Just a transition away.
Posted on June 30, 2009 | By Denny Tyler | 1 Comment
I think it is kinda funny. As my grandma was fond of saying – you made your bed, now you have to sleep in it.
With the protests against strip-mining in the 70′s and 80′s they should have known then. Did you think people would just lay down for mountaintop removal? If our leaders had been seeing the warning signs instead of dollar signs we may have started a transition away from a coal mining is the only game in town type of economy. We should have started diversifying our economy twenty years ago. To think we can mine coal forever in such a destructive manner is shortsighted and just plain ignorant.
Where am I going with this you ask?
People like me against mountaintop removal and fighting to end the destruction have been accused lately of not having a recovery plan. Something for our miners to fall back on should they suddenly become unemployed… or in other words, a plan to diversify the economy – yesterday.
Excuse me, but, I don’t think that is our job. Why should we have to come up with a plan that should have been created and put into action years ago? We have already done the job local reporters (friends of coal) were unwilling to do in getting out the word about mountaintop removal. Do we also have to do the job of state officials (friends of coal) who are definitely unwilling to do their jobs?
If mountaintop removal is stopped I do see a rough road ahead for some folks. They will be joining a bunch of other folks that were on that rough road long before them. It’s not the miners fault, it’s not my fault. Blame it on the naivety of the coal industry and state officials to think they can just blow up our mountains and destroy our communities forever.
“We will not go quietly into that dark night.”
So when looking for the answers to questions like – what will we do if…?, make sure you look to the right person/people for those answers. Hint: Your State Representatives
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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June 30th, 2009 @ 5:16 pm
Thanks Denny! You’re right on! It’s not our job! When we elect people, like the Governor for example, we’re HIRING them to do a whole lots of jobs. If they’re not up to the task they should resign!!! If they’re too egotistical to resign then we should just STOP PAYING THEM!!!!