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		<title>Appalachia Turns On Itself</title>
		<description>Discuss Appalachia Turns On Itself</description>
		<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself</link>
		<lastBuildDate>Wed, 22 May 2013 12:49:10 -0800</lastBuildDate>
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			<title>genierae says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196339</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I used to write Bobby Byrd some very angry letters concerning mountaintop removal. I never got a reply. He finally came out against it right before he passed away. Too little, too late.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>genierae</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:46:43 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196339</guid>
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			<title>genierae says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196336</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I think your idea is a good one, but King Coal would never allow it, and they rule West Virginia, including the courts of law. By the way, they changed that motto a few years back to "Open for Business", (I was so shocked!), but when many people protested, they reverted back to the old one.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>genierae</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 15:32:16 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196336</guid>
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			<title>Todd Williams says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196308</link>
			<description><![CDATA[On a recent kayak trip I took to Arden, WVA (that's in northern WVA south of Morgantown and Grafton) I saw another looming problem: fracking! On the backroad to Arden I counted 4 well sites. I saw a bunch of "pro fracking" signs in the front yards of several homes near the wells. Go figure. The next day I was talking to the owner of a small coffee shop in Phillipi, WVA, and she told me how both of her wells were ruined by a nearby fracking operation. The gas company told her that the methane in the water wells was not caused by the fracking. She told me those wells were over 100 years old. Who's the liar?]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Todd Williams</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:20:25 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196308</guid>
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			<title>doneasley says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196301</link>
			<description><![CDATA[ As usual, ABen, just follow the money. Why do you think the GOP wants no regulations of any kind? After all we've seen from the Big Boys, you'd have to be a dunce - OR PAID BIG BUCKS - to oppose all regulation. I suppose the next thing they'll oppose is traffic signals.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>doneasley</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 12:51:31 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196301</guid>
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			<title>reiverpacific says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196273</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I know and admire Appalachia and the people of the "Mountains and hollers", their music, story-telling and ACTIVIST traditions, especially the women who suffered for so long and had to be strong. @ "Midwest Tom", this includes Hazard KY: you're example is a poor payout for decades of degradation of not only the mountains but it's people as well, used as cheap chattel in a cruel game of "divide and conquer", a tool of destruction by the big coal and Tennessee Valley Power Co. dictatorship robber barons and their lobbyists and lackeys in DC and the KY legislature in Frankfort, which is about as corrupt as any banana republic (i've dealt with both). Also, the dirt from mountaintop removal is about as useful as a ripe banana skin on a crosswalk, structurally useless, practically non-compactable , often containing toxic leads and residual arsenic from mine tailings: I sure as Hell wouldn't build anything on it. Looks like these poor folks have been given yet another snow-job by the waster-class (keep 'em ignorant and grateful!). You just have to travel through some of the once-beautiful valleys, now polluted with coal dust in the air and depressed populations. An interesting fact according to locals I had beers with there was that at one time Eastern Kentucky had more Rolls-Royces per capita than any other area of the USA. and you still see a trash covered hillside with a brand new $50,000 pickup beside a junk trailer. Follow the bribes once again!]]></description>
			<dc:creator>reiverpacific</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:13:11 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196273</guid>
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			<title>Beth Carter says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196253</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Business interests have made rural areas economic cul-de-sacs to promote this kind of us-and-them mentality. I am from the Deep South. I have seen how those who take rural America for granted will trade it for convenience. Since very little is convenient in rural areas, this is the cul-de-sac mentioned. We are only in seemingly better circumstances in this financial meltdown because most of us are not farmers now. In the 30's that's what most of us were, with no safety net at all. However, what is currently at stake is much more than convenience. It is the continuance of a healthy existence for future generations, not mutated and/or sickly children living very short tragic lives. Giving up health for convenience is what rural America is being tempted with. Change is inevitable, but the question is whether the change will be toward health or disease for all living things which means everything we use for food. If our food sources are dangerous, then we are doomed. This is not to say that I don't feel for these hard hit, rural, do-it-yourself citizens. In fact I have much admiration, yet we all must avoid easy answers because at this stage, there are none. All of the hard decisions have been postponed until they are now critical. Convenience and status quo are mirages in the desert of political will, but we have to stick together. All for one and one for all, and I ain't whistlin' Dixie. It's too expensive to be tunnel-visioned .]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Beth Carter</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 10:08:49 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196253</guid>
