2007 – Issue 3 (June)
A Week in Washington
On Sunday, May 13th, over 100 concerned citizens from 19 states took time out of their busy schedules to come together in Washington DC to learn more about mountaintop removal, and then how to lobby their members of Congress on legislation that would greatly curtail the amount of mountaintop removal coal mining. A variety of…
Read MoreThe Cascades of Appalachia
images/voice_uploads/IMG_4236_.gif You can’t help but fall in love with The Cascades – or that special person who accompanied you on the two-mile hike getting there. The natural beauty of Little Stony Creek is so terrifically tantalizing that even folks who don’t like to hike will want to make this journey. First, there’s the music. It’s…
Read MoreVoice Volunteers Make It Happen
Ever wonder what the main driving force is behind getting the Appalachian Voice to your local news rack? Literally, an all volunteer force drives its distribution, by helping to deliver papers to various locations. How does the Appalachian Voice get distributed across the central and southern Appalachian region? The Voice is unique in the fact…
Read MoreWaste Dumps
Letter to the Editor, Time is running out to protect NC citizens from under regulated mega dumps being built in their back yards. “In the face of all out pressure from waste lobbyists, the North Carolina General Assembly listened instead to community activists & passed a one year moratorium on consideration of permit applications or…
Read MoreA Cautionary Tree Tale
images/voice_uploads/june_o7/tree_circle.gif In this story our victim is an 84-year-old widow who lives alone on 22 mountaintop acres in Tennessee. Our villain is a 30-something guy who talks a very good talk. And then we have a supporting cast consisting of an expert witness who offers some very good advice and a local sheriff and district…
Read MoreAlternatives to Styrofoam
Canyon’s Restaurant Sitting overlooking one of the most gorgeous mountain views in the Appalachians, Bart Conway, owner and manager of Canyon’s Restaurant in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, is going vegetarian. No, he still serves (and eats) many delicious meat dishes, but he is lowering his carbon footprint by using canola fryer oil to heat with…
Read MoreThe Crooked Road
Climbing into the Cumberland Mountains, Virginia’s Heritage MusicTrail – “The Crooked Road” – comes to Clintwood and stops at a mighty mansion bearing the name of Ralph Stanley. A smoky-voiced singer, the 80-year-old Stanley is one of Southwest Virginia’s greatest musical success stories. As one half of The Stanley Brothers, Ralph created some of the…
Read MoreThe Pines: The Good and the Bad
Jim Minick is a professor of English at Radford University and the author of Finding a Clear Path_, a collection of essays was published by West Virginia University press. Pine trees receive a large share of bad press in environmental circles, and sometimes rightly so. Their use in plantations has been linked to increasing global…
Read MoreStrange Bedfellows
The strangest bedfellows in West Virginia, the AFL-CIO / United Mine Workers union and the WV Chamber of Commerce, joined hands recently to write an article entitled “Economic cornerstone of W.Va. under attack.” They are strange bedfellows because the Chamber of Commerce would stomp out the United Mine Workers and any other union in a…
Read MoreEditorial
Jobs? What mining jobs? That strange noise coming from Appalachia’s coal fields is the sound that the truth makes when it is being mercilessly twisted. In rallies and op-ed essays this spring, the “friends of coal” have focused on a consistent theme: Jobs. A good many Appalachian politicians, union leaders and business leaders are claiming…
Read More