Coal runs Deep

2011-01-26T20:38:00.000-08:00

So this guy from my school-- someone with whom I went to school-- kind of-- I don't even think this guy made any of my AP or honor classes, but who knows he might have been in trig or something- anyway, he starts spouting off about how we need Steel to make cars and that is a good reason to have MTR mining. Then he starts saying that two bottles of some name brand water (COKE subsid?) spilled on the ground meets the same criteria for a EPA "stream". How can people be so brainwashed rude that they have the logic of fox Swen?? People that I know-- My age-- My generation?? can think this way-- How is it possible? he must be drunk, I guess.

I have these great headwaters on my land-- I have been listening to them running the last few days and this is one of the only times they REALLY run; after snow starts melting, and when it rains. Let me tell you that in ANY rainforest, the rain creates the headwaters, the streams and the rivers. Even in Nahiku, Maui, Hawai'i, where it rains more than 300 inches in a year, the streams still go dry. And believe you me, they are still very viable streams (and sound like trains coming down the mountain when they flash-- very exciting!!). At least the EPA has people that have the education in ecology and environmental natural history and biology to know how important these headwaters are. They know how important it is that these temporary streams remain clean, filtered with roots of living forests, leaf mold to hold and filter sediment, and rocks to slow the run off as it finds its way into the larger streams and rivers.

I am very disturbed by the idea that for profit of removing coal quickly and cheaply, we would allow that the top soil be completely stripped, the forests clear cut and completely destroyed, all the wildlife there- removed through devastation of habitat, and the headwaters filled with the overburden of these mining processes as they dig deep into the area, bombing with explosives and then pushing with heavy equipment all that is not coal into the areas all around. So this guy I went to HS with is saying he believes that it is okay that these headwaters are they are buried with powdered stone filled with heavy metals now blown to bits so that it dissolves into our waterways, poisoning us and our fisheries downstream --and everone is downstream from headwaters-- that it is okay to bury them, completely, for miles, and then replace the water "ways" with straight down big rock runways- no trees, no leaves, no slowing down, no keeping any pools of water, no keeping the water on the land, just a big man made mess. he could stand there, and say that a stream could compare to water poured from a plastic bottle-- chlorinated, irradiated and chemically filtered water-- that any adulterated water could have any resemblance to a living breathing stream is at best theatre of the absurd.

I do a USGS frog survey up at Birch River and the numbers of some of the frogs near the base of the MTR sites up there are stable, but the diversity is down and declining. How could the diversity of one animal stay stable when the diversity of all the plants and soil organisms and mushrooms and animals have been eliminated? Then the water is toxic-- and why shouldn't headwater start out cleaner than a pepsi product bottled in plastic? Headwater should be the Cleanest water EVER! Protect water like your life depends on it!!

I don't have all the answers. I don't know what you do for a living and I don't really care. Your family's job wasn't my business in HS and it's not my affair now. My family has never been into exploitative industry and my grandfather even refused to use DDT when it was legal-- because he was a smart, conscious man who loved the environment as his surroundings, part of himself and his life. And like Maria said in one of those films-- "I don't owe you a job". Nobody guarantees me a job and they never have. People that do something they hate or that they feel is morally wrong are selling their own souls-- and I know that I have compromised myself in driving a car, in using electricity, in drinking treated water and I have regrets about that, but I am working on what I believe is right.

I know protecting my water, and the structure of the land is RIGHT. Protecting the headwaters is right. Putting the lives of people who depend on clean water above those who want to get paid to pollute water is RIGHT. So what if I drive a car right now? I am working toward not depending on a commute. I am working on growing my own food, and creating wealth of values I hold true independent of the national economy-- PEOPLE, WATER, FOREST , SOIL--

I'm not perfect- I am intolerant. I am conflicted. I drive slower in the snow and ice as the temperatures drop. I don't need to lose traction to know my limits. I don't have to self medicate with drugs and alcohol or prescriptions or porn or sodas or smokes and I think that being and praying is all I really have to accomplish in any moment to be worthy of a place on the planet, including access to clean drinking water, clean air and the right to pursue happiness.

I am not a raw foodist, but I think they are wonderful and smell great and I love the energy of raw foodists and I would love to live in their ranks. I am not a vegan by any means and adhere more closely to the perma-cultural models of having animals to create healthier soils. I am afraid there are many who find keeping animals exploitative, and I do try to understand that sentiment, but I do not agree with it. I do abhor shark finning. I do love sharks, elephants, tigers, and mountains. Some people believe that means I would never keep a dog in a kennel-- but it does not. I will even crate a dog for training purposes, so don't think I'm going to go burn down a lab, cause I'm not. I'm not going to throw paint on a fur coat. My problem is that I would rather see furs made from domestic cat than from wild cat or lynx-- I think wild animals deserve some freedom to be wild. I am not sure how the whole eating and animal thing got into this entry, but I think it is the similar way that driving a car gets mixed up with certain reckless mining practices.

some things are phasing out-- like driving on the regular, and some things are just stupid-- like eating fast food on the regular, like blowing up mountains for your night light
okay enough already

Clean Energy

2011-01-26T10:04:00.000-08:00

OH MY
clean energy does not include Nuclear-- how insane is it to think it could?

natural gas isn't natural, or clean

and clean coal is the biggest LIE-- the biggest LIE.. the DIRTY DIRTY LIE

do politicians really think we believe this bullsit? Do they believe it? How stupid are they, or is it, how stupid do they think we are?? I have no idea anymore about the stupidity of politicians-- I think they are so corrupt that they are walking dead, empty, hollow shells like a stack of cards

the wind in my head
the dust in my heart
blow it away

2011-01-24T09:44:00.000-08:00

From: nahikurain@mac.com
Subject: Peak Water and My Own Values
Date: January 24, 2011 11:02:08 AM EST
To: john.fanning@wvsenate.gov

Dear congress Person and Fellow West Virginian:

Please consider for some time the idea of Cleaning Up West Virginia--
and doing personal cleanses and preparing for a better day of healthy living while demanding less

I feel we as a people, and as a country, need to eat less and consume a lot less energy
and we need to clean up our bodies, our yards, our homes and our lives
get the toxins out-- and we need to LOOK at our values and FEEL our way to resolving our inner conflicts

If we don't start producing MORE Quality out of less material and less energy
we will not survive-- what if the Saudi Arabia decides the dollar is no longer the world currency?
gas prices, followed by the prices of EVERYTHING else would soar OVERNIGHT!!
and on that day, What will we Value?