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			<title>ABen says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196235</link>
			<description><![CDATA[With incidents of 'Black Lung' on the rise for the first time in decades and the state and federal agencies charged with regulating this industry seemingly toothless, there seems little outsiders can do but watch these beautiful areas of our country be destroyed. I have no problem with coal mining--it is a viable industry with a long, if rather checkered, history. What I fail to understand is why the industry refuses to strive for the safest work environment possible.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>ABen</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 09:19:44 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196235</guid>
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			<title>wrodwell says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196194</link>
			<description><![CDATA[How sad. Appalachia has a long and strong commitment to organized labor; men and women died in order to keep the workers from being totally exploited by Big Coal back in the 1920's and '30's. (Have they so soon forgotten the mine disaster at a non-union mine a few years back that killed many miners?) In the 1930's, there were even battles between company goons using machine guns and miners using their squirrel rifles. A local sheriff who fought for the rights of miners was shot and killed when asked to appear at a courthouse hearing; the perpetrators were never apprehended. Looks like contemporary mountain folk have forgotten that legacy and have instead chosen to sell themselves and their land to Big Coal in their desperation to work at any cost. What will they do when the mines are exhausted? This divide and conquer strategy, laden with corruption, appears to be working to perfection. Rather than listening to their grass-roots activists who have their best interests at heart, the people are opting to follow their long-time enemies instead. If Big Coal wins in Appalachia, its tactics will no doubt be adopted by other energy corporations and we'll see a return to the Company Store mentality throughout the country. This New American Civil War is guaranteed to bring serfdom to the working class which, along with ubiquitous government and private sector surveillance, will officially imprison us all - except for the 1%. The Corporate State rules. God Bless America!]]></description>
			<dc:creator>wrodwell</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 07:52:45 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196194</guid>
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			<title>genierae says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196178</link>
			<description><![CDATA[I grew up in W.Va., my uncle was a coal miner all of his life. I know how these people think. The real reason that a convict almost beat Obama in W.Va., is because of deeply ingrained ignorance, MidwestTom. Those who are raised there are conditioned from birth to be clannish and racist, crude lessons 24/7, using fear to brainwash innocents into hating those who are different, especially black people. W.Va. families are authoritarian, which means that boys grow up to be bigoted bullies just like "daddy", and girls become slaves to male dominance just like "mommy". Anyone who has the temerity to think differently is beaten into submission, or thrown out of the family. My cousin broke up with a girl that he loved dearly, because of rumors that she had black blood in her family. Coal mining is one of the few jobs there that pays a living wage, and needs no education to be good at. It enables men to support their families, buy things that they otherwise can't afford, and earns the respect of their peers. My heart goes out to them, there in their unconscious life, but the fact remains that they are dangerous to outsiders, and quick to explode into violence when their way of life is threatened. They are willing to destroy their own environment for short-term gain. It's a senseless way to live, but it's all they know, and change will not come to them easily.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>genierae</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:25:29 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196178</guid>
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			<title>panhead49 says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196177</link>
			<description><![CDATA["You can't fix stupid" - sorry but sadly all too true. Was born and mostly raised in WV and my Dad took me to my first mountain top removal protests 50 (yes FIFTY) years ago. Went back about 10 years ago when moving Dad out here to live with us. I remembered my Wild and Wonderful West Virginia of my youth. Heart breaking, didn't see a stand of trees that looked older than a decade. And to think of all those Federal Jobs Bobby Byrd brought to WV, yet they (we?) still have the need/greed to flatten the Mountaineer State.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>panhead49</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:23:53 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196177</guid>
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			<title>WahSupDoc says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196165</link>
			<description><![CDATA["mountaintop removal is heavily mechanized, the coal industry is the real job killer" Dragline equip is replacing manpower...the coal industry is KILLING off (literally) the 'profit creators' who are the workers! Coal companies are violating human beings basic right to exist when they compromise air, water safety. Coal communities are among the poorest and sickest in the country. Shouldn't we want a better way of life for our children?]]></description>
			<dc:creator>WahSupDoc</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 05:56:03 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196165</guid>
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			<title>Todd Williams says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196139</link>
