Leaving the Mountains

They say you never leave the mountains.  That when you go, you will never feel the same and you will return and return, like a moth to light.  I am preparing to find out.  In the summer I was amazed to discover how beautiful the mountains were.  In Appalachia there are forests of trees on the mountains, which is not true of mountains in Arizona.  I had imagined that these mountains would be most beautiful in the fall but really they are startling at every phase I have seen them.

During the summer the mountains resemble clouds. All the leaves layer around them in fluffy green masses and they look as if they would be soft to the touch.  Most of the time the mountains speak in a language of shadows and silence.  The greens change all day long as the sun shifts the pallet from light to dark to light again.  When I am lying under trees in the mountains I memorize their translucent layers promising myself to paint them when there is less work to be done.

Until the leaves fell, I did not realize that the leaves alone do not define the mountains. It isn't until the leaves fall that the mountains begin to reveal themselves in their own right.  Leaves fall one by one and in handfuls leaving scattered patterns behind.  In the hills where I live right now it is the Sycamore trees that lose their leaves first and they lose their leaves from bottom to top.  Some trees lose their top leaves first.  As the leaves let go the mountains take a different shape.  The sharp bones of sycamore trees mark the landscape with their white skeletons.

Eventually, all the trees are rushing to reveal their skeletons to the sky and they erect themselves stark against the horizon.  Both delicate and substantial, they stand upright and undeniable.  The true outline of the mountains lies still beneath them.  The rocks that make their home in the mountains body emerge before your eyes.  Sometimes they dot the landscape like secret beauty marks and you realize your relationship with the mountains is changing.  It is times like these I am reminded that what my grandparents said is true.  Some things you learn only with time.

I spend the most time with the mountains at dusk and at night, because otherwise I am indoors working with computers clicking names and checking boxes.  At night the mountains show dark against the deep blue sky.  Often the moon rises above them bright and beautiful.  The light of the moon shines free of yellow hues and the shadows cast are somehow more substantial than in daylight.   At night I walk the mountain roads with my shadow and gaze out over the skyline.  

Sometimes I take pictures that I hope will hold the mountain lines, the stunning blue sky and the moon looking over it all.  But there is no photograph that can replicate what my eyes see.  Just as there is nothing that can replicate the way my heart feels standing  on the edge of this landscape.  I can feel the mountains from where I stand. I hope I will be able to feel them forever.  

WTF Mountain "Top" Removal

It's funny that they call it Mountain Top Removal.  It makes it sound like they're just taking the lid off of something--you know, no big deal! We're just taking the top off.  

Actually, its way crazier than that and the word "top" is relative.  Generally in Appalachia what's on the tops of mountains, besides their tops, are streambeds, trees, plants and animals.  These are the oldest mountains in this country, so their habitats have had a long time to develop.

When they "remove the top" of a mountain, it usually means first they knock down almost ALL of the trees. Sometimes they actually remove the debris, but more than likely they push much of it down the sides of the mountains, which is referred to as a valley fill.

Once the trees and debris have been removed, it is safe to begin blowing up the mountain to get to the coal below.  The process basically destroys every living thing on the mountain that can't fly or run away, not to mention the valuable topsoil. There are pictures of mountain top removal where you might think you are looking at pictures of the moon, because that's how little life is left.

As if all of that weren't bad enough, usually the people below the mountain begin to get flooded.  Once everything on a mountain "top" has been "removed” there is nothing to slow down the rain.  Trees act like speed bumps for rain as it travels down a mountain and waterways act as channels for this rain.  It's common practice for streambeds to be completely buried in mountain top removal process.  And even though it's against mining regulations debris is often left in the stream channels that aren't buried.  

This means all the water that used to go down the stream is now coming down the mountains wherever it can. As you might imagine with no trees it's coming down faster than it ever has.

Now mining companies are supposed to create a channel system along the side of what is left of the mountain once they have “removed” all the trees and the "top".  This channel system is intended to slow down the rain.

However, coal is in high demand being that it provides over 50% of US electricity and mining is poorly regulated by the United States Government. Mingo County is also the second poorest county in the United States and there is a lot of coal in this county.  You might see where I'm headed with this but  actually I want to back track to talk about flooding.

Perhaps you think you understand what it means to be flooded and if you live in New Orleans you probably do.  Flooding in the mountains looks different depending on where your house is located and how close it is to a streambed.

