Archive for February 2007
Wilma Dykeman 1920 – 2006
Appalachia lost a beacon of righteousness and a tower of talent when Wilma Dykeman died at the age of 86 on December 23, 2006, in Asheville, North Carolina. Wilma Dykeman, who lived in Newport, Tennessee, throughout her adult life, was a uniquely compelling force for decades, combining a high-class background and presentation with a conscientiously…
Read MoreThe ghosts of Buffalo Creek
On the 35th anniversary of the Buffalo Creek disaster, we remember with great sorrow the 125 innocent men, women and children who lived their lives in harm’s way and lost them due to the recklessness of Pittston Coal Company. We will never forget the unethical engineering that brought millions of gallons of water crashing down…
Read MoreSo Cool – Winter hiking offers peace and solitude
Appalachia may be famous for its colorful fall foliage, But autumn gives way to an equally enchanting wonderland of snow covered hills, frozen waterfalls and the promise of evergreens speckled throughout hillsides. Hiking in the wintertime gives you a new perspective about otherwise familiar trails and local parks. In the winter, the lack of foliage…
Read MoreTwo Catholic Sisters: Working in the Web of Life
For the past 26 years, Sister Beth Davies has lived in one of the most remote towns of southwestern Virginia, in a little coal camp called St. Charles. Her “holler” literally dead ends into a mountain, but it is neither a metaphor for the way she lives or what she has helped the people of…
Read MoreDominion Power’s Blank Check
Deregulation of Virginia’s electric utilities has been a failure – almost everyone agrees on that. What to do about it ought to be the subject of a broad and far-reaching public policy debate. Instead, Virginia’s leading utility, which wrote its own ticket for deregulation back in 1999, is now hurrying to write itself a blank…
Read MoreMeet Appalachian Voices Youngest Volunteer
When asked what Olivia “Blue” Stegall thought of mountaintop removal coal mining she described it as “eeewy.” This was the word that Appalachian Voices’ youngest and highly dedicated volunteer had to say about people blowing up the mountains. Blue, a Johnson County, TN native, attests that it makes her sad when she sees destruction of…
Read MoreBuffalo Creek Survivor Testimonies
“It was a nightmare” Betty Tackett I took my children out of the house, and my husband ran across the railroad track to make sure the neighbors weren’t still in bed. He told me to take the children up off of the main road. When I got the kids in the car, we lived in…
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