			<description><![CDATA[All I know is that the state's tourism motto "Wild and Wonderdful West Virginia" is rapidly becoming a joke. I've spent years down there kayaking in some very remote areas and have met nice people and paddled beautiful streams. But the last several years has left me sick in my heart. I've seen the anti-Obama signs along with the King Coal propaganda signs. I've seen mountains leveled and once-clear creeks running yellow from mine acid. For years the people have been beaten down, neglected and spat upon. They are caught in the politics of coal and it's ripping the soul out of Appalachia. I have a great idea. How about closing down the coal fields and putting these miners to work building windmills and solar panels on a level that's never been seen before? As it did in the war materials efforts during World War II, the federal government needs to forge ahead with alternative energy construction and replace jobs when these mines shut down. Instead of a handout, let's get on the ball and give these mountain folks a hand up out of a miserable life digging coal. I've met many miners in my travels through West VA and not one of them likes their job. I'm sure all these miners would gladly trade coal for a clean factory job creating the next generation of power production.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Todd Williams</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2012 03:22:32 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196139</guid>
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			<title>Hey There says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196128</link>
			<description><![CDATA[It doesn't make sense with the high cancer rates that the people there aren't suing the companies that caused this but continue on defending jobs that are killing them with a 50 percent greater risk of fatal cancer and a 42 percent greater risk of birth defects than the general population. At least Midwest Tom gives an inkling of why these people are agreeing to destruction of their environment and health.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Hey There</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2012 23:19:45 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196128</guid>
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			<title>Majikman says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196125</link>
			<description><![CDATA[By that standard, they should be overjoyed when all the mountains are gone and they can bring in more WalMarts to buy bottled water to replace their polluted wells..for starters. I can't help but wonder where their "high paying jobs" will come from after they destroy their environment and all they have left are toxic sludge dumps?]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Majikman</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2012 22:16:35 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196125</guid>
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			<title>DaveM says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196124</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Much the same situation exists in Northern Minnesota, an area long-supported by large-scale iron mining. In recent years, at least two concerns have sought to commence "non-ferrous" mining in the area, using a process which in every other case on earth has left behind a toxic wasteland. However, the new mines will allegedly produce jobs for 15-20 years in an area with around 10% unemployment (in part because the existing mines must import employees as there is no one in the immediate area with the ability to do the work). So....anyone who opposes the ventures in any way is looked on as some sort of subversive. Never mind that most merely don't want to end up living on a Superfund site. Never mind that the job numbers and potential profitability of the non-ferrous mining has been horribly overstated. At least those in the area who cry for jobs at any cost will have to drink the water should they get what they want.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>DaveM</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2012 22:16:30 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196124</guid>
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			<title>Bigfella says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196116</link>
			<description><![CDATA[Your gotta love big coal! NOT! In my village there are only 6 locals left out of 48 families.= 170 people. Open cut coal had arrived 6 years back and divided the community into those against and those for.(The mine has been re-sold 4x times now the latest is Peabody of the USA.) Now some 6 years later most of those for big coal "Look at the money it will bring into the community." have sold out and left the area. They have turned against big coal as no jobs or money arrived and money declined as families moved out. Most got no jobs except for those under 25yrs old who niether drink or smoke but unlike the USA do get good pay ($1200 Aus in the hand or more.) This has push prices up for all who still live here.(Most who remain are on pensions.) The company is a USA company (God fearing!) so they brought and closed the only beer outlet for 48 kms (around 60 miles). We no longer can man the fire trucks (We used to have 48 in the bragade but now only 3 and myself to man 1 fire truck, which is a real worry with the wet on now, producing thick under growth with the mines properties over grown with weeds, so this summer when you read of fire storms think of us fighting wild fires 24/7 thanks to the Big coal ratting out our district... sell out? No-one wants it now with 8 open cut coal mines surrounding my valley (2km wide 15kms long.) which has little coal but plenty of shale oil..We are stuck and thats that.]]></description>
			<dc:creator>Bigfella</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:56:45 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196116</guid>
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			<title>MidwestTom says:</title>
			<link>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196106</link>
			<description><![CDATA[If you ever visit Hazard Kentucky, they are presently building an industrial park east of town on the only large piece of flat ground in the area, created by mountain top removal mining The people there are thankful for the flat useful ground, and they hate outsiders telling them how to live, while destroying the only high paying jobs in the area. That is why a convict almost beat Obama in West Virginia, a formerly Democratic state]]></description>
			<dc:creator>MidwestTom</dc:creator>
			<pubDate>Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:55:33 -0800</pubDate>
			<guid>http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/12334-appalachia-turns-on-itself#comment-196106</guid>
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