Boone County native Ross Ballard, of mountainwhispers.com sent this to the Coal Valley News:

Did you know that Boone County and the mountaintop removal issue is being studied at Johns Hopkins University in its ‘Social Problems in Contemporary Society’ classes? I know this, since I’m the professor.

My students are constantly amazed by the complexity of problems created in a community when an industry as large and unchecked as coal can conjure up an ‘us against them’ battle cry – loud enough not only to drown out the cries for stewardship of an ancient land, but also tell residents where they can shop for food….

When temporary jobs are at stake by halting the destruction of hundreds of miles of hills and streams in West Virginia, the silence (from Washington, DC) is deafening. Big Energy has framed the issue as anti-mountaintop removal = anti-coal as a means to confuse and divide a once proud people. When it’s all gone in a few years I’ll have to rewrite my lectures to examine another sociological oddity somewhere else. Until then, I’ll continue to hold a light for those who can’t believe what they are seeing.