To begin this post I want to familiarize you a little bit with the coal lobby group the Friends of Coal.
From their website -
Mission statement:
The Friends of Coal is dedicated to inform and educate West Virginia citizens about the coal industry and its vital role in the state’s future. Our goal is to provide a united voice for an industry that has been and remains a critical economic contributor to West Virginia. By working together, we can provide good jobs and benefits for future generations, which will keep our children and grandchildren close to home.
(highlighting mine)
What that means is, they are a lobbying group for the coal industry. Or maybe lobbying/activist group would be a better definition… for the coal industry. They are the prime support group in West Virginia for mountaintop removal coal mining. But above all of that I think it is important to remember they are an activist group and one side of a controversy that is splitting West Virginia apart at the seams, literally.
I am a citizen of the state of West Virginia yet my voice goes unheard in state legislature. Why? Because they are part of an activist group, the friends of coal. From Governor Manchin’s website -
Photo caption – Gov. Joe Manchin recognizes the work of mine rescue teams during the annual “Friends of Coal” Day at the West Virginia Legislature.
Imagine, a friends of coal day in the state legislature. I wonder if that is anything like cupcakes and cookies day in a kindergarten class.
From the friends of coal website -
Spirit of Beckley awarded to Friends of Coal founder – December 3, 2006
Warren Hylton, chairman of the West Virginia Coal Association’s public relations committee, was recently given the prestigious Spirit of Beckley award. Hylton received the award during a Monday, Dec. 3 ceremony.
(highlighting mine)
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In the local news – Beckley school begins coal-themed lesson plans.
I would take my children out of this school immediately if I thought for one second the friends of coal were allowed to so freely corrupt their young minds with the clean coal/pro-mountaintop removal garbage. As a parent, this story pissed me off. How dare they bring their opinion and try to teach it to our children as if their opinion is the way things are. PEOPLE!!! THIS IS AN ACTIVIST GROUP TEACHING YOUR CHILDREN THEIR BELIEFS!!! You know, this is so far beyond belief. And we don’t allow religion in the classroom?!? There is something wrong with you people. I just can’t imagine why there is not a revolution in full swing right now in the state of West Virginia. There damn sure needs to be.
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I have a couple of questions. How can the West Virginia Legislature/Governor Joe Manchin or any level of our government be a part of a PR/lobbying/activist group and still remain a government by the people, for the people? From all indication, ours is a government by the coal industry, for the coal industry. This is what I meant when I said in an earlier post that to write or call a West Virginia State Representative over anything detrimental to the coal industry is to sweep your voice under the proverbial rug right from the start. That would be like the United States writing a letter to Germany in WWII asking them to please stop, people are dying. You are better off sending 500 letters to the Governor of Arizona, for example, than 1000 letters to anybody in West Virginia politics. At least then your voice would make it to Washington when the Governor of Arizona begins questioning all the letters they are receiving from the state of West Virgina.
The friends of coal are an enemy to the residents of the state of West Virginia. Or at least, enemies to those that believe/know mountaintop removal coal mining is a bad thing.
One last question kind of off-topic. I read just recently where Governor Joe Manchin was headed to Philadelphia to lobby the EPA for a mountaintop removal permit. What I find interesting about this is that it wasn’t very long ago he told members of the Coal River Wind Project that he couldn’t get involved with the permitting process.
My rhetorical question – Hey Governor Manchin, why don’t you grow a set and tell these people the truth, it doesn’t have anything to do with the permitting process or wind or a highway… it’s all about the coal industry.
Too think our own Governor believes we are smart enough to do nothing else but blow up mountains mine coal. I’m curious how people live in the mountains outside of the coalfields. If you don’t have a coal mine site to go to everyday, how in the world do you survive? Surely you are all connected to coal mining somehow. I mean you have food on your table, clothes on your back… I just can’t believe you can have those things and not blow up mountains for them or sacrifice something for them. I envy you, I just don’t know how you do it.
Denny,
Very well said! A friend of ours was telling about the school field trip for her daughter, it was sponsored by the CEDAR program (which is another facet of the coal industry meant to indocrinate our school children) and among other things, the CEDAR program folks told about the wonders of coal, about how there was 200 years of coal left in the mountain, how MTR was good for the state and the people (and how some bad people from out-of-state are trying to stop it), and then the class was taken on a field trip to an active MTR site so they could see it firsthand, and see how good reclamation is. The trip was completed when the mine put off blast just for the school children. Of course, it impressed the kids, it was a loud blast that blew up part of a mountain.
Our friend was livid when she found out about the trip, it was supposed to have something to do with Coal Heritage, but it appears it was just about the wonders of coal and MTR.
How do we combat such ignorance and ingrained corruption in our schools, politics, etc.? Every level of government is corrupted by coal dollars. And you are spot on with your assessment of the talking head in the governors office, he’s as worthless as tits on a boar hog.
It is because of this that I am of a mind that any help will have to come from the outside, simply because politics is local & so is corruption.
It is up to us to raise hell, fight back and let the coal lobby/industry/politicans/groups that we won’t allow their crap to continue. You are correct, we need a revolution in the coalfields. Perhaps smarter politics is the way to go, and beat them at their own game. We have an opportunity to do this with the largely untapped (and anti-MTR) voting block in the eastern panhandle. That seems to be the only part of the state that isn’t bought and paid for by the coal industry (perhaps because that part of the state has no coal).
Any thoughts or idea’s on how to combat the government subsidized indocrination of our children under the guise of education?
Matthew
I think we are not going to be able to combat that individually. There needs to be a revolution/uprising something major to squash the friends of coal in every level of government.
The cure for our friends of coal infestation is not going to come from West Virginia – but it needs to start here with a revolt. Force the federal government in here and it needs to happen before this summer is gone. Before the friends of coal can legally teach our children.
I can’t even begin to put into words how much the friends of coal in the classroom pisses me off. It’s just unbelievable. If a revolution/uprising/revolt happens, I will be on the frontline.
Denny Is this not on the same line as the Dave Cooper Moutain Top Removal Road Show who visit colleges all over the country influencing young minds and is Coal River Moutain Watch not planning to also form a carriculum with the Raliegh co school board. We all know this groups agenda and are they not also “activists” ?
I would say this is a little different from the roadshow, Dave Cooper is not trying to influence 3rd graders. Not only that, the coal fields is the only place where you will more than likely find both opinions concerning mountaintop removal. To teach either one in school is just wrong. Regardless of which side of the fence you play on – you are trying to influence 3rd graders for crying out loud.
quotes from the article-
“As part of the program, third-graders were given a Friends of Coal bag with a pencil, pen, packet of crayons, and a foam lump of coal-all stamped with the Friends of Coal logo.”
“Coal is part of what makes West Virginia so special. I want them to think about jobs you know they might be interested in the future.”
“The “negative part” was not in the presentation. Peck says it’s too complicated for third graders.”
Wow!! You people are insane. Plain and simple. A foam lump of coal – lmao.
watcher likey da false equivalences
3rd grade public school = young adult on college campus
on public dime during curriculum = college campus free spech
to the extent that watcher is serious he is dangerously indifferent to the constitution.
i suggest he is just being provocative because he knows that Friends of Coal don’t belong in 3rd grade classrooms, or classrooms at any level. There is no honest or consistent justification for MTR under any name under any circumstances save the bogus argument of “property rights” which must necessarily include the right to infringe on other people’s property rights and also a nullification of the property rights of the state and federal government wrt to aquatic resources
cry baby