Mountain Blog: August 2005

Saturday, August 27, 2005

The Next Hot Net Thingy

The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Remember, you heard it here first.

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are

Hippie Killer stirred a nest of yellowjackets with a post on Fifth Column.

As someone pointed out, it was a rainy Friday and frustrations are often amplified on days such as that one. HK must have been in an absolute blue funk.

We live in a great country where, if you don't like where you are, you can either (a) try to change things or (b) move.

But, of course, that is an over-simplification. Due to economic, famiy or social reasons, some folks feel as if they are trapped.

In a perfect world, everyone in America would be happy with where they live and their environs would match their expectations perfectly. I suspect everyone has a list - sometimes a long list - of things they would change about where they live, not matter where they call home.

This region has not treated me well in a strict conomic sense. I worked for The Herald-Dispatch for 32 years when the newspaper's administration used a rule that I violated to fire me without as much as a warning. As a result, my resources will probably run out before I die.

I have received more criticism than plaudits for what I have written. People here seem to be more afraid of change than those elsewhere. Too many are locked in a lifestyle that is counter to mine and, in fact, may make no sense in the 21st Century.

But I love it here despite the people who wish me ill and who have even taken action to make my life miserable. I have news for them. It hasn't worked.

As I write this, a book of poetry called "Wild Sweet Notes II" published by Publisher's Place in Huntington is beside me. It contains the poetry of native West Virginians and those who have lived in West Virginia at least five years.

I simply can't be depressed about where I live when I read this poetry which celebrates more aspects of West Virginia than my limited capacity to comprehend can imagine.

West Virginia is sometimes hurtful, but there are enough singers of lyrical songs in this book of poetry to make me realize that home has a special meaning in this state.

And when all is said and done, "home" and its attendant trappings- good and bad - are all any of us have.

George Bush

Ray Evans, an old friend, reminded me of what Hunter S. Thompson said of George Bush. It may be more pertinent now than when it was written:

"Let's face it--the yo-yo president of the U.S.A. knows nothing. He is a dunce. He does what he is told to do--says what he is told to say--poses the way he is told to pose. He is a Fool.

This is never an easy thing for the voters of this country to accept.

No. Nonsense. The president cannot be a Fool. Not at this moment in time--when the last living vestiges of the American Dream are on the line. This is not the time to have a bogus rich kid in charge of the White House. Which is, after all, our house. That is our headquarters--it is where the heart of America lives. So if the president lies and act giddy about other people's lives--if he wantonly and stupidly endorses mass murder as a logical plan to make sure that we are still Number One--he is a Jackass by definition--a loud and meaningless animal with no fundamental intelligence and no balls.

To say that this goofy child president is looking more and more like Richard Nixon in the summer of 1974 would be a flagrant insult to Nixon.

Whoops! Did I say that? Is it even vaguely possible that some New Age Republican whore-beast of a false president could actually make Richard Nixon look like a liberal?"

Hunter S. Thompson from Kingdom of Fear, Simon & Schuster, 2003

Monday, August 15, 2005

An E-Mail

An e-mail from a reader in Charleston

Thoughts on today's column

What we do know about the impact of mountaintop removal is that it is the cheapest, least labor intensive form of mining and that fewer jobs are created than you might think.

It's not likely that even five centuries will reforest the mountains. Greece, Lebanon and even Ireland have not recovered from deforestation, and in those countries the soil was left in place, not shoved out of the way. And when the forests disappeared so did birds.

What I find amusing about the Massey ads with the farmer and the teacher is that these people are surely actors, probably from Virginia. Do we know whether the people in the we live here too ads are actors or Massey employees? Do we know how many people would want to be in an ad saying we'd like to return to West Virginia? Do you suppose that they will stream back once Logan county is leveled?

And why does coal even need friends? Is there a Friends of Autos in Michigan? Friends of Motion Pictures in southern California? Friends of Corn in Iowa? Do you see a trend here?

My husband is an 8th generation West Virginian convinced that coal is a curse on the state and we'd have been better off without it.

Voices

My Column in today's Daily Mail begs amplification.

Believe me when I say I wish there were no mountaintop mining in West Virginia. Ken Hechler once said that the most devastating thing that ever happened to West Virginia was when coal was discovered here. It sealed our fate and sent us down a path from which we suffer today.

When it comes to the relative merits of coal companies I am not sure one is just like the rest. Some are simply a little quieter about what they do.

A few years ago I went to the Arch Coal mountaintop removal mine in Boone County. The reclaimed land was 90 percent grassland. About 10 percent of the reclaimed land was covered in trees - locust trees, which were the only trees that would grow there. They are not hardwoods. They are what my dad called "trash trees." No self-respecting neo-tropical bird would nest in a locust tree.

