the placement of a statue of a West Virginia Coal Miner on the State Capitol grounds, noting that this statue would serve "as a lasting memorial to the many who have perished as a result of coal mining in the state." No where in the resolution is it stated that the monument will include a plaque featuring the draglines of mountaintop removal. Most importantly, nowhere does the monument, as it is now configured, pay tribute to those who have lost their lives.

If we are to believe that the WV Coal Association wants to honor miners, as well as honor the Legislature's resolution, then let the miner statue be all that is on this monument. If the plaques so far placed upon this monument are to remain on display in the most prominent public location in the state, then the public should have input concerning what they depict. If the WV Coal Association says these plaques depict the history of mining, then the plaques must tell the whole story.

The whole story would include mention of : --miners' lives lost to mine wars, tragedy and lung disease; --miners' jobs lost to the machines depicted on these plaques and to union-busting coal company tactics; --communities, forests and streams lost to mountaintop removal; --surface and groundwater forever destroyed or heavily polluted by valley fills, sludge impoundments and blackwater spills; --democracy lost to political corruption.

If this PUBLIC monument is to truly honor miners and tell the history of the coal industry, these tragedies must be included. Otherwise, let's just stick with the statue of the miner and include a plaque that is a carefully-worded memorial to those who have lost their lives to the coal industry. Let's remove the coal industry ads and the bronze memorials to its scofflaw behavior from this, the most public place in West Virginia.

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Bill McCabe's Speech (Citizens Coal Council)

Bill Raney and Chris Hamilton would have you believe that citizen and environmental groups are against miners. That is simply not true. History shows that the companies represented by Raney, Hamilton and the WV Coal Association are the ones against miners. They are the ones responsible for 100,000 deaths, for loss of jobs and environment, for consistent criminal behaviour that is frequently ignored by regulatory agencies and politicians because they function as coal company stooges.

Now, when I think of the coal miner, I am inspired. I think of the difficult and dangerous conditions all miners work in. I think of the courage of the early miners who literally fought a war for the basic right to organize and earn enough to feed and house their family. I think of John L. Lewis, and Mother Jones, and Bill Blizzard and all the other miners who put the welfare of their co-workers ahead of their own. I think of the thousands smothered every day from the horrors of Black Lung, and I think it is time that WV and it's politicians honor those part of mining history. I think it is time to praise and thank the miners and their union for teaching us about solidarity, sacrifice, and struggle.

A statue to miners - YES

A statue to cheap energy and machines - HELL NO!!!!

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Donna Price's Speech (Coal River Mountain Watch)

Environmental and citizens groups fully support a monument that honors coal miners.

And here stands the beginning of a monument that was intended and commissioned to that purpose…a lasting memorial that would stand in this place for generations, a tribute to people who lived and worked and died as coal miners.

People like Joseph Arthur Broughman, who was 41 years old when he died in an explosion in the Eccles No. 5 mine in April, 1914.

Or Raymond Lewis Stover, crushed to death in a Fayette County mine in February 1949. He was 29 years old.

When people look at this memorial, they should think of miners.

Miners like William Howard Keck, a West Virginia coal miner for more than 30 years before he died of black lung disease in 1960.

They should think of people like Howard Deel, one of 78 men who perished in the Farmington mine explosion 1n 1968.

Looking at this monument, they should remember these and thousands more who sacrificed so much to the production of what the WV Coal Association likes to call "low-cost energy."

To speak of "low-cost energy" fails to account for the hundreds of miles of West Virginia streams buried under valley fills. To speak of "low cost energy" fails to allow for the homes lost to flooding, fails to mention the destruction of water sources, of mountains, of entire coalfield communities.

Who pays that cost?

Who bears the cost of the thousands of jobs lost to the machines depicted on this plaque?

And under no circumstances should ANY coal miner's memorial EVER be associated with the idea of "low-cost energy." To speak of low-cost energy cheapens the memories of the men I spoke of.

Let's not allow it. Let's not allow the intended purpose of this monument to be misrepresented. Let's honor miners -- not machines. Let's honor people -- not "low cost energy."

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Closing statement delivered by Vivian Stockman, OVEC

If this public monument is to truly honor miners and tell the history of the coal industry, let the whole, unsanitized story be told. Otherwise, let's just stick with the statue of the miner and include a plaque that is a carefully-worded memorial honoring those who have lost their lives to the coal industry. Let's remove the coal industry ads and the bronze memorials to its scofflaw behavior from this, the most public place in West Virginia. Now we will deliver our letter to the Capitol Building Commission and to Governor Bob Wise.

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