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Profiles of Leaders
Up one levelRandy Wilson
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.
Carl Shoupe
My name is Carl Shoupe and I’m a third generation coal miner- disabled coal miner. And I’m also a disabled union coal miner. You know, back in the day when my children were small I didn’t have the chance to really stand up and say what I wanted to say about certain things becauses I was too busy raising my children- working. But I’ve got grandchildren now and they deserve something better than what I had to put up with!
Sam Gilbert
I’ve been in the coalfields all my life. In the 70s is when strip mining really became a fact of life for Kentucky. More millionaires were made in Pike County then ever was in the state of Kentucky- all from coal, all from stripmining.
Erica Urias
Is coal a cheap source of energy? 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.
Brenda Urias
Today, the beautiful mountains have been destroyed by mountaintop removal/contour mining. The streams are buried and have dried up. The air is full of dust and the well water is contaminated. The house is not as solid as it was just a few years ago. The nearby blasting is taking a toll. The mountains around the house now also poses a threat to our home in regards to flash floods and mud slides. I fear daily as to what may happen to my home. I don't want to see it destroyed but sometimes I feel I'm watching a slow death to it and to the environment that surrounds it.
Rick Handshoe
For about two years we’ve been having, when the mines went in above me, the coal company haul down past my house. We’ve gotten extreme dust, fast moving coal trucks, blasting damaging to our property, dust damaging our property. The coal trucks are extremely hazardous. We’ve grouped together as a neighborhood trying to solve some of the problems. We have gotten a little help, but we are waiting to see if that is going to fix the problem. They’ve agreed to do some things, but we’ve yet to see that. We have worked with the coal company and that didn’t work, so we had to go to the state and file complaints on blasting, water, destroying the stream, pollution. We’ve called vehicle enforcement about fast driving trucks, coal falling off, breaking people’s windows. The dust is extremely bad, you can’t use your porch. You cannot raise a garden the way it is. We’re hoping it is going to get better, but we’re yet to see that.
Patsy Carter
Her name was Dorlis, but everyone called her D. J. It’s been 5 years 11 months and 8 days, today. It’s hard. The first year, basically I didn’t know anything, nothing. And then I got up one day and I looked out and saw the coal trucks going by and you kept hearing about young people getting killed and more people getting killed. I just decided this is not right, it’s all wrong.
Nina & Mick McCoy
I first met people from KFTC when we went in 2000 to lobby for a bottle bill in Frankfort. We found out that there was such a thing as KFTC. Then we started to get involved with an incinerator that was going in here. We got a lot more information about the incinerator thanks to KFTC.
Jennifer Jewell
I first got started with KFTC when I met a couple of people who were working on welfare issues. The federal laws were changing, and we were trying to get Kentucky to allow education to count towards welfare’s work requirements.
Larry Easterling
In the year 2000, TECO Coal Company moved in to Choppin’ Branch in McRoberts, Kentucky. We started having problems with blasting, dust, had some fly-rock go through the roof of a woman’s house. Then right around spring, when the rains come, my mother got flooded out five times in three months, with major floods.
Toby Wilcher
While I was a student at Berea College, a KFTC organizer spoke to one of my classes called, “Service, Citizenship and Community” and it really sparked my interest. When I went to last year’s annual meeting, I fell in love with KFTC.