No, it’s not cheap.  Not for the residents.  Not for the miners. They put their lives on the line for a small percentage of the coal company's profits. The truth about coal is that my baby girl is paying for coal with her childhood and health and to me that not cheap at all.
   
    I want my home to be somewhere my daughter can grow up and not be afraid to breath in dust or be poisoned by our streams.  I want clean air and clean water.  Somewhere where its healthy and she can be happy.Somewhere we have healthy creeks and valleys.  That’s why people live here, because of the beauty of the mountains.  I want a future where we have our mountains, their serenity and peace, back.

    These issues have a chance of being resolved only if laws are changed to protect the land and people.  Right now the laws protect the coal companies and not the people or the land.
The state needs to step it up and enforce the laws we do have.  If the coal companies would obey the laws and do things right they wouldn’t hurt as many residents, workers or as much land as they do.

    All the people of Kentucky should not stand by and let their homes and heritage be destroyed. Its going to take more citizen involvement on all fronts.  People need to speak out, report more. There’s strength in numbers. The more people are out there showing that they’re affected that would shake up the elected officials. The more people you have behind you the louder our voice gets.  Our concerns have fallen on deaf ears for too long. If it were their family, property or children being sacrificed like ours, it wouldn’t be done. If we were wealthy people with political clout, something more would be done about it.

    People are scared.  People are scared of losing their jobs. People are scared if they get bought out they won’t get a good deal if they speak out.  People are scared for their families that work in the mines; afraid if they speak out it will cost their family members their jobs.  And people are afraid for themselves.  Another challenge is the people who are our elected officials; they’re all for the coal companies.  They act like the coal companies are the only ones that can do it for Kentucky. Other states thrive with out coal or mining.  Why can’t we?

"They say that we’ll have coal for 50 or 60 more years...like that’s forever."

    It’s coming to end folks, and it’s really soon.  People need to be thinking about other ways to hook up to the juice, because it's leaving here.  But they’ll continue razing these mountains until they get the last crumb of it.  And then what?  What are we going to do then?  We need alternatives and we need to start thinking about it now.

    The jobs created by coal are pretty scarce, but since it’s a monoculture, that’s not good.  Any community that depends on one industry, it’s not good.  There’s got to be a diversity.  Since there’s not, they get away with everything.  People are beholding to them because it’s not providing enough jobs and the kind of jobs people feel rewarded in.  You can’t plan the amount of destruction to the scale that is planned for eastern Kentucky and not have it impact the land and the people and especially the water.

    There haven’t been alternatives to jobs and energy and the destruction goes on.  Money, all the energy, and what jobs are provided.  When you are dependent on someone that thick, it’s a recipe for corruption.  So politicians are beholden to them.  They bow to them.  Scientists bow down to them.  Economists bow down to them.  Engineers bow down to them.  Everyone does.

    I think people are hesitant to stick their neck out, but if you have an organization behind you, it encourages you, and you have a sense of responsibility, and you’re more willing to talk.  You don’t feel like you’re worthy to be talking a lot of times.  You learn that you are and people give you good feedback and are interested in what you have to say.  That helps you grow as a person; it makes you a little more confident in who you are and where you stand.  You got people behind you.  If you’re on your own, it’s pretty difficult to make a stand and keep at it.

    We’ve gotten laws passed due to housewives, farmers, mechanics, school teachers, white folks, black folks…everyone has contributed and everyone gets to tell their story.  I think that’s important that people get to tell their story in a place where people will listen to it.

                                                                                                                    Randy Wilson, Clay County