Our newest chapter, located in the most northern part of our state, had an interesting  weekend last week, decided to take an opportunity to table at a music festival in northern Kentucky. The festival is located at the longest continuing operating drag strip in the country, and is a diverse collection of self-described beardos.

Many, due to the nature of the festival, the feel of the music, and the sense of community, have dubbed the festival a yearly "Woodstock in Morningview", although members felt that perhaps "Bluegrass Bonnaroo" was a more appropriate nick name for the Whispering Beard Festival. Regardless though, this was a curious crowd that brought in people from all over the state.

The Northern Kentucky chapter used this event as a chance to let people the destruction of Mountain Top Removal, giving away buttons that said I Love Mountains and Stop Mountaintop Removal, selling KFTC t-shirts, books about the destructive practice, and cds.

All weekend members were talking to beardos (some familiar with our work, some not), and running into members from all over the state. There were members from Whitesburg set up talking about their music and art, and directing their customers to our booth about some of the issues facing Eastern Kentucky. There were other members who came up by chance and picked up unscheduled shifts at the booth, and directed as many of their friends over as possible.

Each member had their own approach. Some waited as people came by to look at the signs asking people to stop mountain top removal, some stopped people to hand them buttons, some pointed people to a map detailing the overlap between poverty and strip mining, and still some stopped any willing to show  the photographs showing the destruction of paradise. As member Scott Goebel told many prospective members, "Are you familiar with the John Denver song 'Almost Heaven, West Virginia?' Well, here's a picture of a home where people thought they had Almost Heaven, and ended up with Almost Level."

By the end of the weekend the Northern Kentucky chapter recruited 25 new members, raised over $250, and put over 90 people in touch with our great organization. Here, surrounded by good bands, friendly faces, and a number of beards, the Northern Kentucky chapter found fertile ground to begin growing new power.

By Mary Love

Jefferson County Chapter member

On August 13-15 a first-ever Community Leader Training Weekend took place at Camp Virgil Tate north of Charleston WV. The training was planned and conducted by the Alliance for Appalachia, of which KFTC is a member. Seventy-four folks participated from KY (15), TN (15), VA, (16) WV (17), PA (3), NC (2), DC (2), OH (1), and even one each from Colorado and California! 

Workshops included Community Organizing, Talkin’ SMCRA (led by Kevin Pentz), Facilitation, Economic Transition, Conflict Resolution, Youth Organizing, Pathway Away from Coal, and many more. The film Deep Down was also shown. There was plenty of time for conversation, campfires, great fellowship, and sharing, too.

This was a great opportunity to learn more about how to improve our organizations and develop our leaders. I hope that this is just the beginning of similar training events conducted by the Alliance!

After hitting the ground running last week with a voter registration table on the first day of classes, tabling at the student involvement fair, and posting flyers on campus, tonight was the first UK KFTC meeting of the 2010-2011 academic year.

Nearly all of the active UK KFTC leaders of last year have graduated, are taking a semester abroad, or have had to step back because of heavy school or work obligations, but new UK KFTC leader Callie Thomas has really stepped up to recruit new activists and to revive the organization on campus.  It's paid off with a dozen students coming out to this first meeting.

The group spent some time getting to know each other, learning about KFTC, and brainstorming ideas of things they might be able to accomplish this semester.  Ideas included film showings, voter registration activities, and campaigns to raise awareness of CSAs, locally created goods, and Farmers Markets.

We recruited three new KFTC members at the meeting and scheduled a campus Voter Registration tabling for next week on Thursday, September 9th from 11am to 3pm outside near the Journalism building.

"I hope to live in Kentucky for my whole life.  It's worth it to fight to make it the best possible place for all of us"     - Callie Thomas

UK KFTC meet every Wednesday at 7pm in UK Student Center room 111.  All UK students interested in our work are encouraged to attend!

Expect long lines at the DMV on Tuesday.  This week marks the first week that many state workers are on "furlough"--fancy language for being out of work for a day so that the state can cut their pay.

Meanwhile, national experts called out Kentucky for the severity of our underfunding of the retirement accounts for 84,000 state workers.  The Kentucky Employees Retirement System has a $6 billion shortfall, largely because we haven't been making the recommended deposits into that account for the last several years. 

Both the furloughs and the shaming from national experts about the state of our pension systems are two of the impacts of our leaders' neglect of our outdated tax structure.  Kentucky deserves better. 

On Saturday night, the folks at the Kentucky Theatre were nice enough to let us set up a table for their monthly showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show. The showing coincided with a free movie night for University of Kentucky students, making it a great opportunity to register some voters. Central Kentucky members registered voters, collected voting rights postcards, and handed out invitations to KFTC meetings to folks dressed in all of their Rocky Horror glory. We invited a number of students out to the UK campus meetings and had a great conversation with a man who is working to get his voting rights back.

Later on in the week, we will be continuing this great work at the Transit Center on Thursday and at the North Lexington wedding of Tanya Ferguson and Christian Torp on Saturday. Hope to see y'all there! 

