To OVEC members:

Here is a letter to tell you what tragedy we had on Island Creek in Logan County. We have had so much tragedy here that I cannot begin to tell it all. I wanted to tell you that the clear cutting and mountaintop removal has now caused major flooding. They are clear-cutting and doing mountaintop removal and it is wrong.

My grandma and grandpa lived in these valleys before Massey Coal Company. They want us out of here now. And now it seems they are going to wash us out. All this in the name of money.

I do not believe that government is looking out for us. They are in bed with the coal companies. I cannot understand why they keep permitting these mountaintop removal jobs even with so much tragedy.

Our senators and representatives need to come down here and see how bad things are. This is wrong, and they still don’t do anything. Denvir Mitchell is going to do something about it, ‘cause when they get me fired up I’ll go after them like a missile.

It’s a shame that high officials care more about the companies than the lives of the people. What’s more important, the lives of the people or the almighty dollar? It’s going to stop. We will stop it. We need to ask why they don’t care about the lives of the people.

You can’t blame this on God. Blame it on who’s doing it. Massey Coal and all of the other coal corporations.

It’s a shame that the government is wasting money overseas to keep a war going and there are people suffering here. The government needs to put their money here at home when people are living in tragedy. They can fix the creeks.

It’s a shame to let our own country go down and then spend all this money overseas on war. American people are getting tired of having the government lead them around by the nose and tell them what to do. We are going to stand up to the government and tell them what to do.

You cannot build sludge ponds in these valleys safely. They will always deteriorate over the years.

Denvir Mitchell, Rossmore, Logan County, WV