Knowledge can be challenging. Striving toward change—even more so.
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Present Day Coal Mining: Dishonoring our heritage.
Drive into the central Appalachian coalfields and you’ll see dozens of vehicles with stickers such as “Friends of Coal,” “Coal Mining our Future,” “Friends in Low Places” etc.…
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“Coal is all we’ve got”
My father told me and my brother on more than one occasion, “I wish I had’ve got you boys more when you were growing up. A lot of…
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Reparation
Growing up on down my hollow, coal trucks were a part of life. They rumbled up and down the road every five to ten minutes starting at 6:00…
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Buffalo Creek Disaster – 42 years Later & Still Remembering
Forty-two years ago people were suffering from the terrible loss of their loved ones and all they knew. The reason, a cheaply built slurry impoundment. Coal companies put…
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Going Against the Grain
Many people consider me to be going “against the grain” when it comes to coal politics. I am, after all, very active in social justice these days and…
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Remembering the South Mountain No. 3 Mine Explosion
December 7th, 1992 was a cold Monday morning. My brother and I were getting ready for school when the phone rang a little after 6:45 am. Mom answered…
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Fueling the Fires of Ignorance
If you take time to frequent a pro-coal Facebook page such as Count on Coal, you may or may not be surprised by the statements you find there,…
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Job Alternatives for Coal Miners
If you ask a coal miner about the “War on Coal,” chances are you’ll get an earful about the EPA, President Obama, and all of the environmentalists who…
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Telling it how it is….
I recently engaged in a conversation with people on the “Coal Miners Light” Facebook page, asking pro-coal followers if they wanted their children to become future coal miners.…
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Are We Ignorant Hillbillies?
Previously titled “Ignorance – Fighting the Appalachian Stereotype” Appalachians have been looked down upon, made fun of, and dehumanized as “uneducated,” “backwards,” or just down right “ignorant.” I…