A short clip about Maytown

Good mornin' :)

It has been beautiful thus far, I woke up just in time for the sunrise.  A few notes from the Wilson Creek Lands Unsuitable for Mining Petition:

Miller Brothers Coal called the petition "frivolous".  Apparently people wanting to protect their water supply is frivolous.  People wanting to stay in their homes is a frivolous concern, according to coal companies.  People not wanting to be subjected to flash floods from valley filled creeks with up to 52% more peak discharge; people who don't think an MTR site with frequent explosions belongs in the same holler as one of the largest natural gas lines in the nation; people who don't want their community to experience landslides--all of these concerns have been declared frivolous.  At this point it boils down to Miller Brother's coal declaring the very people of Wilson Creek frivolous. 

-Bill Cayler, President of KY Coal Association
     The petition area is not fragile, it's very normal for Appalachia.  "Although this land may be near and dear to the hearts of many attendants, it is not exceptional"  MTR causes no permanent destruction, just temporary. 

-Randy Wilson, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth member
     "A lot here hinges on what is typical and what is exceptional."  Appalachia is the most exceptional biodiverse area in the nation. Chief Red Cloud said, "they made many promises, but they kept only one.  They promised to take our land and they did."  There's one creek that is exceptional, there's a group of people who decided to stand up against it, that's exceptional.  You have to decide, will you be exceptional or typical.

-Silas House, KY author
       Grew up in an underground mining family.  Wilson Creek is featured in his new work Something's Rising, in it Wilson Creek is introduced to a national audience.  "The pursuit of happiness for Wilson Creek residents is not frivolous, the pursuit of happiness is in fact guaranteed to them in the US...  Everywhere we go we have to defend this place, but we know as Appalachians that we have something special in this place"  I come to you tonight as an American, an Appalachian, and a Kentuckian.  When deciding, I ask you to remember you're all of those things too.  If you wouldn't want this for your family, you only have one you can vote in good conscience.

Check out the trailer of a documentary being filmed about Appalachian Coal.  Bev May and a few neighbors are in the clip:

http://peoplepower.blip.tv/file/355137/

In regards to Randy's comment, one quote of course comes to mind "I've never seen anything so beautiful or so ordinary."  What is more beautiful and ordinary than Wilson Creek?  What is more beautiful than a community that has lived in the same holler, called the same place on the earth home, for over 200 years?  (In reflecting on this I, of course, note that Indigenous peoples have been removed from this same land.  Let us not repeat such a history.)  What has a more humble, ordinary beauty than the mountains in Appalachia?  I've not found such a spot. 

Grateful list:

-clean water to drink

-Community organizers of KFTC

-the bravery of Wilson Creek residents

-music, and quiet to fill with song

-chilly bike rides

-the staff I work with

-that the City of Berea just joined ICLEI!  Hooray!

-my Shelby County family and our recent visit

-all people working for a more just energy future