This is the letter from Cindy Rank, Mining Chair of the WV Highlands Conservancy,referred to in my recent email about Robert Byrd, I failed to paste it in that email. Julian
Ever grateful for Senator Byrd's knowledge and defense of the constitution as well as his early opposition to the usurpation of power by the Executive branch leading up to the war in Iraq, i remain thoroughly convinced that if the good Senator could see clearly, he would realize that Hugh Rogers and Abraham Lincoln were right. Times do - and have - changed, especially in the coalfields of Appalachia.
Senator Byrd is particularly blind when it comes to coal mining and how it impacts the hard working people (his people) who live and struggle to survive in the coalfields today. Nothing spoke more clearly about this lack of vision than his powerful 1999 speech on the floor of the Senate when he raised his voice and shook his finger decrying loudly "The Judge was WRONG !! The Judge was WRONG !!!!"
On the contrary, the late Judge Haden was right, and his decision in the Bragg litigation to limit mountaintop removal coal mining and valley fills was in the best interest of West Virginia and the nation.
With all due respect to the honorable Senator Byrd, i have to believe that if he visited the coalfields as much as he visits with industry lobbyists who roam the halls of Congress, he would be compelled to see that much has changed about mining today, and that the excesses of mountaintop removal, and longwall mining, and increased numbers of sludge dams are destroying the very people he feels he is defending.
The only thing that hasn't changed is the hasty departure of profit and resources that are leaving our sacred hills on "Mr. Peabody's and Mr. Massey's and Mr. Consol's coaltrains".
Sincerely,
Cindy Rank
HC 78 Box 227
Rock Cave, WV 26234
phone: 304-924-5802
"Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, things aren't going to get better, they're not!" The Lorax
For The Mountains
Julian Martin
Vice-President for State Affairs
West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
www.wvhighlands.org
1525 Hampton Road, Charleston, WV 25314
Contact me(martinjul@aol.com) for a trip to Kayford Mountain to see active and so-called reclaimed mountain top removal. Also contact me for I Love Mountainst-shirts, hats and bumper stickers and for speakers, information and exhibits on environmental issues in West Virginia.
And check out this blog on mountain top removal http://www.clipfile.org/antrim/
NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant or notice and also without any judicial or legislative oversight.
Archives
Add to del.icio.us | 
digg this
6/23/06 7:10 AM
josepholiverio.com