Comments on: The Battle Then and Now http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/c260/51 END MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL COAL MINING IN APPALACHIA! Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:25:11 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.3 By: Aaron H. Hardway http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/c260/51#comment-76803 Aaron H. Hardway Tue, 11 May 2010 04:30:31 +0000 http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/c260/51#comment-76803 Being the son of a high school history teacher, I have throughout my life been fascinated by our state's history. All we have left to remind us (and those who visit the state of WV) of the people and events which made WV the beautiful state rich in history that it is are the historic landmarks many of which have until now withstood the test of time. Now we have out of state coal operators coming into WV and literally blowing it away with their continual process of mountaintop removal. This not only causes flooding and erosion but destroys miles and miles of beautiful untamed forests all in the name of industry. As a result people are forced to either sell out and move off of land their families have owned for two hundred years or remain and live in the dust and noise and send their children to school everyday in the shadows of coal stockpiles and silos with the sound of machinery clanking outside as they attend classes. Yes, there are schools in WV within a few yards of coal operations, the schools were there first and it should not be this way. Now that the coal operators have managed to run nearly everyone off of their land and have destroyed that they have now set their sights on our precious historical landmarks like Blair Mountain. If the state of WV does not step in and declare Blair Mountain a historic landmark it too will be gone right along with all of the communities and historic places that have fallen already and will fall in the future in the name of industry. Eventually all of the small towns and historic places that make WV the unique state it is will be gone forever and the people with them and WV will be little more than an industrial dumping ground for coal operators and others like them to destroy and leave in ruins as they have done in the past. Reclamation does not replace the timber, rocks, creeks and top soil removed by strip mining, it only puts a band aid over a scar that will never again be what it once was, wild, untamed, and beautiful. I am not against coal mining, I am against people banking their entire existence on it and communities living and dying based on the prosperity or dissolution of coal operations, there has to be something better for WV as a whole. If there were a variety of industries in rural WV to give coal operators less options as to where they will mine and how they will go about it things would be better but as long as coal is the only game in town people are going to sell their souls in the name of it, do you really think people will continue to fight for historical landmarks if their almighty job at the mine is in jeopardy? This is not my opinion, I live in a place just like what I described above and I see my town, my county dying a little more everyday as a result. whether you agree or not it makes no matter, but I am right. Being the son of a high school history teacher, I have throughout my life been fascinated by our state’s history. All we have left to remind us (and those who visit the state of WV) of the people and events which made WV the beautiful state rich in history that it is are the historic landmarks many of which have until now withstood the test of time. Now we have out of state coal operators coming into WV and literally blowing it away with their continual process of mountaintop removal. This not only causes flooding and erosion but destroys miles and miles of beautiful untamed forests all in the name of industry. As a result people are forced to either sell out and move off of land their families have owned for two hundred years or remain and live in the dust and noise and send their children to school everyday in the shadows of coal stockpiles and silos with the sound of machinery clanking outside as they attend classes. Yes, there are schools in WV within a few yards of coal operations, the schools were there first and it should not be this way. Now that the coal operators have managed to run nearly everyone off of their land and have destroyed that they have now set their sights on our precious historical landmarks like Blair Mountain. If the state of WV does not step in and declare Blair Mountain a historic landmark it too will be gone right along with all of the communities and historic places that have fallen already and will fall in the future in the name of industry. Eventually all of the small towns and historic places that make WV the unique state it is will be gone forever and the people with them and WV will be little more than an industrial dumping ground for coal operators and others like them to destroy and leave in ruins as they have done in the past. Reclamation does not replace the timber, rocks, creeks and top soil removed by strip mining, it only puts a band aid over a scar that will never again be what it once was, wild, untamed, and beautiful.
I am not against coal mining, I am against people banking their entire existence on it and communities living and dying based on the prosperity or dissolution of coal operations, there has to be something better for WV as a whole. If there were a variety of industries in rural WV to give coal operators less options as to where they will mine and how they will go about it things would be better but as long as coal is the only game in town people are going to sell their souls in the name of it, do you really think people will continue to fight for historical landmarks if their almighty job at the mine is in jeopardy? This is not my opinion, I live in a place just like what I described above and I see my town, my county dying a little more everyday as a result. whether you agree or not it makes no matter, but I am right.

]]> By: Wilma Steele http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/c260/51#comment-54787 Wilma Steele Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:35:50 +0000 http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/c260/51#comment-54787 The protection of Blair Mountain is one of my main goal. Check out my facebook article and pictures on Face Book. The old and new red bandanna of courage Wilma Steele http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=243072060084&ref=mf#/profile.php?id=1187511437&ref=profile The protection of Blair Mountain is one of my main goal.
Check out my facebook article and pictures on Face Book.
The old and new red bandanna of courage
Wilma Steele

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=243072060084&ref=mf#/profile.php?id=1187511437&ref=profile

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