Our kind neighbors-- who we do not fear
and our friends with whom we share and trade seeds and loving companionship
large trees, rooted like strong women, to give us courage
and you better bet we will want to drink clean WATER
out of the ground- out of the stream- out of the RIVER

Please consider the idea of UPGRADING our water Quality standards NOW

If we decided to use less now
drive less, eat more locally produced foods
work from home, be kind to each other
and drink more quality water-- then when the rest of the world grinds to a halt
it won't bother us

we can live healthier lives and demand less on the medical industry
with clean water and clean living habits-- we grow some of the best apples in the world right here
we have some of the richest, most diverse forests, we have great fishing and hunting
we have rivers flowing in every cardinal direction-- we have healthy vibrant soils and great mushrooms

but everything depends on WATER
Please Protect our Water like our lives depend on it

and you know that commercial where Joe shoots at the EPA?
He isn't the only one in this state who knows how to shoot
Why not lets shoot for Clean Water-- and everyone wins! We ALL NEED WATER

I'm sorry I'm sorry I love you I love you
I'm sorry your decisions are hard
I' sorry you lost part of your dreams along the way
I'm sorry it feels like you are trapped
I'm sorry you think jobs are more important than water
I'm sorry if you want more power, more money, more more more
I love you like water flowing through the ground
like blood flowing through the veins of our people
like the snow stuck to the branches of the trees
like snow cream and lake swimming

BY the People, For the People, One Nation, Under God
West Virginia: the Land and it's People
Preserve and Protect the Land and Water-- to which we are so closely tied
This is our LIFE BLOOD I am talking about
Clean it UP!!
here is a picture of my baby girl-- who LOVES water and who LOVES me and who believes in YOU

Please Protect our Land and Water for HER-- Eighth Generation West Virginian-- and we have been stone cutters, farmers, lawyers, nurses, roller skate rink owners... None of my family exploited or polluted this state's land or water to seek profit and then leave with the spoils, the spoiled, salted land behind...

Sincerely,

Sara Cowgill

Joe Manchin--

2011-01-24T00:18:00.000-08:00

I'm so embarrassed-- I can not believe nevermind
wow
I love water. I am so excited that the Environmental Protection Agency has decided to come down to West Virginia and put a hand up for WATER.
I went to the EPA Public Hearing and I saw all these big guys wearing bright T-shirts about "without coal we'll all freeze to death in the dark" and outside creating a bit of a picket line with how to kill a tree-hugger violent drawings, and then these pointed comments like "trying to shut us down" and I went inside, standing there in line I was shaking all over and saying to myself-- they are going to make this about JOBS.
So I started changing my two minute speech
the EPA is not here about our political corruption, our poverty, or our lack of jobs... is that what I said?? They are not here to Shut You Down
they are here because of the Reality of the Vital Importance of WATER

You know WATER isn't going to EVER get less important
just like the cost of gas in a Post Peak Oil World isn't really ever going down
We are looking at a Peak Water World-- see Jenna Cavelle's Peakwater.org for lots of good information if you doubt for a minute that we are facing Global Water Crises. Oh I'm so non fluid right now. I'm mad because of this really scary commercial I saw of Joe Blow shooting a gun at the EPA, saying he was going to fight against the nation-- OUR Nation, Under God. this guy really creeps me out, the way he so blatantly is selling us to the wolves-- and then threatening to sue and shoot the hero who is coming to save us from those that are raping and devastating our land-- OUR land, to which we are so closely tied, OUR WATER, which is our blood and our lives.

Okay so I feel pretty strongly about this and I find myself upset and disturbed, so I start closing up and my hands start to hurt-- my bones ache from the hatefulness I feel for this guy and the weaknesses he embodies-- as Caroline Myss would say, or I imagine she would say, his behavior evokes the harlot energy that is available to any of us, and says he chooses to SELL what is sacred, priceless and precious for pennies-- and it hurts us all, it hurts all of us??
Maybe not. What if I can forgive him? what if I can say I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry to him for what he has wasted, what he has thrown away, what he has tossed to the wind-- his soul- his integrity-- how can he not miss this part of himself?
I'm sorry
and I love the human part of him as I love the spirit of the Mountains, the streams, the people everywhere. I don't want us to suffer from our mistakes.

You know I have other facets too-- and I'm a pretty good shot myself. I won a 28 pound turkey for my dorm in Alaska by winning the Turkey Shoot-- and there was no winner for the boys and a winner for the girls-- it was ME. I was the Winner. I also Won the Keim marksmanship Award later that year-- shooting. I enjoyed that very much; Maybe Joe ought to hold a Match and see if people who love WATER and who support the EPA and the USA can shoot better than he can!! Haha I don't think he would enjoy being beaten by a GIRL!! Haha

so am I in conflict? How can I love WAter and not love people who are alive because of Water-- who are essentially Water? the soul itself might even be in the magic of Water. Phillipe Cousteau wrote the book, Our Watery Planet, which was my Second Bible growing up-- Water is the Reason for all seasons- for life on this living breathing planet.

