A Great Idea: Invite Maria Gunnoe to the State of the Union Address

This is a really great idea. Annie Leonard, who became well known for her Story of Stuff critique of consumerism, says in answer to the New York Times’ “Room for Debate” question “Who Should be Invited to the State of the Union?” that Maria Gunnoe, the noted mountaintop removal activist and one of the 300,000 West Virginia residents who were left without water from the Freedom Industries chemical spill, should be among the president’s guests.

Mr. President, invite Maria Gunnoe to your State of the Union Address.

Leonard points out, rightly, that having Gunnoe as an invited guest to the State of the Union Address would, “point to the urgent need to reform both our antiquated chemicals policy—the compound that was spilled was not regulated by state or federal law—and our energy policy, which must quickly achieve a transition to clean, renewable sources.”

            In 2009 Gunnoe received Goldman Environmental Prize. She also received the prestigious Raoul Wallenberg Medal from the University of Michigan in 2012. Gunnoe received the Wallenberg award, given to individuals who have worked against great odds for peace and human dignity, for her years of work organizing against mountaintop removal. Besides highlighting the chemical spill, her presence at the president’s speech would point up this holocaust that is devastating Appalachia and the lives of Appalachians.

Mountaintop Removal Gives West Virginians a Graveyard In the Sky

This is apparently big news. It made the pages of the Washington Post, so to me that counts as big news. Anyway, the news is that a group of West Virginians is suing one of the large coal companies there to stem further damage to a cemetery that is surrounded by a mountaintop removal coal mine. The photograph below shows the bit of land on which the graveyard is surrounded by the devastation of the mine site.

 

For West Virginians their final resting place among the trees in the middle of a mountaintop removal mine photo Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Maria Gunnoe/Associated Press

The group says that Alpha Natural Resources and its subsidiary, Independence Coal Company, have violated state law and an agreement that the coal company has with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to preserve access and keep mining at least 100 feet away from the graveyard.

            The plaintiffs claim that the access road to the gravesites has become almost impassable except for heavy-duty, four-wheel drive vehicles. Besides the degradation to the access roads, visitors to the graveyard have to request access to the site from the mine’s safety coordinator, show ID, and provide their Social Security numbers.

            The plaintiffs also say that the mine has damaged the graves. Maria Gunnoe, who has long fought mountaintop mining and has received the University of Michigan’s Raoul Wallenberg Medal in recognition for her work in environmental and social justice, says that blasting from the mine has shaken headstones loose and has caused some of the gravestones to crack, tilt, or sink. Some have been damaged by falling trees.

            Alpha denies that they are not in compliance with their agreements or the law. They say that their coal mining has not damaged the graves.

            It is ironic, at least to me, that this lawsuit concerns the effects of a mountaintop mine on the dead. This mine, the Twilight Surface Mine, basically swallowed up and destroyed the small Boone County community of Lindytown, the community that had the gravesite. A little over two years ago Massey Energy, the original owner of the mine, bought up the small town, sending almost all of its residents away from the community that many had known for generations.

            I can understand the plight of the plaintiffs in this case, their distress over the treatment of their relatives’ and ancestors’ resting places. But a greater crime seems to be how the living have been treated in this area and how their lives have been disrupted by the mountaintop coal mines. Equally distressing is the amount of power that a mine company can have. Besides blowing up the mountains of Appalachia, a single coal company can buy up an entire town, just because the town gets in the way of its plans for a mine. To me it is wrong that this country could allow such a triumph of capitalism over community.

            Another thing that is wrong is what the Washington Post considers newsworthy. I don’t deny that this is a newsworthy story. But it is one of the few stories concerning mountaintop mining that the Post has run. Searching through the online newspaper using the term “mountaintop removal” brings up a number of stories, all of which are on politics (here and here), obituaries (here and here), or arts (here). I don’t discount the merit of these news stories, but the real story in Appalachia, the real headline grabber that calls out, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” is that the mountains of Appalachia are falling because of the coal deep inside them.

Maria Gunnoe Receives the Raoul Wallenberg Award

Maria Gunnoe, who has worked for environmental and social justice in West Virginia, has just received the University of Michigan's Raoul Wallenberg Medal.

For the last eight years, Gunnoe has marched, organized, written, and spoken out against the practice of mountaintop removal. She has testified in front of congressional committees and is the recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize.

The Raoul Wallenberg Medal is given to individuals who have worked against great odds for peace and human dignity. Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat in Hungary during World War II. He saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews—some believe the number is in the hundreds of thousands—by issuing passports and finding other means of protection for Jews. Last year Aung San Suu Kyi received the medal. Archbishop Desmond Tutu received the medal in 2008.

            If there are any folks treated like second-class citizens today in this country, it is the people who live around mountaintop mines, and Gunnoe has bravely spoken up against the mine companies and our government that enables them. If anybody deserves this award, it is she.

Upon receiving the award Maria Gunnoe said, “We demand an end to the abuses of the people of Appalachia and our human rights. We deserve a life with healthy land, clean water, clean air and a clean sustainable energy and future for our children.” Photo from the Goldman Fund

An Image of Environmental and Social Degradation or Kiddie Porn?

Maria Gunnoe, a prominent opponent of mountaintop removal who has won the Goldman Environmental Prize, had been invited to testify at a hearing on the Spruce Coal Mine by the House energy and resources subcommittee.

Besides her testimony, she received something she wasn’t expecting: a questioning by police on suspicion of child pornography.

Gunnoe, who has testified for the committee four times before, had always felt that the members of the committee had not made eye contact with her, essentially dismissing her testimony with visible lack of interest or engagement. So Gunnoe decided to grab the subcommittee’s attention with a compelling image of West Virginians living with mountaintop removal mining. She chose a photo by noted photographer Katie Falkenberg that shows a five-year-old girl sitting in a tub of water polluted by mountaintop mining. The bathwater is a deep disturbing reddish orange. The photo, as well as other images of mountaintop mining can be found here.

The photo was pulled from the presentation by Doug Lamborn, the leader of the energy and mineral resources subcommittee, which is under the House Committee on Natural Resources. A GOP house member, Lamborn was noted as the most conservative member of Congress by the National Journal in 2009 and 2010. He is against energy conservation measures and for ramping up the extraction of domestic fossil fuels.

            Lamborn says that he did not see the photograph and relied on the judgment of his staff, who said that the photo was inappropriate. The hearing concerned recent actions by the EPA, which is currently appealing a ruling by a federal judge that the agency overstepped its authority in vetoing a permit for the Spruce mine.

            After her presentation, police questioned Gunnoe for 45 minutes.

If only we had more people like Gunnoe, who bravely stand up to the power of big money and King Coal. It’s too bad that besides politely ignoring her, the GOP controlled energy and resources subcommittee censors her presentation and harasses her.

            Mountaintop mining has brought West Virginia nothing good. It has destroyed communities, depressed wages, and filled in hundreds of miles of streams as it has flatted hundreds of mountains. It passes the muster of law only because the Appalachians are sparsely populated with individuals who are poorer than the rest of the U.S. and unused to working the levers of power. If things were otherwise, kingpins of Big Coal would be locked up along with the scum who peddle kiddie porn.