I'd like you to think for a minute about every room on the first floor of your house having three inches of water in it.  Think about what appliances are on the floor. Now add mine waste and mountain dirt to the three inches of water. Imagine what this dirty water might do to everything it touches or how hard it will be to clean.  

Then imagine your children are standing in it.  Wait did I say three inches I meant to say three feet.  Your children are standing in three feet of dirty water and you are carrying the smallest one.  Are you scared?  Your children are too, because the water is rising fast and this never happened at your house before they started taking off the "top" of the mountain.

You may think I’m being dramatic but this is a story that happens to many people in mountain towns.  The three inches story and the three feet story are both true.  There are also six feet stories and stories of whole parts of people's houses being torn off by the impact of flood rains and mountain debris.  Families have had to rescue each other from rushing waters while watching their cars float away.  Interesting again that this gets little to no media coverage.

When someone gets water in their house even when it's gone, they have to fight to keep mold from destroying their entire homes.  Black mold is a really big problem out here and if folks don't have the resources to get it cleaned up fast enough; it gets in the lungs of whoever is living in the home.

So aside from being environmentally devastating mountain top removal causes flooding that mining companies try to claim are "natural" disasters.  Nothing natural about it though, if the "top" of the mountain where still around to protect the people from the rain.  Needless to say some people in the mountains are now rightfully deathly afraid every time there is a storm.

I know it's a little overwhelming to think about this or how it connects to you.  Unfortunately, some of your electricity comes from this process.  Additionally, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but mountains are instrumental in establishing climate patterns regionally and globally and nobody really knows what happens to the climate system when enough "tops" are removed. Are you afraid? Me too.

The news loves to make reports of "crazy hippies" chaining themselves to trees or mountains.  But every time I see them I think about how scared I am, and how much I love my family, and how much I love this world. Then I thank god that they are brave enough to love the mountains enough to do something about it. 

Imagine what the world would look like if we all defend what we love.  We don’t have to chain ourselves to things to do it but of course you can if you want to.  I’m pretty sure the world will get more interesting as we get more creative.  

There are lots of things you can do if you’re interested in helping with mountain issues.  You can donate to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition http://www.ohvec.org/ or support the work of Appalshop http://appalshop.org .  If there are mountains near you, you can likely even assist with flood relief.  Today I’m focusing on simply turning the lights off when I’m not using them.  It’s true that every bit counts!

Simple Prayers

sometimes

i am so angry 

and sad 

about the things i know 

and the things that are true.

yesterday a client called

whose family member 

is in the hospital

with yet another 

heart attack

the doctors wanted to know

what was in the water.

i had to be the one to read the list of poisons...

"there was arsenic in your water and toxic levels of the following:

iron, manganese... Yes I can spell that.

m - a - n - g - a - n - e - s - e

sulfate

s - u - l - f - a - t - e

barium

b - a - r - i - u - m

beryllium

b - e - r - y - l - l - i - u - m

uranium  

u - r - a - n - i - u - m

and this is when i get really mad

URANIUM?

I want to cry and spit at the same time

because this list is criminal

it started with Arsenic

has uranium in the middle

and ends with thorium.

even though i'm not at the end of the list

I can see where it's headed

but where it's headed 

you can't fully appreciate

until you have talked to hundreds of clients 

with failing bodies

radium

r - a - d - i - u - m

selenium

s - e - l - e - n - i - u - m

aluminum

a - l - u - m - i - n - u - m

and

thorium

t - h - o - r - i - u - m

Five elements on this list are radioactive

no amount of crying or screaming 

is going to change that or 

change the damage they do to a body

Not EVER. not  ever.

and it makes me feel small

and helpless

and sad

but my heart is healthy

so i put down the phone

cry for a second

and make my next client call back

i have never been more thankful 

for my healthy little body

and i pray so hard

that this

never happens 

to anyone 

again

i scan the next form

that gives the law firm

the right to argue on our clients' behalf

and hope that if we win this case

that this 

never happens 

to anyone else 

again

it's a prayer that lives in my body now

like the lists of their illnesses

the names of their family members

and the pages and pages 

of papers we have 

documenting

their lives

and

losses

Birds Sing Rivers

Maybe some people never notice birds unless they are noisy.  I look for them to remind me of people and places I love.  There are rarely gulls here but I have seen one. They remind me of the shore and a hero of mine.