Okay I know I should proofread- I might get concise-- might tone down or build up or edit here and there, tear the whole thing apart and put it carefully back into some smoother order-- but not tonight. I'm just venting. I'm upset and I'm thirsty for some truth, some integrity and some good CLEAN MOUNTAIN FRESH SPRING WATER right out of the ground and I can also tell you that this super cold, very viscous water is absolutely the BEST STUFF on earth. I think GOD lives in it. oha baby, How sweet it is! Where did that come from?? ha ha

What does it take to get your food?

2010-03-25T00:36:00.000-07:00

How many miles has your food traveled to get to you? What if the price of gas doubled next week? I think the price of gas can double-- I am not sure-- maybe there are laws on that, but I think it can and I think it will and I think that it will suprise many people to find that they didn't really have an awareness of the origin their food. There is nothing more empowering than growing your own food, building your own shelter and collecting your own power, but your food-- it is second to WATER. What if you needed to find water? Locate the nearest water sources to your home and work, and all those along the way between your home and your kin, or your friends... streams, rivers, springs... seeps? hose bibs that are available, even, for "tap water". Keep some clean water in your home and in your car, helicopter, boat, whatever...
Now how would you get water if there was no power? Can you still pump water? Do you have rain water catchment? Do you have a well? Do you have a spring? Are mining companies destroying your water? where is the NEXT source of water?
Do you realize that sometimes when the power goes off, the sewage treatment plant can not pump sewage and they waste goes straight into the river? Please do not flush the toilet during a power outage-- do you have an alternate toilet facility? Is there an old outhouse on your place? where else could you defecate? Do you have a composting toilet? Does one of your neighbors? where would you empty a chamber pot now, if you could not flush it, or if you knew that flushing would put it into your river?
Now, start looking out for food-- who has a garden? what are they growing? where can you buy local food? where could you plant food? what edible plants grow wild near you? what edible food grows on your land, or near your roadways? what edible pants are you even familiar with that grow locally? What can you use to make tea? or medicine? or to increase vitality in the sick, young, old or weak? what native edible plants could you plant along your street? what could you plant in your yard? What can you grow inside your house? trailer? submarine? flying saucer? tree-sitter pod? what food can you get even if the power is down-- what food would you be able to keep without power? If the stores were empty and the power was off, there was no gas for less than $14/ gallon, what could you collect in an hour to feed your kids?
Where can you fish? where can you hunt? Do you know the places to find the animals you like to eat? Do you have the tools to catch the game? to catch the fish? Are you watching the prices of these items? Do you see the price of even a good knife? ammunition? Do you have a place to keep ammunition? Do you know how to keep and store any meat? or fish?

I am not talking about hoarding toilet paper, or building a stockade against the government; I'm just wondering about eating close to home, without using fossil fuels for every meal, without using fossil fuels to take a shit, have a glass of water, eat one thing--- What if you had to walk to get water? How far is it? What about Food? How far is it? Do they need power to "ring you up?"
How much of what you do every HOUR consumes coal? or gas? or both??

Getting Big Coal to quit eating our mountains, means we have to quit eating with coal in one hand and gas in the other-- no chemicals either
OH MY! I saw a tanker with a warning sign on it with a dead tree and a Fish, belly up-- it made my skin crawl phenalyalamides or something like that-- is that like benzene?? anyway-- thins that kill trees, kill me and that is another story for another day.

Monsanto??

2010-03-15T20:36:00.001-07:00

I have recently rekindled a mad passion to raise honeybees, and I also want to mention that my button on my mouse is no longer taking me to my dictionary and weather boxes and I am peeved about that.
Well is it any surprise that MTR is no good for honeybees? let's just look at it for one moment-- what could bombing be good for? bombers seem to enjoy it-- especially if they are getting paid and told "great job!" and "just make sure to run some tree huggers off the road on your way home-- and your quota today is ten". Who else-- oh the companies who make nitroglycerin and some other nasties they are pumping into the earth to crack and smash and turn it to dust. and the trains that haul it and the guy who pushes the button to release the coal into the train car. Then there is also the tug boat driver who pushes the barges down the river where they get sent to Korea-- didn't we bomb them too?
okay, but as for the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees and the moon up above-- what the moon got to do with it? Competition-- for the lunar landscape, and actually the Moon might not like being compared to a bombsite-- although is has been one for so long. Maybe the Moon is upset because we had all this rich life and we threw it away, we gave it to them, traded our whole lives for some copper, for a few pieces of gold?
This is not the prosperity that God wants for us-- I don't believe that it could be. It isn't the progress that our forefathers wanted for us-- I just refuse to think that. I think it is the lazy ass fat dumb American who thinks nothing of shitting in the drinking water-- or says uuuuu grosss at the thought of a composting toilet, or worse yet, says, "I'm not going in there" and doesn't know how to do dishes with less than seven gallons of water, who doesn't eat "rabbit food" and dies of very expensive health care routines and procedures after many years of disability.

they have to have the electricity or they don't know what to do with themselves-- they use my mountains for entertainment and they don't even think of it as wasting-- they keep saying they are using resources-- they deserve to. it's basically an entitlement issue.

I feel entitled to mountains, forests, bees, bears, fish, streams, mist, foliage--- and they feel entitled to a city that never sleeps, and amusement parks and dishwashers and AC and they would die without their MTV. okay enough. I'm tired of trying to talk.

2010-03-14T03:06:00.000-07:00

I am still here... I have been spending much of my online time on Facebook and ranting there and not really getting a hold of my thoughts and building complete sentences for awhile, so long that I think I'm going retarded. And there, my character limit is maxed and my thought runs idle.
Everywere I am someone is trying to control some aspect of it.
I can't hear myself think for all the white noise, but when I move back to the land, I won't have my computer--- yet.. I am thinking ATT might have some connection device for me that I could run off my phone service; maybe even a unit with a solar recharger-- if they don't that is a niche.

