2006 – Issue 2 (April)
Clean Smokestacks Bake Sale Helps Raise Awareness
At this rate, more than five million more bake sales would be needed to help American Electric Power company equip two aging electric power plants in Southwestern Virginia with modern pollution control systems. But since AEP has no plans to clean up their power plants, Appalachian Voices decided to lend a hand. “We thought we…
Read MoreVolunteers witness everyday tragedies, extraordinary hope in the coalfields
As our caravan wound northward from our homes in peaceful Boone, North Carolina, through the back roads toward the twisted hollows of southern West Virginia, we were reminded of why we love these mountains. But this wasn’t a sight-seeing trip. We were group of Appalachian Voices volunteers were going to a part of Appalachia that…
Read MoreAppalachian Voices Volunteer Update
Ending Mountaintop Removal Our volunteers and interns accomplished a lot this semester for our mountaintop removal campaign. So far this semester we held 5 volunteer nights where our volunteers made phone calls to members and activists across the country urging them to write their representatives and tell their families and friends about the devastating effects…
Read MoreAppalachian Spring
The end of a dark and difficult winter brings back moments of sorrow and horror like blasts of arctic wind. From the mines of West Virginia and Kentucky came news of tragedy that could have been averted. From federal appeals courts in Richmond and Knoxville came more grim news, as reckless procedures for permitting mountaintop…
Read MoreThe Ecology of Freedom
It is with much confidence that I can say that the hopes, dreams and aspirations of the individuals and communities that make up Appalachian Voices represents the essence of the majority of American voices. Many people today feel that their input into the political system that governs our lives and our land is not represented…
Read MoreEulogy for the Carolina Parakeet
images/voice_uploads/AudParakeet.300.gif Think of the most remote Appalachian wilderness you have ever visited, and imagine that landscape if you time-traveled centuries into the past. Would it look much the same as it does today? Not likely, even though it may be “untouched.” The landscape would be filled with seemingly exotic species: towering chestnut trees, vast expanses…
Read MoreCarter Family Keeps on the Sunny Side
Murals of old-time country music pioneers A.P., Sara, and Maybelle Carter line the walls of the Carter Family Fold. Children and grandmothers, teenagers and men in overalls stomp and twirl alongside each other. In the shadow of Clinch Mountain in southwest Virginia, the venue marks the birthplace of country music and has attracted musicians from…
Read MoreJack Spadaro
images/voice_uploads/Circle.Spadero.gif Jack Spadaro was a young engineer in February 1972 when he arrived at the site of a coal waste dam failure that killed 125 people. He had grown up in coal country, and had worked in the mines to get through college. Even so, he was shocked. “I made a pledge to dedicate my…
Read MoreTaking Mountaintop Removal to the United Nations
Ask any one of the 10 delegates of seven organizations representing the voices of the dispossessed in Appalachia why they’re going to the United Nations on May 6-12, and they’ll all tell you the same thing. To fight for their human rights. The coalition is collectively organizing a side event at an upcoming U.N. meeting…
Read MoreBush proposes sale of national forest lands across US
President George Bush’s proposed sale of 300,000 acres forest service lands may have been just a trial balloon for a larger land sale, as Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA) suggested in late March. But the balloon seems to be deflating quickly. Most of the Appalachian region’s governors, senators and representatives speaking on the issue have opposed…
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