Comments on: Activists Block Entrance to DEP Headquarters, Condemn Failed Enforcement

By: fax2email

fax2email — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 06:14:01 +0000

This is not a black and white issue where we can exalt the age old anarchist song “which side are you one.”

By: The Understory » Big Brother and King Coal

The Understory » Big Brother and King Coal — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 21:56:25 +0000

[...] Ground Zero was recognized for our recent action blockading the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection as well as our action in July shutting down a highwall miner on Coal River [...]

By: Homeland Security communique intercepted! « Coal Country

Homeland Security communique intercepted! « Coal Country — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 13:34:36 +0000

By: Watcher

Watcher — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 11:37:15 +0000

Mat, where was that 60% for mr Heckler? He ran soley on the stop mtr cause.

By: mat

mat — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 02:59:34 +0000

Well “Sid Hatfield” I have been thinking a lot about what you said, and I feel the need to respond. I have lived here in Rock Creek for the last two years. And I have to say, I’ve talked to a lot of my neighbors. In fact, I’ve talked to people all over this state. I’ve talked to underground miners, strip miners, retired and active, talked to farmers and nurses, talked to city folk and people that never leave the holler. Things aren’t as monolithic as you say. I’ve talked to people that hated me. I’ve talked to people that love me for coming to help them, that have embraced me as family. I’ve talked to people that disagreed with me, but respected what I was doing and people that really didn’t give a damn either way. Just last week a man stopped at my house for no other reason than to thank me for being here, never seen him before in his life. Spent his whole life working underground until he got too injured. I heard two women at the gas station last week talking about how people got the treehuggers all wrong and all we want is for them to stop ruining everything surrounding these communities. Yes I have seen a post-MTR, but have you seen a CURRENT MTR town?? Go to Twlight and tell me that MTR is supporting the communities that it’s in. Go to Packsville, Lindytown, Shumate, oh wait, you can’t. They don’t exist anymore.

Yes the situation is complex. In fact, it’s even more complex than you are presenting it. For every person that I have met who family is fed by a coal mining job, I have met a person who’s lost a family member to a coal mining accident or pollution from coal mining. And frankly nearly every person I’ve talked to hates Massey, including most of their employees that I know. I acknowledge that our presence here creates conflict, but that’s what happens in moments of social change. If you have studied the civil rights movement as much as you seem to have, you know that we have created much less conflict that civil rights workers did. Maybe that’s because polls of West Virginia consistently show upwards of 60% of West Virginians oppose MTR. I am here because people have asked me to be here, not everyone, but many. In the civil rights movement, the WHITE people were asked to leave by the radical, a move that’s still deeply contentious among civil rights veterans.

My name is Mat. I live on the Ford Addition. If you really want to have a dialogue about these issues, you’re welcome anytime. If you are going to level these kinds of blanket accusations and claim all this knowledge of the community around us, it would be nice if you would have the same guts as many of the strip miners that I have spoken to. There’s only so seriously anyone is going to take criticism on a blog from one “Sid Hatfield”.

By: Homeland Security communique intercepted! « Climate Ground Zero

Homeland Security communique intercepted! « Climate Ground Zero — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 23:34:04 +0000

By: Scamgea

Scamgea — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 10:10:03 +0000

Sid Hatfield pollution apologist….
“Lastly, you may ask why I am posting this at this time. I have been following what you all have been doing from the very beginning and I constantly see this inner circle patting each other on the back for a job well done. This is a pathology that must be broken. This is not a black and white issue where we can exalt the age old anarchist song “which side are you one.” These songs and the theories that informed them are far to simplistic to uncover the complexity of what you are all sitting in the middle of. In this light, I ask that you all go into the community that surrounds you and ask them what they think about you.”

When your very existence is controlled by COAL, and your job is on the line with little legal recourse if you open your mouth and precious few options for outs in this economy brought to shambles by fossil fuel, what the fuck is a miner with 4 kids goining to say?

You are right it is not a black and white issue.
It is a green and green issue……
The green the feeds the greed,
versus the green that feeds us all.