They are still bombing, Maria has got a line on the Mooney Property and is getting tax deductible funding to buy a prime mining stop in Boone County, Denise is sitting in on all kinds of meetings, Danny has effectively introduced our congress to Water Protection measures, although they are only just sensing we are here...

in th meantime, this Shale issue and the FRACK fluids are big news, as it is basically another way to destroy our water while getting "cheap" "clean" energy out of our state and leaving it a deserted wasteland--- I love these beautiful trees and mountains.

We are having huge flooding right now-- thousands of miles of streams are missing, and all the trees along them are missing, thousands of acres of thirsty forests are missing, and the rivers are maxing out at the banks--- but who is standing up and taking respeonsibility?? Not massey, no way, and people are dying in this-- "natural act of GOD" .
It has been raining forever, but it only started Flooding.

I better get some sleep, but I want to know we are keeping our eyes open to what is going on and letting them know we want our water protected-- WHAT IF we said, "at all costs"???

Open letter to Big Coal

2009-04-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

open letter to Don Blankenship, Bill Raney, CEO's of Consol, Peabody, etc.. Big Coal, Friends of Coal... etc

May all your wives, lovers, prostitutes, boy-toys, hobby friendships and any family who still freely associates with you go raw vegan gourmet and suddenly find your scent repulsive and your ruddy utterances distasteful.

May the first born of all of you and your employees, down to the mail clerks, housekeepers and refuge workers, all turn Non Profit, grow an intense love for ancient growth forests, medicinal plants and mushrooms and an overall diversity of wildlife. May all other members of your close and extended family and friends start collecting starving, injured and abandoned cats.

May all the people who inadvertently share your name denounce your affiliation.

May all the cartoons depicting your image be hilarious and poignant, and although you can not quite understand them, may you be surprised to find they are traveling the metropolitan museum circuit.

May all the tomatoes that come your way be organic and vine ripened.

May all the politicians and housewives and teachers who share your views, who refuse to stand against you despite their lack of support or those who do support you in any way share your fate.

May a flower grow on the grave of a buried stream every time you speak the truth, and may you live until every stream has a flower, or is exhumed.

May every MTR engineer quit beer and TV and start buying land with mineral rights intact, stocks in wind and night classes for green technologies. May everyone of them be physically, mentally and financially prepared to close the site and start on Appalachian Restoration, and the New Green Advance.

May your life be remembered for your works.

May every West Virginian find their identity in the beauty and bounty of the mountains and not in the generations of exploitation, humiliation and degradation of Coal companies who have stolen our land, murdered our leaders, cheated us, lied to us and told us coal mining was the only thing we were smart enough to do.

May you have a clear view of what you have done with your life and all the repercussions of your actions for at least thirty years before you lie on your death bed. May you review your contributions to Our People and Our Land on a nightly basis.

May you be visited by the spirits of the people and the land you have touched, the places you have visited your footprint and the very soul of the Mountains and Hollers you have worked.

May you and your families drink the ground water of the mountain springs where you have tread, rest in the shade of the trees of that land, eat the plenty that you have created, swim in the mountain lakes you have damned, and breathe the air of your processes.

I want for you the full scope of the heritage you have left for the rest of us. Please accept this gracious gift ; may it keep the light in your eyes.

this call for clean energy in ten years

2009-03-13T16:04:00.000-07:00

Listen, just to let you know-- my idea of clean energy has absolutely NOTHING to do with Coal. It isn't liquidified coal, it isn't natural gas made from coal,, it isn't about exploiting chemical and nuclear means of procuring energy from material.
For me, Clean means different Architecture, different building materials, different lifestyles... all this plastic and crap is just a nightmare to people like me...
Clean means clean clear sweet spring water-- out of the GROUND!
it means soil that you can smell, touch, enjoy, and not poisoned so much that you can not walk barefoot. It's about streams that run with fish to the sea, about amber waves of grain, but not gmo chemi-processed everything and dead pollinators and super- processing machines that kill all the birds come harvest time; it's not about over fishing, it's not about over eating or eating cheap or eating chicken wings for dinner with every light on in the house coated with, or built with off-gasing materials with worse pollution outside, tv's in every room with disinformation on every channel-- no, it's really about eating less, having something nice and being kind and reverent to the earth.
Let us humble ourselves in the presence of the Great Mother of All, the earth created in a picture of perfection, to marvel at the incredible beauty, to hold the sophistication of the processes in awe-- yeah, that's where You can find me, close to the ground.

quick note to native grass online seed catalogue

2009-02-12T21:56:00.001-08:00

geez, your site doesn't say if your seeds are organically grown, or if they are free from genetic engineering, if the grass would be capable of re-seeding it's self, or if the product could later be linked to pollinator and human population elimination-- do you think that might be a factor?

another comment-- water in California

2009-02-12T17:33:00.000-08:00

Hey! the last time California had a really big drought, we got a brand new kind of skateboarding!

