Winds of Change Newsletter, February 2006     See sidebar for table of contents

Strange Questions
When Just Listening Can Be Viewed as A Threat

by Patricia Feeney

The police officer had been tailing us for quite some time. I saw the lights flashing and pulled over by Sherry’s Restaurant. A second cruiser pulled in.

The four of us, volunteering two days with OVEC to do a listening project* along Pigeon Creek and Big and Little Muncy, were being pulled over by the Mingo County Police.

“What have you all been doing? Where are you headed?” asked the officer.

After replying to his questions, I asked the ever-so-classic, “What seems to be the problem, officer?”

“We got a call on your car,” he said, “Heard you all have been out asking strange questions.”

We had spent the afternoon knocking on doors and hearing stories about the flooding that hit the hollow just last year. We had listened to residents explain their concerns about the instability of the dead trees and the mountain above them.

Many people surveyed were concerned about the logging and strip mining going on around their homes. Many expressed fear of another heavy rain and dissatisfaction with the response of government agencies.

The strange questions we were asking included, “What do you feel are the biggest issues facing your community?” Interestingly, one grandmother was concerned about the lack of police response to theft and drug use in Big Muncy. “I’ve called the cops several times about my neighbors using drugs or about people speeding up and down the street like crazy – it’s dangerous – and no one ever comes to do anything.”

But start asking “Who or what is responsible for the flooding?” and you hear folks talk about Whiteflame Energy; you hear how people feel endangered by logging and strip mining. Mention the King Coal Highway and how it is all but an excuse to strip mine for coal without a permit, and the cops are on the scene.

Thank goodness someone is keeping an eye out for the greatest threat to the status quo – troublemakers of the worst kind – OVEC volunteers asking questions and listening to the communities’ answers.

* A listening project is an organizing tool by which volunteers from an organization go door-to-door in a community. This is done to gauge community issues and individuals’ concerns, strengths and ideas in a way that fosters relationships between community members and organizers. Note that listening projects do not usually result in the cops pulling you over for asking strange questions.