Keep Your Hands Off My Mountains!
When’s the last time you put your criminal record where your principles are? We’ve all joked about radical hippie dirt worshiping activists that are “so eccentric” they don’t shave in the culturally acceptable areas and are insane enough to chain themselves to trees and tractors.
But seriously, when was the last time you were willing to get arrested for something you believe in, the environment or otherwise?
Well, from safe behind my computer screen, I’m happy to report that there are still some environmentalists left in this world willing to face the judge for a chance to bring widespread awareness to the desecration that is happening in forests and mountain ranges all over our country.
Despite receiving attention from President Obama and his environmental platform, mountain top removal, the single most destructive mining practice that has ever been allowed in this country, is alive and well in the Appalachian Mountains. And, as of this morning, 14 activists were arrested for conducting a peaceful protest to stop mountaintop removal happening right in their backyards.
According to an official statement released today on MountainAction.org, the protestors “scaled 20-story tall machinery to call attention to nation’s worst form of coal mining in first ever ascent of a mountaintop removal site’s dragline.”
Police arrested David Hollister, Melissa O’Neil, Chelsea Ritter Soronen, Lynn Stone, Charles Suggs, Rodney Webb, Jeanne Kirshon, John Johnson Greg Yost, Jessica Sue Eley, Lisa Ramsden, David Pike, Paul Brown, and Kurt Delano Mann. The group is expected to be arraigned early this afternoon at Boone County Jail in Madison, West VA.
This act of peaceful protest comes just days after the Obama Administration announced a plan to reform, but not abolish, the aggressive strip mining practice.
“I’ve written letters, attended hearings and called my congressman, so far they have done nothing to stop the disastrous and unnecessary practice of mountaintop removal,” said Charles Suggs, a 25-year old of Rock Creek, WV who was one of those climbing today. “It has come to the point when we must take direct action to abolish this practice that is immorally robbing Appalachian communities of their culture, their health and their future.”
Read the entire statement here.
This is a wake up call people. Just because we have an intelligent President in office does NOT mean we can sit back and wait for everything to work itself out. We must take ACTION to create the changes we want. The grip of King Coal is strong in the government and the private sector. They’ve done a good job of duping people with pretty ads about ‘clean coal’ technology so that we’ll all forget that they are blowing the tops off of some of the oldest and most biologicaly diverse mountains our world has ever known.
Be outraged! Show your support for the activists that were arrested and the cause they were willing to be arrested for by visiting MountainAction.org today.