Photos by Johnny Kilroy.

Come on in

Warm voices twanged away on a Saturday night in a D.C. pub, far away from the mountains that made them.

Appalachian residents and other mountain-huggers of America, many of them old friends and colleagues, mobbed up for the End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, put on by the Alliance for Appalachia.

Holler dwellers came to tell their stories to Congress, to say how the MTR coalfields are killing their future, to lobby for laws that might rescue America’s first frontier. 

The stories poured out on that first evening, as they reunited in the hearth of solidarity, and replenished their bellies and restored their souls after a long trip. 

A cordial older woman from Coal River described her stalwart fight over a black water discharge, and displayed the complaint paperwork right there on the dinner table.  A young mother talked about some mine workers in their home towns “making a hundred grand a year on a high school education,” and the disincentive it gives her kids to get a college degree.  Organizers’ mouths raced and their faces flashed with purpose.

The Irish Channel Pub filled with life: with song and dance, with old reminisces and new tellings.

And in between playing “Country Roads” and “Come Out Ye Black and Tans,” the frontman of the band, a beaming gent from Donnegal, had a word of support for his Appalachian visitors.

Get Ready

Sunday was no day of repose. 

At nine in the morning, all 200 plus hands were on deck for training at the Association Leadership building, with faces bright and coffee mugs charged.  It was a day to rally around the common cause of ending mountaintop removal; it was a day of preparation for the daunting task of confronting one’s representatives on the Hill.

“We’re not talking about mitigation [of MTR],” said organizer Dana Kuhnline, “we’re talking about abolition.”

(Stephanie Pistello, National Field Coordinator for Appalachian Voices.)

Masters of ceremonies Stephanie Pistello, Austin Hall, and others led from the front of that long room; they introduced speakers, entertainers, and storeytellers. They even choreographed role-playing scenarios to familiarize people with the actual process of meeting with congresspersons and their staff.

Mickey McCoy, of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, swaggered up the center aisle to take the microphone.  He certainly lived up to his Irish surname, in both wry humor and revelry.  He went on a George Carlin-like tirade about the coal industry’s “soft words.”  For example, “valley fill,” which McCoy enunciated as if he was exhaling a spring potpourri.

(Mickey McCoy at the Marsh Fork protest in June 2009.)

McCoy also hit some somber notes, describing his crusade against the coal industry since the Martin County sludge spill in 2000, near his home in Inez, Kentucky. 

 

(From left, Vickie Terry, Tug Smith, Danny Cook, Dustin White, and Cari Moore.)

A panel of five spoke about their troubles living in the coalfield.  Cook described his battle to save the Cook family cemetery, on Cook Mountain in Boone County, West Virginia.

Dustin, a nephew of Danny Cook, spoke of how he lived in West Virginia all his life and used to support all types of coal mining.  He didn’t necessarily oppose MTR, but after seeing it firsthand for so long, he couldn’t deny coal’s “dark side.” 

Cari Moore fought back her tears as she talked about coming to reject mountaintop removal, and being ostracized by her own people for doing so. 

(Dr. Matt Wasson giving his presentation.)

Dr. Matt Wasson, an ecologist with Appalachian Voices, gave a presentation which demonstrated the direct correlation between surface mining and poverty.  “It doesn’t get any clearer,” he intimated.

On both sides of this issue, everyone has been rubbed raw.  Animosity cleaves people’s hearts the way the blasting does to bedrock. 

“They’re passing every stupid, idiotic bill that they can to keep coal in West Virginia,” said Lorelei Scarbro.  Governor Joe Manchin even declared coal West Virginia’s state rock in June 2009.

But time and time again, hope returns to those who want to see an end to mountaintop removal. 

(The Breezy Holler Band.)

An interlude of homegrown music from the Breezy Holler Band, and some motivational speaking restored the can-do attitude.

Later on in the evening, some of the Week in Washington attendees went uptown to hear retired miners speak about union-building and solidarity.  They told it down and dirty, war stories and all, blowing no smoke at a crowd of young people, nearly half of whom were planning to some day join a union themselves.

It was the formation of unions, they insisted, and their willingness to fight for workers’ rights, which made a middle class possible in this country - as well as a democracy.

“There were two types of people in America before unions… rich people and poor people,” said one of the miners, “and there are fast becoming two types of people in America, rich people and poor people.”

Toward the end of the preparation day, the people at the conference were exhausted but electrified, fired up by great speakers, bristling with a need to do something.  A few of them rode their passion late into the evening, burning, burning, burning the midnight… coal. 

In the morning, they’d go tell somebody about it.

Take the Hill

Eight people stood in the office of Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Monday morning.  Some were Oregonians and some were Appalachians, and they’d come to tell him why Appalachia must be saved with the Appalachian Restoration Act (S. 696).

They waited in the front office, doing last-minute prep. One of them pointed to a picture of Mt. Hood and said, “Imagine that mountaintop, removed.”  Can you imagine it, Eugenians?  World?

The Senator emerged for just a moment, with a big smile that made his eyes squint, and extended his hand to each of his visitors.  He said in a gentle but enthusiastic voice, “I’m on board with what you guys are doing.” 

Stephanie Tyree, of OHVEC’s Sludge Safety Project, brought with her two glass jars of drinking water that had been contaminated when coal slurry injected into old underground mines in West Virginia had leaked into the water table.

The citizen-lobbyists also left an impression in the offices of Representative Peter Defazio (D-OR-4th) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR). 

One of the staffers said that he was familiar with mountaintop removal, having seen documentaries on television.

When given “The Ask” about supporting the legislation on the docket, the general response from the staff was that they would present the information to their bosses (the people’s representatives), and would definitely get back to the constituents, possibly as early as next week.

The visitors provided their reps with educational materials on MTR, including copies of the book Plundering Appalachia.

Some folks simply hung around the Capitol, doing what they called “bird-dogging:” waiting for big suits to appear and then chasing them down and giving them the “ask” on the two bills being pushed. 

(Some call it “beard-dogging.”)

More meetings with representatives, as well as deliveries of educational materials, will continue through Wednesday of this week.  Check in to TENTHMIL for more cliffhangers.

Disclaimer:  The contents of this article are not to be taken as even a semblance of the entire story.  The WHOLE story is as intricate as a watershed.  All characters and events herein have been given a mere factual description, which is cursory at best.  Devout readers might return to TENTHMIL for full elaboration on the aforementioned awesomeness.

What YOU can do right now

Today is National Call-In Day. At the I Love Mountains website they’ve got a tool set up: enter your zip code and it gives you the phone numbers for your representatives. Call them and tell them they need to stop mountaintop removal, and that you support the Appalachian Restoration Act (S. 696) and the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310).

A similar tool helps you write to your representatives.

When you turn on the light switch, are you using dirty power from MTR? Find out here.

Curious how much coal money has flowed into the warchests of your own representativse? You can find that out here.

Have your own blog or website? Put the End Mountaintop Removal widget on your front page and spread the word.

Follow the fight on Twitter.

If you’re in the region, buy a ticket for Music Saves Mountains, a benefit concert featuring Kathy Mattea, Dave Matthews, Cheryl Crow, Big Kenny, Emmylou Harris, Tift Merrit, James Otto, Gloriana, Michelle Branch and Ben Sollee. The show is May 19th at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville.