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Winds of Change Newsletter,
September 2005 See sidebar for table of contents
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| This photo says it all - mountaintop
removal hurts our children, their children, their children’s
children … Below, just a few of the huge crowd at the July 30
rally in Charleston. photos by Jesse Mwaura and Vicky
Mattson |
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Hey Joe - Can You Hear Us NOW?
King Coal was not happy. His line that there are only 12 whackos who oppose mountaintop removal was exposed as one of his many lies when, on July 30, more than 400 people crowded the West Virginia Statehouse steps to tell Governor Manchin: No More Mountaintop Removal!
Worse, none of the rally-goers would take King Coal’s Dirty Money. If only the people were more like politicians, then they would take that Coal Cash and they would stop
Speaking Out. But, no.
Despite the heat wave, people showed up from all over West Virginia and beyond to
Speak Out at this rally organized by the Friends of the Mountains (a coalition which includes OVEC, Coal River Mountain Watch, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Coalfield Sustainability Project, the WV Chapter of Sierra Club and others), with help from Mountain Justice Summer.
(article continues below)
“You guys are preaching the gospel of justice,” Rev. Jim Lewis told the crowd in the rally’s opening speech. “This greed will not buy us off,” he said as he tore up some King Coal Cash (see
below). “Greed will not deliver us into wholeness and healthiness and happiness, particularly for the children of our state. What they’re doing is wrong.”
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| King Coal clings to his Dirty Money Coal
Cash and his “I Obey King Coal” puppet in the likeness of DEP
chief Stephanie Timmermeyer. These were the only things that
comforted him at the July 30 rally, where hundreds of people
told him how disgusted they are with his destruction and lies.
Photo by Dave Saville |
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With poignant speeches from affected coalfield residents, excellent original music (See the lyrics to Tonya Adkin’s song on page 10), Save Our Mountains cheers from the Radical Cheerleaders and the Ms. Mountain Top Removal Beauty Pageant hosted by King Coal, the rally was a hit with the crowd.
Did the message hit Governor Joe Manchin? If it did, it had to come through layers of coal industry campaign contributions: OVEC’s Janet Keating* reported to the crowd the latest figures on how much campaign cash “our” politicians get from the coal industry. (See “The Real Friends of Coal”)
With ever-increasing numbers of folks Speaking Out, the message to end mountaintop removal is definitely getting louder.
It’s getting harder and harder, despite the Coal Cash, for politicians to turn a deaf ear. Coal River Mountain Watch volunteer organizer Bo Webb expressed the thoughts of many assembled: “Why is the DEP allowing our mountains to be destroyed for the short-term economic gain of a few? We hope we now have a governor in place that has a vision for the future of all West Virginia, one who has the courage to break the chains of the coal barons who continue to rape our mountains and destroy our communities.”
Speaker Maria Gunnoe, of Bob White in Boone County, has dodged flood waters seven times since a 1,183-acre mountaintop removal operation began five years ago above her ancestral property.
“Our once-peaceful community has become a war zone,” Maria told the crowd. “On Rt. 85 – everywhere you look, it’s active, abandoned, reclaimed, permitted mine sites…With each permit approved, there will be more and more people fighting the destruction caused by the practice of mountaintop removal mining.”
All the people speechifying and singing and praying and Speaking Out
and laughing in the face of adversity made King Coal very uncomfortable. Keep up
the good work!
* Janet Keating is the former Janet Fout.
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| Rev. Jim Lewis waves King Coal's cash
before rendering it asunder, because greed enables some people
to justify the destruction of our mountains, our heritage and
our future. |
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| Don Gaspar holding up his end - a banner at
the July 30 rally at the state capitol. photos by Than Hitt |
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| Beauty Contest? Ummmmm ... At the July 30 Ms. Mountaintop Removal Beauty
Contest, King Coal really liked Ms. Mountaintop Removal contestant
Donna Sinkingship, as well as Ms. Mountain Reaper. Ms. Coal Silo
wasn't sure where she should be, but she wanted to be near children.
Ms. Blind Greed is King Coal's all time favorite beauty queen. She
lets him get away with all sorts of bad, bad things. She helps him
justify whatever destruction he creates. Ms. Renewable Energy looked
very ugly to King Coal. She takes away his subsidies, after all.
Strange, but the crowd loved her and made her the pageant winner,
even though Ms. Overweight Coal Truck, who was all modest when it
came to telling us her weight, threw her weight around and tried to
take Ms. RE’s crown away. Photo by Greg Wood |
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| King Coal’s Dirty Money did no talking at
the July 30 rally. |
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| It’s hard to argue with the Truth, but King
Coal still tries! |
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