You say coal mining has supported you all for many years. My grandfather- who was like a father to me- was an underground coal miner. It supported him to some degree, but the pay was poor, the people not unionized, the miners fighting the coal company took guns to the picket lines threatening to shoot those who worked before they got better conditions, he got black lung, he narrowly escaped a mine collapsed, and lost a nephew who was like a brother to him. How good coal was to him? I know he would have preferred another job- why after all these years, knowing that we will run out of coal, hasn’t anyone offered us anymore options? Why do they fight alternatives coming in such as the Coal River wind farm? My grandfather was a miner, but no one was offering him better solutions, and he was not a surface miner nor an MTR miner. He was a mountain man in his heart and he taught me to respect the Earth which he appreciated as God’s creation. He taught me to respect life. He loved his neighbors, he loved children, he was much more than a miner. To know that the same stuff that gave him black lung is being blasted out and settling on neighboring houses, going through the air little kids have to breathe, knowing the companies are stealing land, knowing it is destroying the land he loved and poisoning the people, I do not think he could have supported this, because he was a man of God, principles and love above all else.

At one point, coal miners lived on coal camps owned by the companies, and were given money that could only be spent at the company store- how good coal was to them? There was the broad form deed that stole people’s land and at the time some people said they even had coffins uprooted from the ground and irreverently overturned them. They even tried to steal land from soldiers off at war- how good coal was to them? Then within the past year, they tried to pass h.b. 119, I believe it was, to cut the EMT at mine sites, by as much as 1/2 in some instances- how good coal companies try to be to the miners even now, right? The surface miners can still get black lung and rock lung and this same crap is now flying over into neighboring land and residents have to breathe it in- how good the coal treats the people now, right? Surface workers can also be killed by other accidents such as fly rock and a strip job site caused the death of 3 year old Jeremy Davidson of Virginia who was in his bed- how good was coal to him and his family? The coal companies still take property and strip it when it doesn’t belong to them- I know someone it has happened to- how good has coal been to that man who inherited that land from his family? How good was coal to the people I’ve known of who had restraining orders against them to stay off of their own property? How good has coal been to the people I know who had to live with burning coal waste next to their homes for OVER 2 weeks, and who have had so many contaminants in their water that it was unsafe to drink? How about the family bathing their child in arsenic laced water thanks to MTR? Arsenic is a known carcinogen according to many agencies and groups including the EPA and the ACS (American Cancer Society). I don’t know about West Virginia, but SEKY is ate up with cancer, and we don’t need the help of arsenic. I hate any industry that would poison us all this way. In my state there is so much mercury in the fish, that last year the KY Dept of Fish and Wildlife warned residents to not eat any fish caught in the state. How good is coal when our water and land, our air and our animals are poisoned? It means that WE are poisoned. I could go on, but I’ll stop this list here.

Coal might benefit some of the people in SOME ways for a little while, but it is going to hurt us all- some worse than others- and it is hurting innocent people. It is a finite resource which will provide temporary jobs and energy. We are quickly running out of it. When it is all gone we will still be wondering what to do for work and energy, only then, we’ll have sacrificed way too much that we can NEVER get back. What will your grandkids do for work until they retire? Do you think this coal will be there for them? What will you leave them with? And keep in mind that Appalachians come from some of the most impoverished parts of the U.S. If coal was going to really help our economy, where is the miracle it’s been promising for well over 100 years?

First of all, how on Earth can you sit here and say that people have no right to debate Walker? You say, “Mr. Walker should not retract any statements. He spoke the words that described his feelings.” First of all, no one is forcing him to retract anything, and if he feels that way, he should voice it, but we are also allowed to share our feelings and to tell him why we feel he is wrong because we also have the freedom to express our beliefs and feelings. Secondly, you added, “Oh wait, those feelings are not the same as yours,” as though we wouldn’t let anyone else voice their beliefs. While we will debate them, we do allow others to speak. If you attended that hearing, did you not notice that it was the pro-MTR side shouting so loud that the anti-MTR side could not speak? So how could you reasonably insinuate that anti-MTR people don’t allow others to express themselves, when the pro-MTR side were the ones who would not even let the anti-MTR people be heard at the Permit 21 hearing? And when anti-MTR people were removed- allegedly for their own safety- and didn’t get to speak due to the violent actions and threats of the pro-MTR side? How hypocritical is it to then say we are the ones who won’t let people express themselves? This site is monitored and comments must be approved before posting, so the fact that Mr. Walker’s comment is listed on this page at all shows that we are willing to let him speak. The fact that we debate him shows that we actually read what he had to say. In the permit 21 hearing in KY, they also tried to shout over us after we had quietly allowed them to speak, but they were reprimanded and quieted down a bit. When I got up a lady yelled out to not let me speak. This after a lot of people supporting MTR spoke of their love for freedom. You couldn’t tell that crowd as a whole cared anything about freedom. And in West Virginia those people weren’t even heard- at least here Mr. Walker’s comments were allowed and “heard”. You have the right to speak, but don’t expect us to bite our tongues for you when you do. If we let you speak, shouldn’t we have the right to speak in return?

