Erica Urias
Erica Urias at a demonstration against TECO coal
Pike County, KY
Not unless you think that
people’s lives are cheap.”
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?