Subject: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: InOBU Date: 10 May 07 - 05:15 AM Well, not this road, here and now. Appalachia is a place of great riches and great poverty. Most of the riches the coal industry has systematically stolen from those who live in that region with the help of gun thugs and politicians for generations. It was getting better. President Clinton was treating the coal industry as it should be treated, with criminal prosecutions for poisoning our rivers and our bodies with mercury in every state needlessly for years. Coal invested one hundred million dollars in the election of a politician who would make their crimes legal, and their investment paid off,
George Walker Bush's "justice" department dropped the prosecution of coal burying power plants, and made the dumping of mining waste into the nations water systems and the pumping of mercury into our bodies, legal. Now, many of you might wonder how the executive branch of government can change laws, after all, aren't they presently of the party that rails against judge made laws? Well, the judge who ruled that the coal companies were breaking the clean water act by dumping mountain tops, and tons of precious lumber, and arsenic and other heavy metal pollutants into the streams in the valleys of Appalachia asked the same question. So far the only answer has been the coughing of the children of Appalachia choking on the particulate matter from the blasting of their mountains by now federally protected criminals. Our dear treasure, Jean Ritchie http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorcanotway/491497986/ tell us that her property is threatened, as fill is used to build an access road, to continue the destruction of her community. There was a great deal of outrage, expressed on her behalf to the Governor of her state, and so, he is responding to the anger. He has named that road, "Jean Ritchie Road."
Jean, have you a middle name, we might call you? Or better still, can we demand that this road be stopped and some already existing road, which brings music lovers to say, Asheville, be called after you instead?
Folks like Julia Bonds, http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorcanotway/491497994/ ;who faced threats from the coal industry to come and teach us ignorant city folk a lesson every American voter should understand care about deeply.
For more, go here... http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org/index.php and go here http://www.crmw.net/culture.php and then... do something.
okay. Link-faery |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: McGrath of Harlow Date: 10 May 07 - 09:42 AM aka Desolation Row |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: InOBU Date: 10 May 07 - 03:00 PM Thank'ee Link-Faery!!!!! Hello McGrath!!! |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Charley Noble Date: 10 May 07 - 08:08 PM The road to hell is said to be paved with good intentions! There may be a connection here, or not! Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: frogprince Date: 10 May 07 - 08:17 PM Dear God; makes me wonder if the gov is just a totally clueless lunk, or if it is really a gesture of utterly sarcastic cynicism. |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Rapparee Date: 10 May 07 - 09:02 PM Knowing KY governors, I say it's a lot of both. |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Peace Date: 10 May 07 - 09:08 PM Perhaps Kytrad will advise as to what we can do? |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: InOBU Date: 10 May 07 - 09:48 PM Oh, I wish all of you were at the concert and get together. Peace, yop, It is great if Jean has ideas about what to do, but I really think we all can get thinking, and become a flea bite on the soft parts of King Coal... a thousand flea bites might... well, equal one good snake bite? Cheers lor |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie) Date: 10 May 07 - 11:34 PM Thank you Lorcan, for coming and also for writing about it. I told about the road name as a "funny story," and example of folks who don't listen to what others are really SAYING. It was ironic to me that, after all my resistance to their eviction of folks near the road and destruction of their homes; my letters and protests to the state government- about all the problems we were having from strip mining; after all my protest songs, going on over many years,- someone wants to "honor" me by naming the road after me! This is a road that is two miles long, will cost 35 million dollars. It does make for safer driving- but most of the traffic will be coal trucks to and from the strip mines, and the Mountaintop Removers. What can I suggest? The Mountain Top Removal is just heartbreaking, I can't bear even to list the terrible things happening- pollution of our air, our water,the very earth beneath our feet. Destruction of habitat for the birds and animals we have known as neighbors all our lives, worse- the destruction of one of the country's important watersheds. You can imagine all the arguments for both sides, but not room to name them here. So, a few things to do: Go online to Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a wonderful and struggling organization to which I belong, and learn what's happening and why, and the things we can do to help. I'm well up in years, but am doing the bit that I'm able to do, even with my current croaky voice and unstable walking. One thing I cannot understand is,- the few greedy people who will benefit financially from all this- what about THEIR kids? Don't they care if their own kids get