I think these recommendations are well premised and thought-out and I feel supportive that this is the right direction to go, but I FEEL that water is a very primal inheritance and people get really emotional when you try to ration their water. Keeping California producing food is important, but maybe planting cover crops that require less water, but would continue to support, hold and nourish the soil for a less productive year might be prudent-- strawberries for some while others fields die and blow away could start a riot-- I believe it may have happened before.

the most important part is proaction! Address the issues immediately after the Clean water Protection Act, which I really need first. :)

2009-02-12T16:05:00.001-08:00

another letter:

I am really irritated that these bills are not here for me to read, and when they are, they are hundreds of pages long and full of nonsense and jibberish, and I really really get mad when you have to pass another bill to get this one passed, complicating what this bill was really about on a whole nother level, so I have to depend on you to understand what this bill means and to represent my greatest good, so in giving you this trust and hope, I want to also let you know where I stand, and what I want.
I want to be wild and free like the wind, like the water and rain and the forests! ha! I'd rather be cold and keep the mountains than watch tv while they get blown up for coal. I want MTR and the huge coal race to end. I want clean water- which to me means clean cool spring water, running trout streams and swim-worthy rivers, not chlorine, flouride and alum- inundated treated water. I think it is important to treat certyain water, but I want clean water in the ground.
I want clean land-- without poisons, pesticices, herbicides, and gmo's. I want seeds that last generation after generation without paying a re-seeding tax. I want soil conservation, river preservation and forest and wildlife protection, but MOSTLY,
I want to quit MTR coal mining
I want to quit sludge impound building and breaking
I want to quit unlined, unregulated underground injection site permits
I want to quit any dumping of any substance, fill dirt, waste, or sludge, coal ash, or sediment into ANY water way under ANY conditions or for ANY reason, and I want ANY one doing this fined imprisoned and publicly humiliated.

Now if you can still produce "dirty" energy without doing this, then go ahead, otherwise, I want clean energy-- clean energy infrastructure, jobs, maintenance, stocks, reality, and I'm willing to make sacrifices to have it. if "clean energy" means anything else, like the lie of "clean coal" then drop it like a hot potatoe! and know that I want nothing to do with it and I am not going away.

This bill would create a large and growing market for clean and truly renewable sources of electricity.

Department of Energy and Union of Concerned Scientists analyses of a 25 percent RES find that it will:

* create thousands of new jobs;
* save consumers money on their utility bills;
* reduce global warming-causing carbon emissions; and
* increase the amount of clean, renewable power in the United States by more than 135 percent over current state and federal polices--enough to power the equivalent of 150 million homes.

Please step forward to co-sponsor this vital bill.

Merry Christmas, Mr. President Elect

2008-12-30T00:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas I prayed for the Tennessee River, for people in West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. I reached out on Facebook to the groups that believe in Love and Respect for each other, for our Sacred land and our cherished water. I wrote blogs for the ilovemountains.org blog challenge, and I spent one nice day getting sun burnt putting the roof back onto the hutch after a wind storm, taking care of my small organic farm that I hope will be energy self-sufficient within five years (not twenty)with bird safe helix turbines.
I sent prayers to Gorillas in Congo, the 2000 Elephants missing in Africa, the abused baby Elephants in Bangkok, the finned Sharks, the murdered Dolphins, and sharks and whales ocean wide. I sent comments to the White House and to the EPA, and the Newspaper. I signed petitions and asked questions.
I sent love to my roadshow MTR man, the front porch App. woman, my new friend in Thailand and my old friends, silver and gold. I was going to say names, but I didn't get permission first.
I played with my baby and my Mother and started eating sprouts, seaweed and greens. I vowed to boycott coke, nestle, dole, dove, walmart, all fast food (since 1984), and I'm deciding to switch over to web tv. I mourned the death of Eartha Kitt, who's music has given me much happiness and pleasure, and I started my dream and hope notebook of what I plan to do for my country-- my future.
I wondered about a Mountain Mama Militia. I know MalcomX has much success in expressing his disdain and love-- it was very clear. I know MADD has also shared some successful results in communicating their desires for a better life. sometimes I think bumper stickers are not enough, comments and blogs aren't really getting to the point like seemingly meaningless arrests and civil disobedience or a militia could approach. Maybe a sniper approach and use green paintballs. Wish they made paint grenades.
I wondered about Derrick Jensen's comment to me what would I do if someone were raping me-- why can I just watch while they rape my land? destroy my River? my drinking bathing playing water? not just mine but the Earth's-- well, geez, maybe because they have guns, explosives, big trucks, loud mouths, lies and about 12,000 men on salaries they've never seen before--
I thought Obama can not really think he can bury CO2. what if someone would release mass quantities all at once- kill all mammals with no destruction of infrastructure and I thought maybe I could sell the movie rights before the book was even written. I thought about the Environment as a living thing, like a River is Alive, teeming with life, with stacked ecosystems, so vital to me, in all its mysteries and bounty. I remembered swimming in living water, river water- ohhh How I love it! and drinking cool mountain spring water-- how I love water! especially chlorine free sweet water; slick and sweet.
I thought, if everyone loved water as much as I do, how different the world would be. My mother thinks I want to go backwards, to the past, and maybe I do, I think we left some really important values and valuables behind; I need to go get them.
thoughts also come to me about the incredible dynamic of the American Spirit-- what got us to the Moon, what brought us together during the Great War; I don't think it was the War itself, but a solidarity in effort, and I wish we could do this now, to develop alternative energy-- alternative means NOT COAL; coal is OVER and if you say coal can't be over, then go ask the people of Buffalo Creek, and go ask the Emory River and the Tennessee River permission to walk in their shoes. All we have to do is LOVE LIFE and coal is over. All we have to do is LOVE WATER and coal is over. all we have to do is LOVE BREATHING and coal is over. We don't have to commit suicide. it is okay; we deserve to live, to love, to drink and breathe.

