I’ve lived in Twilight, WV, my whole life. It used to be a booming town.  Now, it’s scary just thinking about getting out of your house and going down the road. Mountaintop removal operations practically surround us. Our air is choked with dust from the blasting and hillsides seem unstable. Sludge ponds, too, are releasing nasty chemicals into our environment. It seems like a lot of people are sick with breathing problems, or have cancer and are dying.

Coal trucks hog the road and drag piles of mud off the mining sites onto the road. The mounds of mud have caused bad accidents.

Many of us living here don’t feel safe – and it’s not just the chemicals and dangerous roads, it’s also the worry about flooding coming off the mangled mountains. People have been driven away; those of us left want to keep our birthright. But what will be left for our children and grandchildren?

The coal companies have no right to bully and threaten those of us who dare to speak out about what they are doing to our land and our futures! We want jobs – but we want jobs that don’t poison our families – jobs with a future.

Let the coal bosses come live in Twilight. Let them wake up during a rainstorm, in a panic, wondering if this time the floods will come. Let them hear the doctor say, no it isn’t asthma, but dust from the mines that’s causing your breathing problems. Maybe then the coal bosses would support the proud people fighting for what is right.

But probably not – they sure don’t care about the workers they are trying to turn against us, or the communities they are destroying.

All they care about is making a quick buck, no matter the trail of devastation they leave behind.