The Winds of Change & Backtracking
Posted on April 5, 2008 | By Denny Tyler | No Comments
A person could look back through history and see all the times documented when the winds of change started to blow. Sometimes those winds led to wars and uprisings. It is a well documented fact that people are resistant to change regardless of whether or not the change is for the good or bad.
It makes you wonder where the winds of change start blowing. I’m going to tell you. They start with me saying – you know, that is just not right – or – we can do better than this or something to that effect. The winds of change started to blow in the Appalachian Mountains when someone (I) looked at a mountaintop removal site for the first time and said, “Oh my God.”
Now the winds of change are reaching a feverish pitch in the hollows of Appalachia. Why is that? Because every person that experiences mountaintop removal coal mining breaths a collective “Oh my God.” There is a change blowing on the breeze and I can tell you this, I’m looking forward to it.
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Going back to yesterdays post. This is the last time I will defend my opinion on anything I write on this blog. If you have a different opinion you are entitled to it because it is your opinion. I had a couple of emails yesterday that basically reaffirmed everything I said in the last post. That is why they were emails and not comments.
Every post I write has a reason or a purpose. Even when I rant, there is a reason behind it. I don’t write just to fill up a page. Two things can happen to make me write – inspiration, provocation. I live in the coalfields, right alongside the friends of coal and you will see posts generated by me caused by provocation. It is the nature of the friends of coal to provoke and to be honest, they are quite good at it. If it tells you anything about my situation – I keep a loaded pistol in the house now at all times.
The situation may not be dire to someone living in Hawaii but it’s pretty dire to anyone in the coalfields who speaks out against mountaintop removal coal mining. Once you initially speak out against mountaintop removal it is either go balls to the wall or move out of town. There is no middle ground, you are either friend or foe. Maybe some of my frustration is because other people don’t see the gravity of the situation.
Look at the latest incident with Blankenship. Hell, in the friends of coal food chain they don’t get any higher than Blankenship. If he will just flat out attack someone, imagine what his brainwashed minions do to residents. The government of West Virginia is a friend of coal. Think of the power that instills to some dump truck driver on top of a mountain. He will fight just because the government tells him he is right. So where does that leave us? Well, most are left out in the cold having to absorb the abuse or just go complacently along.
But others get pissed off and fight back. This is me getting pissed off and fighting back. I’m a little guy and there is only me on this mountain – as far as I know. That means I’m particularly vulnerable. I get nervous going to the local convenience store. So what is the best way for me to handle it? Get just as loud as I can get just as fast as I can get that way. Otherwise I don’t stand a chance. If I piss you off in the process – I don’t know what to tell you except cover your ears because it isn’t going to get any quieter anytime soon.
Our remnants of wilderness will yield bigger values to the nation’s character and health than they will to its pocketbook, and to destroy them will be to admit that the latter are the only values that interest us. – Aldo Leopold
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