Tennessee River-- new ingredients

2008-12-27T19:36:00.000-08:00

Aluminum
Antimony
Arsenic
Barium
Beryllium
Cadmium
Calcium
Colbalt
Copper
Iron
Lead
Magnesium
Mercury
Molybdenum
Nickel
Potassium
Selenium
Silver
Sodium
Strontium
Tin
Vanadium
Zinc

Used to wash coal:
Aniline
Acenaphthene
Aenapthylene
Anthracene
Benzidine

I have to finish this later-- it is making me feel strange; like a punk rocker on a rap trip

Sludge, Slurry, Coal Ash and other names for Poison

2008-12-27T04:56:00.000-08:00

I jumped up and checked the aerial when I got my message my first message from Dave Cooper and his Mountain Top Removal Roadshow-- huge disaster in Tennessee. I couldn't breathe; I almost couldn't cry, but if you hold your breath long enough, well it feels like the world will surely end. If four feet deep of anything came down the mountain and covered my yard, my borage, my daisies and mint-- the mint from my grandmother's house that I've had for over twenty years and covered my neighbors house and let's see--398 more football fields worth of precious little nooks and niches.
I was in a really nice house once, on Maui-- it was a million dollar home; it had been renovated by an all-woman contractor crew of ship builders and it was built like a boat- as to say tight, and my friend Christine stopped up the toilet and she started squealing and I went in there and the shit was about to spill over and I just leaned over and turned off the water valve. No disaster.
Now it is time for us to start appreciating what we have here in Appalachia-- and I use the term very roughly. I know there are huge problems with Regionalism, especially it's ineffectiveness, but I tend to want to emphasize that our entire region is precious, that our entire region is in jeopardy, if not peril. Wait, I still don't have it right. I feel that the planet earth is in jeopardy and that the balance lies in the Appalachians, especially in West Virginia.

Some might think Ive got a little too much state pride, but I assure you that I am only thinking about basic ecological principles. WV has the surface area of Texas, and it is nearly all covered in forests and it is sitting up high, which means that water flows from WV, and this is critical to understanding the importance of its role in ecological stability. Just imagine now if you covered Texas with forests and rivers, then you could slide it into the eastern seaboard, relatively undetected and sparely populated and then keep it uneducated as possible and in poverty-- then it doesn't really change, and it is potentially completely controllable. As early as the civil war, people knew that there were vast supplies of coal here and those that did know came in and bought up the mineral rights at about 2 cents an acre. It is just awful how they lied and deceived and made people think they were getting something.
Anyway, the coal companies have lied, cheated, stolen and killed-- I mean massacred the people of West Virginia and other parts of Appalachia I am sure for access to this coal, which they stole decades ago and steal all over again, and now in the last ten or twelve years have started blasted mountains to the point of theses beautiful mountains eviscerating their internal workings into the vital waters of our side of the country. No, the mountains don't spill themselves nto the stream beds-- the draglines do that. I guess it isn't an evisceration as much as a turning inside out and for scale, do we kill a child just for the kidney? I have heard it is done, and now I see it being done here, to our children.
The coal is the kidney of the mountain, and for 20 thousand years or so, coal has been the filter to keep the water tables clean and the coal keeps getting more and more of the heavy metals and other elements that are best kept deep underground, trapped in the coal. Then they burn the coal and these poisons are then concentrated in the ash-- so here is the largest component of Clean Coal's Toxic Toilet, and the rest is chemical they add- they wash the coal with all kinds of binders to pull out impurities and then they put all the impurities in OUR WATER!

So what I am trying to say is our house is awesome; it was built by Mother Nature and it is tight and it can keep us. We need to really value every little detail of it, every square inch is important. Secondly, the toilet is overflowing!! We need to get in there and turn off the valve-- coal is over.
It may mean we can't use all the power that we want to use. It may mean that entire cities should run black outs or brown outs--it is up to all of us to come up with solutions, to BE the SOLUTIONS we seek. I have my own path. I am heading toward an almost entirely self-sufficient lifestyle which I intend to reach within five years, and I urge everyone to do what they can do to achieve thier own energy, food and water goals, but as a community, as a society, we need to turn off the valve to BIG COAL-- cut off their free streams (to destroy), cut off their subsidies-- you gotta be kidding? We are paying for this?? cut off their free hall pass-- they have been BREAKING EVER ENVIRONMENTAL law in place-- We need to start allegations against every government offical who partakes in this shit- I mean flow of excrement.

I really watned to make sure I didn't start telling what needs to be done. I don't really know. But I drank some rain water yesterday that had some broken ice in it, oh man, it was so sweet-- I really love water. It is so sweet and so yummy. Water is my favorite drink, and oh, to be emersed in it, to dive down into it, no chlorine, no arsenic, no mercury, no cadmium, no lead, no excess iron or magnesium; I mean it-- I just LOVE water.

Everyone, Happy New Year! A Toast to you in Water!!

Female Violence

2008-12-20T20:57:00.000-08:00

I am hearing more and more about how the destruction of the earth is tied to the disrespect of the Mother. Mother Earth. Some people don't understand that the way our society is running right now just isn't working, AND there are other ways. Some people think if the Man isn't running things, then the Woman is, but actually, there is the idea of woman, the idea of Mother that can be the greatest influence. All women are respected. Love that. Repeat three times.

At the Appalachian Studies Conference in Huntington, West Virginia (at Marshall) this year 2008, a man had a model that he had made of the mountains, the earth Mother and the destruction of the Appalachians personified and brought home for us at the conference. I don't know anyone who saw it who wasn't touched by the concept, wasn't reminded that this is why we love our mountains so dearly-- they are more than home, they are what nurtures and protects us, they are what loves us even when we are ugly, poor and starving, they bring us in and give us everything we need. When no one else can or will, they will be there for us. This is another reason we need to keep our mountains-- as for me, maybe I'm not getting any younger or prettier- ha ha!