I don’t assume all people anywhere think exactly like me. However, my government in KY has been acting as if all locals think like they do. I had one local congressman tell me and the group I was with, “You people think you’re going to come in here and save us dumb hillbillies” when we came to oppose MTR. There I sat beside my mother- both of us lifelong Kentucky residents who came from several generations of Kentuckians AND from at LEAST 8 generations of Appalachians- with this man talking to us like we were outsiders. He was so used to spewing this BS that he had forgotten his current audience members were insiders. The real outsiders are the coal industries. There is actually a European billionaire- a man not even on this continent- who owns a company whose subsidiary is mining in my state. I know not all Appalachians think like me, but I also know that many do. I know that of the people who hate MTR, there are people of all ages (teens through the elderly) who oppose MTR. I know there are insiders and outsiders. I know there are men and women, democrats, republicans, independents, and more. There are conservatives and liberals. There are war vets. There are ex-strip miners. There are underground miners still working who have told me they support what we do. We have many faces. And many of the most passionate opponents of MTR are the insiders as they have to deal with the affects of MTR, their descendants that many would like to see living here will be left with this place, and this place means more to us than to most outsiders, I’d venture to say. I tell my congress people that we are the hillbillies and we want to stay that way.

You said you would guess that less than 50 who attended opposed coal. First of all, how did you arrive at that number? Just because they didn’t speak doesn’t mean they didn’t oppose it. Secondly, do you realize many anti-MTR people were never allowed into the building to begin with? You said you wanted to see who cared enough to attend. As violent as the coal side was, I wouldn’t be surprised if some people were scared off by that. The pro-MTR group didn’t have to worry that they’d be attacked if they showed up. Secondly, the anti-MTR people have been fighting this for a long time and most of the pro-MTR people are new to the fight. Third, anti-MTR people who did show up weren’t all allowed in. Fourth, how do you know that the pro-MTR people weren’t ordered to come? I’ve heard that some people have been threatened with job loss if they don’t attend such things. I have also had underground miners tell me they oppose MTR, but if they speak out against it they fear job loss. I know people who don’t work in the mining industry who have been threatened with job loss for speaking out, yet continued to do so. I also know people who are kin to mining workers who have told me they oppose MTR, but won’t do so in public for fear of upsetting their family. I have also, sadly, seen some women give in to the pressure of their husbands to stay quiet.

Also, it is hardly an act of vandalism to hang a banner- that is a laughable comparison. However, destroying other people’s property, the way the coal industry does with MTR IS vandalism- they just don’t go to jail for it. They cover homes in coal dust, they destroy public roads, they damage foundations and wells with blasting, they increase flooding on private property, they poison public air and water, and they blast on private land without permission at times- yeah, they do- and on public lands. And when we’re dead, our descendants will inherit this mess.

You say we have whipped up a mob mentality- actually, most people I’ve met who are working against MTR, have their own opinions and thoughts and debate freely with one another. We weren’t brainwashed into anything. Yet, at a local highschool, my cousin told me they had some sort of coal heritage day during which they were instructed that their projects could be pro-coal or neutral, but not anti-mtr or anti-anything the coal industry did. This was only a year or two ago. That takes away their freedom of expression, and is a private institution with its hands way too deep in a public educational system. Not to mention that people from the pro-coal side often repeat some coal lies that to me are too silly for even a child to believe. For example, the lie that MTR creates habitat for fish and wildlife is so silly that I honestly believed it was a joke at first. You could ask a child if blowing up a place full of life and poisoning the water would make it a better place for life and they would prob. look at you like you’d lost your mind, yet people in congress have looked at me and told me this lunacy. Aren’t people using ANY common sense, anymore? In West Virginia the pro-coal side was so loud that the opposition could not even be heard, infringing upon their rights to free speech and freedom of the press, and those fighting MTR were actually threatened verbally- including death threats- and physically attacked outside, but you say we’re the ones with mob mentality?

In Kentucky, our hearing was more civil, but when our first speaker got up, there was so much noise we couldn’t hear her until the MTR supporters were asked to quieten down. Right before this, MANY pro-MTR people spoke of the importance of freedom, only for their group (as a whole) to attempt to shout down our first speaker. Even after they were quietened down, some lady hollered out to not let me speak when I stood up. If we have nothing important to say, why is everyone so afraid of letting us speak? And if they care so much about freedom, why won’t they let us exercise our freedoms? It is a mob type mentality when people refuse to think for themselves and when they allow the frenzied mobs at places like the Permit hearing in West Virginia, to turn them to violence. I bet those people wouldn’t act nearly as bold or as animalistic if they were outside of that crowd.

I’m sorry that you have been called a murderer (and many others things). I have never said anything like that to you or any other miner, nor will I ever. Myself and many others at Climate Ground Zero have said many times that the miners are not our enemies. The coal companies and their abusive practices are the enemy. If it weren’t for the stranglehold that the coal companies have had over West Virginia for over a hundred years and the fear and hysteria that they whip up, I sincerely believe that we could sit down and create a plan that will work for all West Virginians. One that protects the future of West Virginia’s water, air, mountains, health AND economy.

I am still a relatively young man at age 26, but old enough that I resent being told that my beliefs and commitments are “just a phase” like I was some kind of rebellious teenager. It is my sincere hope that I never “grow out” of my commitment to try and make the world a better place for everyone as best as I can.