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.