And the woods, the forests and hills have always been a symbol of protection and in reality a very good defensive position for a home front, maybe like mom's dress, when under attack. consider for a moment the functional use of the forested hills of Poland during the war, and there we are again-- war war war and now the war is on us. the war is on Appalachia and the war is on women and it is being manifested on the earth, our sacred MOTHER. Even Soundgarden sings about "little brother, put his hands away, he's gonna kill our mother, and I love her" and here, little brother shows the true nature of the situation, because although the big companies have the big money, they still act so selfishly and childishly when it comes to how they behave-- with no concept of what they are doing, and no undersatnding of what the repercussions will be. Not only this, but the inherent disrespect for all living and beautiful life-giving forms is more than apparent in this envirnomental devastation.

So this is exactly what I tell people-- the destruction of the earth is a sign of the disrespect and oppression of women-- If these mean didn't hate women, they would not be able to do this to the earth. why do men hate women?

I don't know. I don't understand how they can not love the female. I look at my daughter, and I learn to love myself in a way I was never loved or taught to self-love; I see her perfection and delight. Her happiness is my highest happiness, as I see God exploring the material world through her-- she sings and dances and laughs and she loves the dirt, the plants, the snow, and rain and wind and the moon! She sees the river and says, "WATER!!" and wants to know the names of all the rivers. She says hello to big rocks on the roadside, and water falls and certain trees and groves of trees.

I call now all women to practice radical self love!! that is violent! because it violates the current bs of oppressive and negative disrespect -- I call on women to practice radical self love to raise the awareness of love for women!! Love for the earth-- big prayers for all women and woman figure and Hilde!! and fertility and even the pregnant teenage-- I mean it- when I heard people trashing these girls, I was like, HEY, where is the respect? and the girls need to respect them selves, too, but they deserve LOVE and RESPECT for being able, for being women, and for reminding the world who they are and can be-- MOTHER

Women everywhere are in such trouble. I heard recently that 90% of the Congonese women have been raped in these last few weeks. This has just got to be from a lack of knowledge, and i have to let you know, if you don't already-- you can pull the balls (testicals) off-- I want to stress: this is NOT DIFFICULT TO DO. If someone is raping you, pull their balls off; at least they won't be raping your sister next. So now, someone tell me-- what can you do to stop a drag line?? explosives? clear cutting? the DEP from giving out EASY Permits?? How do we stop the rape of our MOTHER?

I'm tired of waiting for Manchin to step up to Massey again. I'm thinking about the marching mountain mama militia-- what kind of permits do you have to have to form a militia? the black bears! okay, it must be getting late, look how creative I am!

letter to the President Elect

2008-12-18T08:21:00.000-08:00

Anyone with an ethical barometer is aghast at what is happening to my home; the sound of the train, the lovely Christmas lights, the glitz of the big city all become shadowed by the devastation they create behind the curtain of a snarled treeline ridge. I know what is happening because I hear the trees screaming, the bears crushed in their dens, the owls and hawks searching for their young; I hear the mountains weeping and I see the sickness in all my people and the lies on the billboards.
I voted for you and I prompted friends, family and strangers to vote for you because I heard what you said about my mountain home-- that the destruction must stop; now you must stop it. This will not be difficult to do. All you have to do is make the coal companies obey the laws in place before the evil Bush Administration sold our lives to King Coal for whatever perks will ensure his continued standard of living. One kind of critical law that ensures we all have clean water to drink just says don't dump into the stream- heavy metals or toxins that would kill the children, birds, game, fish that we enjoy and rely upon having for our future. Another law is about the same thing; it just states that you also would not dump any toxic hazardous heavy metals or unlined pollution within 100 feet of a stream. How hard is that, to keep our source of clean water protected?

We are smart. We went to the MOON! We went and we came back, and we can take digital images and send email and so I KNOW we can collect naturally occurring energy like sun, wind and rain to produce all the energy we need, and if those coal hounds want in on the action, they need to switch over now or go to jail for the war crimes they have committed against our country-- they have been breaking the law! killing people! killing resources! killing centuries of our future!
What are we going to do after the rapists have left and our land has been salted and the water a mire of mercury and lead? lakes of sludge impoundments that half the county doesn't even know exists yet?

I hope it won't take 100 days to stop this destruction; I would hope that you would protect the water on DAY ONE and then go see about those boys with human debris in their ice shipments over seas.

And because the Corp of Engineers has broken laws and has not upheld other laws, they should be completely dismantled and replaced-- kind of like the air traffic controllers were back in the seventies, except that this time, there is a good reason and the people will be behind your decision. Replace them with something like the GI bill incentives-- give education in green technology and pull them off the streets of Success City, Detroit, where the old economy has created such hopeless-ness and give America back to us.

the rest of this letter I got from ilovemountains.org, who was kind enough to put together a form so that I could write directly to the President's office-- where they are reading the mail! isn't that something! I love that-- I guess it should not be a shock, but after having a boot in the face for the whole of my youth, I guess I am just relieved to still be human.

I envision a country that would never allow destruction of natural and cultural heritage for its energy needs. Mountaintop removal coal mining is one of the most devastating practices perpetrated in the United States today. Please do the following to ensure we stop this egregious practice:

* Reverse the Bush Administration's weakening of the Stream Buffer Zone. Allowing coal companies to dump their mining waste into America's streams completely legitimizes the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.

* Enforce the Law: Hold the EPA, the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement, and the Army Corps of Engineers accountable for enforcing vital protections like the Clean Water Act and the Stream Buffer Zone Rule.

* Urge Congress to Pass the Clean Water Protection Act: The Clean Water Protection Act is necessary to permanently protect drinking water and to protect Appalachian coalfield residents who face frequent catastrophic flooding and pollution as a result of mountaintop removal.

* Prioritize Appalachia in America's Clean Energy Future: Some mountaintops in Appalachia have huge wind power potential and would be more beneficial in that regard than as flattened landscape. Please make Environmental Impact Assessments and economic analyses mandatory as part of your New Energy for America Plan. With finite and declining coal reserves and jobs, please ensure Appalachia receives attention and support as part of your $150 billion dollar investment in green, union jobs.