The bird I was surprised to find is not rare at all.  It is the pigeon that I found fascinating when I got here.  From the top of our office building, I can watch them swing their circles around in the sky.   I can almost feel their momentum as they swoop in unison.  Their collective dance is truly beautiful, even if you do not love them. They seem to repeat their history in the sky as they replicate a divine legacy of movement. 

For some reason, I thought pigeons were exclusive to cities--big cities. But it turns out pigeons are where people are, usually-- even the small places. I carried some pigeon feathers here with me, which I picked up in Baltimore, despite the parental warnings squawking in my head.  You know, the ones about lice and disease.  For the record I have never gotten sick from a bird feather--not crow, or jay, or catbird or-- you get the point.  Maybe I am just lucky but if that's true I'm very lucky.

Some call pigeons the rat of the sky, which is silly and mean even if the comparison makes some sense.  Pigeons always remind me of my friend Ryan Harvey not at all because he resembles one or because he spins in circles.  He doesn't.  

It's just that I can remember him vehemently defending the honor of pigeons and talking about how talented they are.  Pigeons have complex homing instincts, their hearing is incredible and they mate for life. Their noises are pretty relaxing and the dove is actually part of the pigeon family. Pigeon of Peace who knew?  Scientists did I guess. Ryan Harvey taught me some of these interesting facts but the rest I looked up after watching pigeons swing through the sky in Williamson.

There are other birds here for sure.  My neighborhood has so many blue jays that they make me miss the robins at home.  It's not that I like robins better exactly, it's just that there are about as many blue jays here as there are robins at home.  They're just walking around the lawn like they aren't unusual and I guess here they aren't.

In the evening at a certain time all these little brown birds roost together in the trees around my neighborhood and they start to make this noise that sounds ugly at first.  I think they might be grackles but the noise they make sounds like a gargling croaky crackling kind of noise until they all get to singing together. And then I swear their song sounds like rushing water.  They literally sing a stream of birdsong every night right before the sun goes down.  In their voices you can hear water rushing maybe hitting rocks--excited water. Beautiful. I wonder if the birds will go away as it gets cold.  I guess I will find out soon enough.  

At home during this time of year there are storms of crows in the sky.  Here they travel in twos and threes. Sometimes they are alone and sometimes they are cawing.  I caw back to them when no one is watching but the sky. They are listening of that I am certain.

This Winding Road

You know you might be getting too comfortable in the mountains when you start driving their winding roads with that familiar feeling.  I've been riding round these curves like I've been here before. I take the curves with confidence like I'm enjoying a familiar ride.

The substantive difference between the curvy roads here and the curvy roads at home is, on my right side there is a cliff face and on my left side there is a mountain drop. Both are only dangerous if get too close to the edge or you take a wrong turn. Oh, and the other difference is the view is significantly and consistently more beautiful. Yesterday, I found myself driving the road to my current home with one hand, while cleaning a CD with the other.  It was then I wondered if the mountains are getting too close to home.

They have a story out here at the law firm.  It's a story about how everybody who's been here for three years came to only stay a few months.  When I tell them I'm leaving at the end of November, they all nod their heads in agreement, but I can see the disbelief in their eyes.  I can almost hear them thinking "that's what we said" or "that's what you say now but we'll see."  Sometimes they actually say it out loud as if they are joking but I know they're not.  Even though I have concrete plans to leave I am both excited to feel comfortable here, and a little worried that perhaps I will be the next long-term visitor.

They say that beauty is a powerful motivator but usually they are talking about people. Beauty and comfort together could perhaps be irresistible.  The only thing stronger I imagine is love and for that reason I'm confident my hometown will win out in November. The majority of the people I love are there and luckily I can feel their love from here while I'm far away from home.

Sick in the Mountains

An estimated 1.3 billion gallons of coal slurry was pumped into abandoned mines and made its way into the water supply of the people here.  This happened over a period of twenty years.  For perspective an estimated 220 million gallons of oil were leaked into the ocean during the BP oil spill.  Somehow environmental damage and its affects on people in the mountains barely make it into the mainstream media.

