One Job and No Choice
Posted on July 13, 2009 | By Denny Tyler | 1 Comment
It is definitely no secret how I feel about mountaintop removal coal mining. I oppose it completely and wholeheartedly.
In blogging about the subject I found early on that there is no middle ground in this battle. You cannot directly oppose mountaintop removal coal mining while at the same time directly support the miners on those sites.
For the record, I absolutely hate fighting a battle where innocent hard-working people will lose if the battle is won and innocent hard-working people will lose if the battle is lost. That’s just not fair and I really don’t think you will find too many people who understand that more than I do. I think about the innocent miners and their families with every single post I write. I’ll be the first to admit, I have little patience for belligerent coal miners. But the innocent miners I think about all the time.
The thing that irritates me the most and that makes me feel like I’m wasting part of my life on a battle that shouldn’t need to be fought, is that the fault here lies entirely on the shoulders of our elected officials. They could have prevented mountaintop removal from the start instead of letting it become the beast that it is today. It is because of our elected officials that miners have been losing their jobs for twenty years. It will be the fault of our elected officials if we lose the only industry supporting coalfield residents, not because we lost the industry but because we rely on it 100%. In my opinion as far as state leadership, West Virginia is fail from the highest level down. We have created the perfect example of how not to take care of your constituents… give them one job and no choice.
Fear is a big motivator in this battle. On one side you have residents, accidental environmentalists, afraid of losing their homes and heritage. On the other side you have residents, coal miners, afraid of losing their jobs and subsequently their homes. Both sides are neighbors. How unfair is it that we fight and call each other names over mistakes made by, and continuing to be made by, our elected officials? Since mountaintop removal has entered a major spotlight I wonder if anybody in the State Capital has even considered a plan to help the miners should mountaintop removal be banned? I seriously doubt it. Our elected officials have been working pretty hard to promote mountaintop removal and thus keep us locked into a mono-economy where residents have but one job and no choice.
Mine coal or lose your homeland. In some cases, mine coal and lose your homeland. Sounds like these coalfields should be in Russia or North Korea.
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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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July 14th, 2009 @ 3:53 pm
One job and no choices is about as close to summing it up as I’ve heard. And I’m in agreement with you, about our elected officials. They’re doing nothing, while continuing to draw their salaries. The miners, and surface workers, need to open up their eyes, and see the ones that are most advocating for new jobs, is those that are wanting MTR to be banned. The miners and workers are being lied to, and feed misinformation by the ones that’s providing them with a paycheck. We need to stop fighting against one another, and direct and our protest towards our elected officals. Good post, and thank you for all you do.