I look forward to seeing you take a leadership role in fighting mountaintop removal. Please visit www.iLoveMountains.org to learn more about mountaintop removal.

Identity Crisis, part two

2008-12-06T10:27:00.000-08:00

The Department of Environmental Protection, DEP in West Virginia got an award for having a great website, they have beautiful glossy brochures and at the Sustainable Fair, their booth was giving away bundles of free trees, although no one was there the three hours that I was there. I went to a public meeting, but we weren't allowed in the building until just fifteen minutes before the meeting started, so there was no real congregating, socailizing, or meeting of minds. We were escorted to the rooms in small groups, giving the experience an aire I associate with places of hidden agendas.
An insider told me that if they really did their job, they would be fired. But I found it encouraging that they also said that they would like to help protect the environment, but they need to have numbers of people with passion speaking out emphatically. I took it they have plenty of encouragement to back the coal companies agendas, and not much other ground on which to stand, but I thought they were the agency set in place to protect our environment. Oh, it's not that simple.
What they do do, it seems, is sell permits to destroy the environment, in increments, and it's very very cheap! The amounts of sludge that can be impounded is like a ton or less is 34$ and a ton and more is 60$, but there is absoultely no gradation in monies accepted for 300 billion gallons and numbers that are actually being used. And the standards set forth to protect Underground Injection Sites in other states with liners and critera for disposal is just turned on edge to allow coal companies to dump toxic waste directly into the water table! Recently, the DEP issued a permit to Massey Coal to blast and take down Coal River Mountain, a designated top-notch Wind Farm location, although years of research is showing the feasibility for wind farming-- a leader in Green Clean Power and a place to put West Virginia at the lead of the Nation in Technology, just like what Joe manchin spills on Television in his commercials, so why is this happening?
The DEP has an identity crisis just like many others in this countryside. They know they are named the DEP, but they think it means the Department of Easy Permits, and we need to help them remember they are responsible for Protecting our Environment. It's probably not their fault that they forgot; the leader is appointed, and might have to deal with more than one puppet string. It takes alot of co-ordination to make a puppet move exactly how you want it to, and they can get tangles up when they try to make a move on their own. I know someone who plays scissors rock paper really well, but we know someone might own the paper too.

Now it has been posted that the EPA, the National level Envirnomental Protection Agency is getting new power and how we were so excited to hear this until the ruleing about how they will calculate emissions hit the internet-- it seems that the EPA is forgetting who they are too, and may not be the Environmental ally I had hoped for. It is so strange to think of iving an agency power to work in your behalf, then realizing it was just a ploy of the mysterious five who foresaw the need to pacify with this agency, but also the foresight to buy them out first. Oh King Coal, did you really kill the Kennedy's? and let the Stones blame it on us, because we buy your products?
Maybe it is our fault, using electricity, but many with their lights on have really been in the dark about how it is sequestered, and all the dirty process and bad politics and twisted arms that go into "keeping your lights on". Sleep well, America, the new dawn approaches and you will need your rest.

Coal Identity Crisis, part one

2008-12-06T10:26:00.000-08:00

I have a comment conversation going on a YouTube video about Mountain Top Removal that is haunting me. A coal miner is promoting the devastation of our mountains and insists that he is doing an important job for America. He wants to keep his job at the MTR site, and he says he doesn't want to have to work outside the state again-- or drive a truck (living in a truck on the road) Yuck. Living in a truck when you'd rather be home with a loving wife and precious little children, is not an option I'd even consider. Why does he? He's a coal miner and that's what he wants to be. He doesn't want to be a trucker. I see a problem that reminds me of smokers trying quit.

Quitting smoking for many people is more than the habit or the addiction, the biggest problem is the identification with the behavior. I am a smoker. I am a nonsmoker. I am a coal miner. What I do is who I am. This faulty thinking is probably not his fault; it is generations in the making. I am generations in the making too; being seventh generation American living in what is now West Virginia, I come from a long line of people who lived close to the earth and to the seasons. My Grandfather, Everette Barnard, was a diary farmer and took his DDT back to the store when he read the package, saying, "this product is no good for the fish and it kills the birds too". When new regulations made small diary operations unfeasible, he tried a small store and finally, a Roller Skating Rink. He didn't identify himself with his choices, he identified himself on his principals for making choices. I wish everyone had principals like my Grandfather, and had a self imagine and identity that were adaptable and grounded in fresh air, clean water and home grown food.

But they don't. The recent political leaders in this country seem to look to West Virginia as their own personal pantry, they have kept the doors closed and the lights out until they come to take something. Some aren't guided by an identity or by principals that I can understand, but by some system of perks, points and positions that add up to profits. Mark Wenzler, a clean-air guy for National parks says, "The administration's staunch commitment to coal is so deep that they're willing to sacrifice our national parks on the way out the door." I don't think Wenzler sees the whole picture; it is not a matter of sacrifice to them, because the park doesn't have any value in their points and perks game. It's kind of like those little puzzles of the states: Iowa is corn and West Virginia is coal and that is the only value they give our mountains and our people. They have been telling people you mine coal or you leave. You mine coal on our terms or you die. Mother Jones was jailed in West Virginia at age eighty for organizing unions for miners. Blankenship, the CEO for Massey Coal, was quoted as telling a reporter with a camera, "you're liable to get shot for taking pictures of me" and that denotes a distorted self- image and possible lack of coherent principals.

My sense is that when people know the laws of the Universe, and the principals inherent to life, much of these destortions and dellusions of this identy crisis will disappear, and solutions will manifest. First we need to call Coal Black, and don't let them say Green is the new black or coal is green or clean. More on the identity crisis of coal tomorrow.