Injecting coal slurry into the ground in small amounts is legal and likely it shouldn't be.  Injecting 1.3 billion gallons is not only criminal it is responsible for a horrendous amount of damage to human lives.  My mind is becoming so familiar with this knowledge that I rarely try to imagine the damage this slurry must be doing to the non-human natural environment.

Because of the work of community organizers and the law firm I work with, the people here are now getting city water pumped to them.  However, testing of the city water is still poorly regulated so when you get sick in these mountains you still can't help but wonder if it is the water. 

It doesn't matter if you drink bottled water,  and refill from the local reverse-osmosis machine, you still wonder if the machine works. Once you convince yourself the machine is legit, you wonder if your bath water is poisoning you. Or perhaps you think about that time that your roommates washed the vegetables in the sink water or you wonder.... well I think you get the point.

After days of doing health interviews for clients, my stomach virus, only leads me to think of all the people I've spoken with--the ones who can't control their bowels; the ones who are constantly losing weight.  Four days of barely eating, and going back and forth to the bathroom, in between calling clients from my sick bed, makes it impossible to not draw parallels between our lives.

Now that I don't have health insurance, illness becomes a different kind of adventure. Like many of the law firm's clients I can't afford the tests a doctor might want to run.  I know now it's best if I can document my illness with a professional in the event that the causes are not natural and in fact due to poison in the water.  

However, doctors are expensive, so I treat it the best I can myself and hope for the best.  I imagine that's easier to do because I haven't seen many of my neighbors get deathly ill.  I wish I were exaggerating when I say the words "many" and "deathly ill" but I'm not.

My co-workers assure me that I just have a passing illness, and that the city water is not as toxic as the slurry water even if the city has failed to submit their water tests for 5 years in a row.  They remind me I don't drink it anyway and say wait for the illness to pass. Luckily they were right and I'm healthy again even if I do weigh a little less.  

The health of our tap water still worries my mind from time to time and I am preparing to save up money to get our water tested. I still can't help but wonder if the water is healthy enough to bathe in and a simple hundred-dollar test could clear it up. If only the other water problems were that easy to solve. 

The Coal House Burns Down

this post is a week late.....better late than never... pictures soon to come

Williamson, West Virginia is the home of  the Coal House, one of two in the United States.  It is exactly what it sounds like, a house entirely made of coal.  The Coal House is the town Chamber of Commerce and the people who work there are really helpful and kind.  This is where, until now, you could purchase your very own Peace, Love and Coal shirt, complete with tie dye designs.  It's also a good place to get directions around town.

Today, on Columbus Day the Coal House was in flames.  I know you're wondering if I'm joking, but rest assured this is a true story. It began in the early morning and the fire fighters were on the roof when I got to work.  The fact that the Coal House is burning on Columbus day is made more ironic by the Chief Logan statue, that stands before the Coal House everyday, and was doing just that, while the building was burning.  Perhaps this was his ghostly Columbus Day revenge? 

I only witnessed the aftermath--window busted, doorway charred and firemen weaving around the building.   Later we were informed that our friend at the hotel, Smokey, was the one to notice the flames and made the call to the fire department. Yes his name is Smokey and he generally takes care of us when we need help.  Today he rescued the Coal House which holds a lot of significance for the town community who were saddened by the destruction caused by the fire.

Don't worry no one was hurt and the Mayor is thinking of using this as an opportunity to remodel the inside of the Coal House.  In fact it turns out this may work out for our friends at the Jobs Project.  It seems the Mayor is considering temporarily moving  the Chamber of Commerce into their office.  The Jobs Project works for economic diversification through renewable energy.  Who knows what the next Coal House transitions will lead to but I think Chief Logan is watching.


http://www.williamsondailynews.com/view/full_story/9881116/article-Fire-sparks-in-Coal-House?instance=secondary_news_left_column

