A fine cause Jean and one that lives close to my heart as well. I grew up in eastern Ohio, a part of the country that is not as often mentioned but was strip mined so badly through the 20th century that it is almost unrecognizable in many places. It too is owned by the interlocking directorates of big steel and big coal.

In east Ohio there was always this strange irony. The equipment they used to ravage the land was also remarkable as tourist attractions. Some of the largest ditching shovels and draglines worked there, owned by the power companies to get to the coal "efficiently." They had names like "Gem of Egypt" and the world's largest dragline was called "Big Muskie." In the 50's and early 60's it was a Sunday drive to go see "The Gem" at work. Later in life I found myself rightfully protesting the same machines I had found so exciting as a child.

ON THIS SITE you can see some of those machines as they were and what they could do. The site is done by some folks who wanted to preserve some of it as part of our "heritage." No thanks.......If the look of the land and the poverty of the region isn't heritage enough, we don't need Big Muskie to remind us.

On that site you will also see a shovel named "The Silver Spade" which was put back into action several years ago and now it too is being scrapped, the last piece of the "giants" to exist and a minor and yet kinda' significant victory for those of us who have fought strip mines for years.

That should qualify as a tiny bit of good news for your rally Jean! Count me as being there in spirit.

Spaw