left with a dying world? PS: Lorcan, thanks for putting the pictures on. The first one was nice. I'm thinking I'll distribute that other one- of me lifting the heavy autoharp- to all the mountaintop removers- maybe it'll scare them out of their meanness! Love to all, Jean |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Peace Date: 10 May 07 - 11:37 PM It's easy to see why people love you so much, Jean. |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Peace Date: 10 May 07 - 11:46 PM Kentuckians for the Commonwealth link. |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Peace Date: 10 May 07 - 11:54 PM Another KFTC link. How to become a member or associate member. |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: InOBU Date: 11 May 07 - 05:55 AM Hi Jean and folks... I think the slow responce to this thread, might be people thinking it is a troll flaming you Jean... but, I wanted to get folks to have a look at all this, so maybe if it stays current for a little while more people will read it. And when they do, I hope they realize what is happening in Appalachia, to paraphrase the Los Vagas commercial in reverce, does not stay in Appalachia, but the poison they unlease on your home, Coal companies then spread around the whole nation. All the best lor |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Charley Noble Date: 11 May 07 - 09:49 AM InOBU- I think you're correct that the thread title discouraged some of us from reading this thread. We see so many inappropriate "attack" threads nowadays. And, Jean, thanks so much for responding. Charley Noble |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Flash Company Date: 11 May 07 - 10:16 AM Jean.... lovely to see a post from you, as an old (as in really old) UK admirer I am pleased to see that you are still up for a fight! Family experience of the same problem in the UK, an uncle of Sheila's lost his farm to open cast mining and comitted suicide. As the Man said,' They know not what they do!' FC |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: Rapparee Date: 11 May 07 - 06:53 PM Well, Jean, I'm going to email the KFTC address to my friend Alice. Even though she's in Northern Kentucky it'll get her blood flowing and being retired (twice) she's now become incredibly politically active. I'm not living there anymore, so I can't do much, at least not directly. |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: GUEST,Art Thieme Date: 11 May 07 - 07:17 PM I finally stumbled in here--just to see what this was all about. I'm not surprised! Jean, and all the good folks, keep up the fight. Art |
Subject: RE: BS: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road!!! From: InOBU Date: 11 May 07 - 09:44 PM Yes... my idea for a thread name backfired, so do tell others to stop by and read all this... hanging my head... =( lor |
Subject: RE: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road! Jean oks thread From: Peace Date: 21 May 07 - 03:54 PM Refresh. |
Subject: RE: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road! Jean oks thread From: InOBU Date: 21 May 07 - 05:05 PM I like the addition to the thread title! Thank you mud-elves lor |
Subject: RE: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road! Jean oks thread From: InOBU Date: 22 May 07 - 07:00 AM Maybe we need a new name for this thread intirely, like King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! ??? I can't beleive no one cares that they are being poisoned... maybe we need a new thread name contest... |
Subject: RE: Just Say No To Jean Ritchie Road! Jean oks thread From: Peace Date: 22 May 07 - 04:36 PM Maybe more people have to see the thread. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: gnu Date: 22 May 07 - 05:48 PM It's a sad day when we are told not to eat the fish in the streams, what little fish there are due to the mining and forestry clogging up and polluting the spwaning grounds... among other things. Mercury, cadmium, lead, sulphur emissions from burning coal that cause acid rain and kill pristine lakes hundreds of miles away.... I could go on and on, but, I'll just say thanks to Jean and people like her who do what they can to enlighten the rest of us. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: kytrad (Jean Ritchie) Date: 30 May 07 - 08:32 PM Bob Kennedy Jr. said an alarming thing in his great closing speech to our audience- that even the "farmed fish" in this country are contaminated and could have very bad effects on those consumers thinking they were safe. He said many other things that made us see how our world is getting more dangerous, more expensive just to live in, more damaged as to land, water, air, trees and all growth... I guess I'd give up and become a hermet- but now even the hermet has no place left to go. JR |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: Sorcha Date: 30 May 07 - 09:10 PM I'll go forth, and sign. But, did you know, you can no longer buy a mercury thermometer in the US? All digital (and they aren't really that accurate either.) |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: GUEST,PMB Date: 31 May 07 - 04:39 AM Sorcha, hate to contradict, but digital thermometers are every bit as good as mercury ones, price-for-price. It's just that nobody ever bothered to check the accuracy of the old ones. You can't put the whole lot right in the oven though, just the probe. Paradise - John Prine When I was a child My family would travel down to Western Kentucky Where my parents were born and theres a backwards old town Thats often remembered So many times, that my memories are worn (Chorus) And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenburg County down by the Green River where Paradise lays. Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away Well sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River to the abandoned old prison down by Avery hill Where the air smelled like snakes We'd shoot with our pistols but empty pop bottles was all we would kill (chorus) And the coal company came with the worlds largest shovel and they tortured the timber and stripped all the land well they dug for their coal 'til the land was forsaken and they wrote it all down as the progress of man (chorus) When I die let my ashes float down the Green River Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester Dam I'll be halfway to heaven With Paradise waiting just 5 miles away from wherever I am And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenburg County down by the Green River where Paradise lays. Well I'm sorry my son but you're too late in asking Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: GUEST Date: 23 Aug 08 - 02:31 PM Thanks for the John Prine song,long one of my favorites,PMB...Everyone also ought to know of Kathy Mattea's new album, COAL. She's a dedicated Appalachian with a splendid voice, and I'm honored that she opens it with two of my songs, "L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore," and, "Blue Diamond Mines. It's rich also with songs by Billy Ed Wheeler and Hazel Dickens. A fine album. I'm just back from the Philly Festival where I was again honored with joining a Saturday afternoon workshop, son Jon and I, with Kathy Mattea and other fine singers, all exposing coal problems in Appalachia. We had a full-hillside audience, so I hope we spread some further knowledge and concern. Jean |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: Peace Date: 23 Aug 08 - 03:00 PM Congratulations, to you, Jean. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: gnu Date: 23 Aug 08 - 05:26 PM Yeah... folk on, eh! Good on ya! |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: maire-aine Date: 23 Aug 08 - 06:55 PM Just this afternoon, on the "Folks Like Us" radio program, Matt Watroba played John Prine's PARADISE, a timeless classic. Maryanne |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: katlaughing Date: 25 Oct 08 - 04:53 PM Somewhat related. In the waning days of his time in office, it seems the shrub has plans for some mountain tops: Here's the really dirty part of coal. First, this preface: After a year of record profits, coal operatives will receive nearly $2.8 billion in tax credits in the recent Wall Street bailout. And last Friday, with all of the banter about "clean coal" drowning out the critics, the Bush administration quietly moved to alter one of the last remaining laws protecting against the wholesale clear-cutting and horrific strip mining practice called mountaintop removal in Appalachia. This is the process of blowing the tops off mountains and dumping the remains into the waterways or valleys -- over 1,600 miles of streams and 470 mountains in central Appalachia have been erased from American maps. The rest of the article is HERE and well worth the read, imo. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: InOBU Date: 25 Oct 08 - 09:30 PM Dear Friends: I wish to start by saying I AM voting for Obama - but like McCain, he is for "clean coal". Please all, write and tell him there is no such an animal. Lorcan |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 26 Oct 08 - 01:20 AM You all in Amyrkay might be interested to know that we Aussies are now playing that game - a certain power station is nearing the end of the local mine, but they found a whole valley just near, and now the farmers have found that their underground water has dried up after all the 'test drilling', and much, much more... :-0 |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 26 Oct 08 - 09:17 AM Some info... http://www.epa.qld.gov.au/environmental_management/impact_assessment/current_eis_processes/new_acland_coal_expansion_project/ http://www.newhopecoal.com.au/activities/coal-operations/acland.aspx |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Oct 08 - 10:08 AM Thanks for bringing this thread back, Kat, I've been meaning to look into this more. The 30 day comment period needs to be used well to keep the coal companies from getting worse. SRS |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: Janie Date: 11 Jun 09 - 09:44 PM The Story with Dick Gordon on NPR broadcast an interview today with Maria Gunnoe who just won a Goldman Environmental Prize for her work trying to stop or control mountaintop removal. Maria lives in Boone Co., WV on the place she was born and raised. Her land was devastated by flooding as the result of mountaintop removal. She has encountered fierce and sometimes violent opposition in her community from miners, but has not backed down. She is from a coal mining family. In one of the most poignant parts of the interview, she repeats a conversation with her Grandfather, who called her Sissie, as he sat and watched out the bay window as his own homeplace was buried by a mountain turned upside down into the valley. I'll put it in quotes, though I may be off a word or two. "Sissie, there is something wrong here. There is more coal coming out of here than there ever has been, and there are fewer men mining than there ever has been." She says he died a brokenhearted man. The interview can be heard at A Fight for the MountainTops. As most of ya'll know, I was born and raised in West Virginia and a big part of my own identity is bound up in those hills and hollers. I was moved to tears as she shared what drives her to advocacy in the face of significant opposition from some (but certainly not all) of the people she grew up with. Her sense that who she is grounded in those ancient hills. If you ever get a chance, also see In Memory of the Land and the People. This is a documentary film done by old friend of mine, Bob Gates, in the early 70's. It focused on strip mining in West Virginia and Kentucky. 