Sun Kiss Mountains

at the end of the day 
the sun kisses the mountains 


gently 
laying light on leaves 
with the touch of a lover


i have been admiring 
the leaves here 
since summer


and the sun 
has been admiring 
the leaves here
for lifetimes


it is fall now
and while the sun 
says goodbye 
every night


the leaves 
are beginning 
their seasonal 
farewell


a final act of beauty 
spreads across 
their surfaces


this the last
i love you


until 
they are born 
again


leaves are quite daring
they do not care
who they shame 
in their beauty


together the trees 
form a chorus
so loud and full 
their love is shocking


i imagine they love 
everything 
that touches them


the sun 
the sky
your eyes


right now the beauty
of the leaves
is simply humming


shedding green 
like memories of spring


they are building up 
to the last cast of beauty
before the fall


i hope you live into a love
that yields choruses 
of beauty


and care not 
who you shame 
in singing


beauty is a brave thing
and like love 
an offering


i am singing beauty
back to the sky
swaying amidst 
the grace of this light


like leaves
the sun kisses me 
goodnight
while i rest quietly 


against the silhouette 
of the mountains


and breathe 
safe in the beauty 
of this love

Archives of Horror and Hope

Appalachian Coal serves electric companies 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

PLEASE Read this writing with the lights out.....  

Sometimes all day long I collect horror stories

like an archivist of hopes for change

this horror story 

is of a coal company 

that pumped coal slurry

into an abandoned mine 

of a mountain town

the slurry 

is now in the water

and the land

and the bodies 

the bodies 

of the people

today's calls yield:

barren women

babies with cancer

and their sons

their sons

have arsenic

in their blood

on this day they are counted

in the costs of how coal 

keeps the lights on

when the water turned

the colors 

were many

orange

brown

black

grey

but in between
it sometimes runs
clear again

and the smell

sometimes like fuel

sometimes indescribable

and you think 

you'd never wash in it

but at some point 

you have to wash yourself

and your children

and yes

your babies

if this is the only water 

you can afford

at some point

you have to drink it

and be thankful for

the cool-aid flavors 

swirling in your cup

this call yields

three little ones dead

everyone knows it was the water

we hope we can prove it

some things will be easier 

to prove than others

tumors removed

ovaries removed

gallbladders removed

kidney stones

and kidney stones

and kidney stones again

then there are the cysts

cysts everywhere

in the bones

on the neck

on the ovaries

on the thyroid

and her daughter

had a cyst in her brain

pretty positive 

it's the poison in the water

don't forget the skin

rashes, boils

open sores,

blistering skin,

itching skin

it comes and it goes

nothing seems to stop it

but it started with the poison in the water

it will be harder

to prove 

the poison took 

their teeth

teeth rotting 

from the inside out

teeth dying so fast

it's as if 

they are trying to escape

the poison 

on their own

we know 

they will blame the soda

but everyone here knows

it's the poison

in the water

it will likely be hardest

to prove the heart problems

heart attacks,

heart stints,

half the heart is enlarged,

all his arteries 

smaller than they should be

and the blood pressure, 

the blood pressure, 

the blood pressure again

but heart attacks 

are pretty common in the US

even if everyone knows 

it's the poison in the water

sometimes people list their illnesses

throwing jokes in between

laughing about how crazy that last boil was

they tell their illnesses like a tall tale

that happened to someone else

they are survivors

lovers, parents, friends, children

but sometimes you can hear how sick they are

the sadness seeps into the phone

and we both get off quickly

because the tears are coming

despite all the sickness and trouble

heart and otherwise

the hearts here are stronger 

than one could imagine

beating against poison and often poverty

they know about fighting here

fighting for your life

often uncertain 

if the illness will take them

most know 

today counts

so they take care of each other 

and live and love and laugh

with or without you

they've got heart

i'm waiting on 

the heart of coal 

to change

to practice respect

for the people 

who give their lives to it

and live with it

like another family member

it costs one dollar more a ton

for coal companies

to never again create coal slurry

yet still they wash the coal

in our water 

and a host of other poisons

that poison washes

into the lives of the people here

while distanced from the mountains

people turn on the lights

like electricity

is magic

and it is

a magic in forgetting 

that electricity 

comes from somewhere

everywhere you go

and for that

the people in the mountains

often pay 

a very high cost

sometimes they pay 

with their lives 

When you turn the lights on think about asking your electric company if the coal plants who serve them create coal slurry and think about asking them why. By the time the lawsuit we're working on is settled more people will have died from the poison in the water created by coal slurry and lots more will be even sicker.  Coal companies which aren't injecting slurry into the ground are often damming it up in pools in somebody else's hometown. 


Coal companies have the technology to do what's called dry caking to process coal, which does not involve the same type of poisons in coal production or utilize clean water to create coal slurry.   Please tell your electric company you want no part of electricity that involves slurry creation.