(no subject)
Despite the rain, I was having a pretty good morning. I was all excited about my History of the Middle East taking a tour of the Middle Eastern section of the library. Plus, it's Friday!
I was rummaging around my friends list on myspace when I clicked on ilovemountains.org. This is an organization dedicated to stopping mountaintop removal (MTR) in West Virginia. Two autumns ago, I got to witness this first hand when my Human Ecology class spent the weekend in Whitesville, West Virginia to talk to Coal River Mountain Watch about not only the ecological impact of MTR, but also the human impact. There is an elementary school called Marsh Fork Elementary that is a stones throw away from a slurry pond (the "garbage" left over from "cleaning" coal) and two huge silos right behind the school. Technically, this is illegal but, because of some dates and bills not being signed in time, the pond and silos were grandfathered in even though it is causing health problems for the little kids and the teachers (which the coal company denies).
There is also a emotional impact. In Whitesville, there is a mountain named Kayford and there is a lot of MTR occuring here. Most of Kayford is owned by one family and they are fighting for their land. My class go to go up there and go to the outer edges of the property and watched tons upon tons of mountain being shoved into the valley. As we walked along the path, we passed a cemetery with a 200 year history. Those who died from natural causes to those who died in underground mining accidents. Blacklung and still-borns. It was actually quite peaceful, especially with all the leaves producing a splendid color show, slightly fluttering in the wind. I found out yesterday that the bulldozers have started bulldozing the cemetery.
There is a non-profit enviromental newspaper around here called Appalachian Voices and it is distributed from the Georgia all the way up to Maine, but mostly over the Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia area. I read in this paper yesterday that four of these graves have disappeared because of bulldozer and its operator, who was not paying attention to what he was destroying. Larry Gibson, who's family owns the property is heart broken. He and his family are trying to get the cemetery listed under Historical Societies. And even though destroying graves is illegal, because the site and the graves are not listed, they cannot prove that the four graves were there to begin with. Here is a video of Larry Gibson talking about his families land.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2007/08/14/cnn.heroes.larry.gibson.cnn
So, yeah, West Virginia is ancestoral land for me. Behind my great-grandparents' farmhouse (which is still standing) in Summersville, WV, there had been mining down. Mom can remember visiting Granny in the summer and Granny getting frustrated when they would start blasting and it made her dishes rattle. It just sad the amount of land and people being destroyed from MTR. Kathy Mattea (country singer), who is fro West Virginia, has taken up the cause and her new CD is nothing but coal mining songs from the 40s to the 90s. I'm getting. It's my heritage.
If you want to know anymore about MTR, go to www.ilovemountains.org and, if you want to friend them on myspace so that you can get updates, they are in my top 16.
I was rummaging around my friends list on myspace when I clicked on ilovemountains.org. This is an organization dedicated to stopping mountaintop removal (MTR) in West Virginia. Two autumns ago, I got to witness this first hand when my Human Ecology class spent the weekend in Whitesville, West Virginia to talk to Coal River Mountain Watch about not only the ecological impact of MTR, but also the human impact. There is an elementary school called Marsh Fork Elementary that is a stones throw away from a slurry pond (the "garbage" left over from "cleaning" coal) and two huge silos right behind the school. Technically, this is illegal but, because of some dates and bills not being signed in time, the pond and silos were grandfathered in even though it is causing health problems for the little kids and the teachers (which the coal company denies).
There is also a emotional impact. In Whitesville, there is a mountain named Kayford and there is a lot of MTR occuring here. Most of Kayford is owned by one family and they are fighting for their land. My class go to go up there and go to the outer edges of the property and watched tons upon tons of mountain being shoved into the valley. As we walked along the path, we passed a cemetery with a 200 year history. Those who died from natural causes to those who died in underground mining accidents. Blacklung and still-borns. It was actually quite peaceful, especially with all the leaves producing a splendid color show, slightly fluttering in the wind. I found out yesterday that the bulldozers have started bulldozing the cemetery.
There is a non-profit enviromental newspaper around here called Appalachian Voices and it is distributed from the Georgia all the way up to Maine, but mostly over the Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia area. I read in this paper yesterday that four of these graves have disappeared because of bulldozer and its operator, who was not paying attention to what he was destroying. Larry Gibson, who's family owns the property is heart broken. He and his family are trying to get the cemetery listed under Historical Societies. And even though destroying graves is illegal, because the site and the graves are not listed, they cannot prove that the four graves were there to begin with. Here is a video of Larry Gibson talking about his families land.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2007/08/14/cnn.heroes.larry.gibson.cnn
So, yeah, West Virginia is ancestoral land for me. Behind my great-grandparents' farmhouse (which is still standing) in Summersville, WV, there had been mining down. Mom can remember visiting Granny in the summer and Granny getting frustrated when they would start blasting and it made her dishes rattle. It just sad the amount of land and people being destroyed from MTR. Kathy Mattea (country singer), who is fro West Virginia, has taken up the cause and her new CD is nothing but coal mining songs from the 40s to the 90s. I'm getting. It's my heritage.
If you want to know anymore about MTR, go to www.ilovemountains.org and, if you want to friend them on myspace so that you can get updates, they are in my top 16.