'Spaw, I'd love to see you get around to that long post you talked about writing up thread. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: Janie Date: 11 Jun 09 - 09:49 PM More at Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition about Maria's work and mountain top removal. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: Janie Date: 11 Jun 09 - 09:55 PM Summary of Maria Gunnoe's experience and advocacy at http://www.goldmanprize.org/2009/northamerica |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: maire-aine Date: 11 Jun 09 - 11:43 PM Thank you for keeping this thread alive. My father was from a western PA coal mining area, but I only went back there for the first time a few years ago. I had hear about strip mining, but never seen it up close. I was appalled at what it had done to the area. More people need to hear about this. M |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: GUEST,Russ Date: 12 Jun 09 - 12:33 PM I'm from Mingo County. Whoever throught we'd look back to the "good old days" of strip mining. "Clean Coal"? Russ (Permanent GUEST and WV expat) |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: gnu Date: 12 Jun 09 - 12:50 PM Thought I would put in a plug for olddude's song Appalachia. It's in the list on this page. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: Janie Date: 13 Jun 09 - 07:55 AM I had the same thought, Russ. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: kendall Date: 13 Jun 09 - 08:42 AM One of the great Indian Chiefs, whose name I forget, said to an Indian Agent from Washington, "When the last tree is cut down, when the last stream is polluted, only then will the white men realize, you can't eat money." |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: GUEST Date: 17 Jun 09 - 12:57 AM Kendall that is an eyeopening as plain as the nose on ya face statement by that indian chief. We in on this earth are heading i think destruction because the few greedy rich cannot think past their wallets. They are all just a bunch of selfish ....................! |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF U From: Janie Date: 17 Jun 09 - 02:05 AM Guest, while I agree with you, the responsibility goes well beyond "the few greedy rich." The construction workers that came after Maria Gunnoe to the point she put a tall chain-link fence around her house for protection are not the greedy rich. Most of those of us who have become so acclimated to air conditioning or a winter thermostat set at 72 or 68 degrees F, or with so many of our other electrical appliances, or with our "silent electrical "users (think of the red light on your power strip,) are not part of the few, greedy rich. It is not just the rich. It is our generally high standard of living, (at least in this country,) and each of our individual failures to fully appreciate and accept the consequences of our choices, both short and long term, for ourselves, our progeny, our neighbors-next door and across the world, and our species. It is our culture. And it may well also be our human nature. We best get evolving. As a species, our behaviors are becoming increasingly less adaptive. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: gnu Date: 10 Jul 09 - 09:07 PM Just watching some old videos on you tube and saw something I thought was appropriate here. |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: GUEST,Russ Date: 11 Jul 09 - 11:32 AM Janie, Sorry to be so late. Your post of 17 Jun 09 is well put. But... I think we always need to be a bit wary of the temptation to "blame the victims." Trillions of dollars have been spent using the best marketing machinery in the history of the world to teach people to want more and that wanting more is a good thing. For example, if relatively cheap food is available 7 by 24, if it has been engineered to create a constant craving for it, and we are inundated with ads for it, how blameworthy is the individual? Russ (Permanent GUEST) |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: catspaw49 Date: 11 Jul 09 - 12:32 PM The lifestyle thing held against the rape of the land for the good of the economy and a better standard of living becomes just to far fetched for words. Russ and Janie both have good points and that is what makes it so dichotomous. Since Russ is from Mingo County...........Somehow the following represents the whole thing in a nutshell......or on a mountaintop. THIS IS SO BIZARRE that words escape me....... Spaw |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: GUEST,Russ Date: 11 Jul 09 - 07:51 PM Spaw, Thanks for the comment. Good to hear from you. Yes, I am a WV expat. I chose to be. I choose to remain such for many reasons. Time passes. Things change. Towns become cities, farmland becomes malls and subdivisions. But no matter why it is happening and who is to blame, I am currently unable to find words to express the way I feel about the obliteration of my county. Russ (Permanent GUEST) |
Subject: RE: King Coal Dumping on Jean Ritchie and ALL OF US! From: Janie Date: 11 Jul 09 - 10:08 PM Spaw, that leaves me utterly speechless. |
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