November 15, 2008
Dear President-Elect Obama,
Every place I go, I feel the difference this election is making. Hearts are once again filled with Hope that you have inspired.
I’m writing to ask that you use the minds and consciences of the team you are assembling to address an issue long shelved, shoved to the back of America’s former conservative agenda.
The atrocity is Mountain-top Removal and it is wrong!
Although I live in Louisville, the flatlands, I joined a group of writers in May 2006 and toured the coal mining areas of the Eastern Kentucky Mountains, which are being destroyed in a careless manner to obtain coal cheaply and quickly. Blasting off the top of these irreplaceable mountains, scooping the exposed vein of coal, dumping the toxic waste into the streams and creeks are unspeakable acts of destruction. The majestic mountains are savaged into war zone displays, our clean waterways are defiled from near to far downstream, the animal and wildlife, flowers and fauna become extinct with their shelter gone. Tragically, the families who have lived in the coal regions are also displaced from their historic homes, literally forced out by crumbling foundations, filthy water, loss of income because coal mining does not need manpower when it has gigantic caterpillar power.
Yes, America’s financial interests need consideration. Yes, we need useful methods of energy, which the rhetoric includes clean (it’s not) coal. However, destroying our mountains, which can never be restored or reclaimed (they can’t be), is not the right thing to do.
While you have this moment, while you are developing a team of the best minds available, please utilize the opportunity to find better ways to produce energy and stop the destruction of our nation’s mountains.
Sincerely,
Mary Popham
Member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
No comments:
Post a Comment