Protesting Not In Vain

Uncle Scam and Ed, whose daughter made the best sign...school, meet sludge impoundment. (You'll get to see the fate of Uncle Scam a little later...)

• Check out this great article about the protest.
• Unrelated info: Big Volcano Go Boom and the Hole in the Sky...

First off, big thanks to Jen O. for staying true to her heart's course and also informing me about the upcoming events this summer to educate people about MTR mining. Check it!

After a long night of glam-rock sanity, I hopped a ride south to participate in a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining at Marsh Fork Elementary School, the site that you see in my previous post. Thanks to my late night we were a bit bit late for the music and arrived to hear the many local and national speakers. Massey Energy Co., the coal company that has been under fire for its devastating practice of MTR "mining" and building a coal sludge impoundment right next to said school.

As long as trees are cut down to blow up mounatintops, their will be no going home...

The protest was a mix of anti-MTR folks and Massey workers and their families (a really, really nice bunch, that one). Some big names were there: Dr. James Hansen (also mentioned in an earlier post), actress Daryl Hannah (Kill Bill....), and Ken Hechler, a former WV Congressman (elected eight (8) times!) who, ironically, was hugely influential in making mining safer for miners (he was also the only Congressman to march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.). Those and some thirty (30) others were arrested at the gates of Massey...taunted the whole time by hugely duped peon miners. One fellow from the Rainforest Action Network said it best...to paraphrase: People got arrested for the civil rights movement, people went to jail to give women the right to vote, people protested so that they could have the weekends off from work.... Things change, and these protests are proving it!

Here is a short video clip of Ms. Hannah being taken to the slammer!

The Hot Spot at Massey, a good gamble, for once.

Daryl got to ride up front!

Uncle Scam cuffed and awaiting the gentle arm of the law.

Despite being a bit boring, this pic stuck out....

SWAT studs made everybody feel safe...

This is only the beginning of the wave. Time to spread the word, write your representatives, get informed (about people like the new EPA Chief Lisa Jackson), and take steps to live wiser!

Viva Las Montañas!