Seventy years ago, the guy who built the house where I live moved some soil to create a place to build buildings. Would you beleive that, to this day, nothing but locust trees will grow on that disturbed soil? Look athte land that was disturbed along the interstates to create the roads. Nothign but trash trees grow on this soil today.

The problem as I see it is not that we let one company disobey the law and applaud others because they are good corporate citizens. The entire coal mining process is destructive and this state has allowed the industry to become the lifeblood of the state's economy.

What is the definition of a "good corporate citizen" among coal companies? They all destroy the original environment - God's environment, if you will.

A guy who supports mountop removal mining wrote me e-mail sort of applauding me for my stand in my column. He said that he understands Massey replants thousands of hardwood trees on its property in an attempt to reclaim it. I asked if they were growing. He said he believes they are. I doubt it. No self-respecting oak tree will grow on that God-forsaken soil.

I still maintain that it will be five centuries before the land will grow hardwood trees that are so vital to our original natural environment.

If we did what was right for the environment, we would shut the entire coal industry down. But in doing it, we would eliminate thousands of jobs. Coal is an economic addiction. Case closed.

Thousands live here because we mine "the fuel of last resort" as coal barron Rolla Campbell once called it in an interview I had with him just before he died.Eliminate the mining of coal and we would eliminate the state's economy.

The debate over whether we have the right to scalp the mountains and reclaim with grass and locust trees is not allowed and never has been allowed . We decided to take the no-debate path we have taken more than a century ago. That being the case, we have no alternative but to give Massey employees (and Massey) a voice.

We find it strange that Thomas Jefferson believed in the self-evident truth that man has inalienable rights, yet he held slaves. A hundred years from now, our descendants will wonder why we destroyed the environment in order to get the energy we claimed we needed to survive. I have a friend who also believes we will be condemned for our eating meat. I am inclined to agree with him

But maybe they will treat us somewhat kindly and write our actions off because we were simpletons when it comes to determining what's important. We are basically self-centered and greedy and lazy because we are not aggressively seeking non-destructive ways of getting the energy we need.

So, give Massey employees a voice because they deserve a voice under the rules. But give the environmentalists a voice and respect both.

Under the path we have taken, there is no alternative.

Friday, August 05, 2005

The High Sheriff of Cabell County

I was out mowing the grass on the roadside last Saturday when the high sheriff of Cabell County stopped by to say "Hey."

For the unitiated, "high sheriff" doesn't refer to his physical condition. Some of us in West Virginia call the deputy sheriffs "Sheriff" but the elected county sheriff is known as the "high sheriff." I think it's an old English tradition.

I've known Sheriff Kim Wolfe since he was a kid. He's a little younger than I but he has lived in my community all his life. We went to the Mount Union United Methodist Church together when we were young. Kim was always different - a rather serious straight arrow. While we were out drinking and carousing, Kim generally did the work of the Lord and the Boy Scouts.

Kim became a Mormon and I gave up going to church for Lent one year and never started again. Not only did he become a Mormon Church member, he is the Bishop of the Huntington Stake of his church. In the finest Mormon tradition, he and his wife, Debbie, have eight children. I have never seen anyone juggle so many responsibilities and do it so well.

Kim, a Republican, wanted to pick my withering brain about running for Congress against Nick Joe Rahall, the incumbent Democratic congressman from the Third Congressional District. Here's the deal with Kim: He serving his second term as high sheriff and, under the law, he can't run for the office again. If he runs for Congress, he won't have to give up his high sheriff job.

When it comes to family values, something that's highly prized in West Virignia, Kim is a living testimonial to the phrase. And when it comes to being squaky clean, Kim defines that phrase as well. I once told Kim that I can die a happy man because I actually lived under a totally honest high sheriff.

Kim knows running against Rahall would be an uphill fight, but state Republicans are virtually begging him to run. As befuddled as they are, state Republicans know a good candidate when they see one.

As for me, I want him to run and I want him to win. I don't agree with some of his beliefs, but who wouldn't want a congressman living a mile away - an honest man and a bishop to boot?

Go for it, Kim.

Monday, August 01, 2005

More on 'maters

If you read my column in today's Daily Mail, you already know my love for West Virginia tomatoes.

Here's a secret recipe I don't share with everyone but since you found my blog, yo are a friend, so here it is:

First, get some Old Fashioned Wilted Lettuce Salad Dressing from Appalachian
Mountain Specialty Foods in Sandyville WV - http://www.zestsauce.com. You
can order it online.

Cut up some tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers and sweet onions and put 'em
in a bowl. Pour the dressing over the whole shebang and let it marinate for
a day to two.

Eat it with half runner beans and corn.

Pure ambrosia.

Mountain Blog