We're starting to get some responses from candidates sending in their answers to the the KFTC Candidate Survey, which we will publish in a few weeks in our Voter Guide (50,000 copies strong) and on www.KentuckyElection.org.

It's a key part of our voter education campaign - asking candidates to make statements on issues and to relay those answers word-for-word to KFTC members and friends and anyone else looking for the information to help inform their votes and to make the democratic process possible.

We'll then have a strong statewide phone bank to follow-up with all of these people to make sure they're all set to vote.

We've sent surveys to all federal-level Kentucky candidates (US Senate race and candidates for all six Congressional races), plus many local state legislative, county, or city government races (check with your local organizer to find out what races we're producing voter guides for in your community).

As always, it has proven to be very difficult to get candidates to respond to our non-partisan candidate questions, which is why we need YOUR help this week.

If you are at events where any of these candidates are, ask them if they've responded to the KFTC Candidate Survey yet - or even contact the campaigns by phone or email to tell them that responding to this questionnaire is important to you as a voter.

We'll continue to follow-up with "official" KFTC phone calls and emails to the campaigns to encourage them to respond, but KFTC's strength, as always, resides in our membership so any action you can take to help would be very valuable.

A North Lexington couple is using the grand occasion of their wedding next weekend to share good fortune, food, and a little voter empowerment with everyone in their community.

Christian Torp and Tanya Ferguson, both KFTC members, expect to feed about 800 people at their wedding, to which everyone in their neighborhood is invited.

KFTC will be there to register voters and to talk to people about our campaign to restore voting rights to former felons who have served their debt to society.

If you'd like to volunteer to help us table and canvass this unique community event, let us know.

Also, click here for the LEX18 news story about the wedding that they ran yesterday.

_______________________________________________________

8/30 Update - Merlene Davis also did a great story about Christian and Tayna.  Check out the link here

 "Our water is worth more than that coal!” Bennie Massey said to the Kentucky Department of Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (DMRE) at Wednesday's hearing on the proposed strip mine for Benham & Lynch, Harlan County. Bennie, Lynch's longest running city council member, joined 20 of his neighbors and friends in Middlesboro at the DMRE to speak out against the 500-acre strip mine that will threaten the community's drinking water. 

Allies from around the state supported these brave communities by answering a KFTC call to action made last week to contact KY Dept. of Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell, telling him that enough is enough, respect the plans and concerns of local residents and give priority to protecting the communities' assets. Upon request from several residents at the hearing, the deadline for these comments has been extended. Click here to take action.

Along with water, residents of Benham and Lynch expressed several other fears about the proposed mine. “Mountains can't be destroyed and then expected to hold back water,” one woman explained after reading aloud an article about Pike County residents of Harless Creek suing a coal company for extreme flooding damage. “I have flood insurance right now and I live up on a mountain.”

 Stanley Sturgill (below) added, "I don't wanna be blasted out of bed every morning by those machines."

On Wednesday, University of Kentucky KFTC members were on campus tabling in honor of the first day of classes. We registered a total of 76 voters on their way to and from class! We invited folks out to the first meeting of the semester on September 1st. UK KFTC will meet every Wednesday at 7pm in the Student Center.

On Thursday, UK KFTC President Callie Thomas and volunteers tabled at the Student Involvement Fair. Alongside other campus organizations, we talked to students about what our organization does and handed information about our issue campaigns.

We're expecting a great turnout for the first meeting and a productive year for UK KFTC!

Portal 31

Residents of Benham and Lynch in Harlan County are creating a new future of their communities. They are asking for support to help stop another proposal to strip away the communities' assets and their hopes for the future.

“Our little communities of Benham and Lynch have a lot of potential. The Portal 31 Exhibition Coal Mine, Lynch Depot, Benham Theater, the Schoolhouse Inn, and the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum are all part of our history and heritage. We are planning to rehab the Old Restaurant and Old Fire Station, near Portal 31. We can continue to build tourism if we protect these facilities and the beauty of our mountains” – Stanley Sturgill

This area also boasts the highest peak in the state (Black Mountain), great quality drinking water, and local development plans that can be a showcase for the rest of the state.

That is, if they can keep coal companies from destroying everything.

Residents are now challenging the fifth pending coal mining permit application that puts all their present and future plans at risk. The latest is a 500-acre strip mining proposal that would come very close to historic buildings in Lynch. The company, Nally & Hamilton, has caused KFTC members numerous problems over the years. The strip mining on the other side of the mountain from Benham and Lynch destroyed Elmer Lloyd’s pond three years ago and contributed to additional problems last week. Check out his story here.

Harlan chapter members recently filed, with the help of Kentucky Resources Council, that an area including these 500 acres be declared Unsuitable for Mining. But Benham and Lynch residents must also fight for this individual permit to be denied while the larger petition proceeds for the viewshed and watershed be declared unsuitable for mining.

Their future and their children and grandchildren’s future depend on the right decisions.

Click the "act now" button below to send an email to the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell, telling him that enough is enough. Respect the plans and concerns of local residents and give priority to protecting the communities' assets.

You are encouraged to submit comments by 4 p.m. on Thursday, September 2 (this is an extension from the original deadline).

Thanks for helping and making a difference.