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Appalachian Citizens Ignored by their own Representatives, Or Why A National Movement Is Needed
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
With the Coal-Bearing Counties of Appalachia in Crisis, Where are Our Elected Officials?
There is a health crisis in Appalachia.
There is an economic crisis in Appalachia.
There is a crisis of well-being in Appalachia.
There is an ecological crisis in Appalachia.
Study, after study, after study, after study, after study, after study, show that these crises are due in large part to the negative impacts of coal mining, burning, and processing.
The Appalachian people have demanded and demanded and demanded that our rights to be protected from these dangers, including the protection of basic rights such as clean air, clean water, and a safe place to live.
What has been the response from Appalachian politicians, like members of the West Virginia delegation such as Congressman Nick Rahall, Senator Joe Manchin , and Senator John Rockefeller? A great big SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. Rahall, Manchin, and Rockefeller have not only completely ignored the work of the Central Appalachian people to protect ourselves from coal, but these men are actively pursuing policies that make matters worse, while removing some of the simple protections that the Appalachian people have. Its time they are called out on their dangerous and cowardly decisions to toe the coal-industry line at the expense of their constituents.
A group of West Virginians impacted by mountaintop removal recently ran into Senator Rockefeller in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, to ask Senator Rockefeller to come for a tour of mountaintop removal in southern West Virginia. Here is video of the interaction between Rockefeller and his constituents.
Rockefeller, who first ran for Governor of West Virginia in 1972, had a strong stance on strip mining, saying:
Strip-mining must be abolished because of its effect on those who have given most to the cause – the many West Virginians who have suffered actual destruction of their homes; those who have put up with flooding, mud slides, cracked foundations, destruction of neighborhoods, decreases in property values, the loss of fishing and hunting, and the beauty of the hills. …
Unfortunately, he made a 180 degree turn when he ran again four years later, handily won the governorship. He has been supportive of the coal industry ever since, and has all but ignored the part of his constituency who have been fighting to protect their homes, communities, waterways and mountains from the devastating impacts of mountaintop removal mining. Rockefeller’s story demonstrates the institutional power of the coal industry and its stranglehold on true democracy in West Virginia and other states where mountaintop removal is occurring.
This stranglehold is why its so important for the entire nation to join citizens directly impacted by mountaintop to build broad-reaching support, within and without the Appalachian coal-bearing regions. The bottom-line: the voices fighting to protecting their very lives are being drowned out, and a bigger choir is essential to make sure the message is heard loud and clear: Mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying Appalachian mountains and communities and it needs to end.
Because as Americans we believe, as Martin Luther King Jr, wrote so succinctly in his letter from Birmingham Jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
This movement has created real change- we now see more and more, members of Congress willing to speak out against the politically powerful coal industry. We most recently witnessed this show of political courage in the recent budget debates, where several policy riders in the House bill threatened to stop the EPA from living up to its name in protecting the environment in the Appalachian coal-bearing regions. Many members of Congress got on the floor of the House when those amendments came up for debate and spoke so eloquently and passionately against the destruction of America’s oldest mountains for 5% of our nation’s electricity. As members of the Alliance of Appalachia, we recently hosted a Congressional Reception during our 6th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, where we invited those members of Congress to accept an award and say a few words. Here is a montage of their comments– THIS is what democracy sounds like!
Two citizens reflected on their experience in Washington DC below.
Wendy Johnston of Mercer County, West Virginia:
In West Virginia, where I live, people are dying. They are dying from drinking poisoned water and breathing air filled with coal dust and the explosive dust that rains down on them from the mountains above their homes that are being destroyed for coal. The coal industry rapes and pillages our mountains daily to extract whatever coal it can find in what used to be the oldest mountains in the world.
As someone who left 25 years ago to go to college and moved back 10 years later to raise her children in the most beautiful place on earth, this was heartbreaking.
When we ran into Senator Rockefeller after meeting with his legislative, he remarked that I lived in the Northern part of the state when I told him I was from Mercer County, which is actually one of the southernmost counties in our state. When we begged him to visit our communities and pointed out that the mountains and communities there were decimated he said, “I’ve been on all of them”. He showed no emotion when he said this, it was obvious he did not care. I left there pleased that we had been able to voice our opinions to him but wondering what good it did. I didn’t realize that just because that was what I had come to expect from my representatives that other people expected more.
When I heard the Congressmen from Virginia and Kentucky speak to the Alliance for Appalachia gathering last night it hit me. I realized that other representatives do care, they see the value of the mountains, clean water and clean air but above all that they see the value of the people. I now have a new understanding, I must give my life, my family, my environment the value that I think that it deserves and demand that those representing me reach my high expectations and if they cannot I will no longer support them.
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-West Virginia Resident, Robin Blakeman (OVEC member/employee):
In Senator Rockefeller’s office… An appointment with an aide – Pat Bond – someone whom we know, from previous meetings, doesn’t do much after we talk to him. He has even occasionally been quite hostile to our citizens. He seemed to listen to us this time. He seemed to respond to personal stories. He agreed that tourism and water quality are important to the state’s economic and social well-being.
When we left, we were somewhat hopeful that there might be a response to our two requests: 1) that the Senator arrange to come to West Virginia and meet with many of the affected residents we know, and 2) meet with Sen. Alexander of Tennessee to discuss reasons that he’s sponsoring the Appalachian Restoration Act.
Afterwards, standing by the elevators, trying to comfort the folks who were upset, we saw Sen. Rockefeller himself walking out of a nearby elevator.
After a few moments of listening to us quickly pour out our hearts – regarding why we were there, and about the connections we had back home which were being severed – he abruptly said, “Hey, do you know what happened to me last night? My electric was off… and I’m now a half hour late for a meeting…” Within the next 30 seconds, he had turned for us, and was gone, with us shouting our thanks to him for the few minutes time he granted us.
Tonight, however, listening to John Yarmuth and others speak – our champions, I realized what a true “public servant” is supposed to be like. I also realized that, in West Virginia, we do NOT have any national level public servants. We only have elite corporate lobbyists and their representatives, whose very existence, it seems, depends on serving those who covet a dirty, lifeless, flammable, and toxic black rock. I wish we could clone public servants like John Yarmuth, and somehow replace our NON-representatives with them.
If you haven’t yet joined the national choir to stop the destruction of our nation’s oldest mountains and to help democracy thrive in all parts of the country, please sign the pledge to end mountaintop removal at iLoveMountains.org.
