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…
Blog Archives
Ten Years of Appalachian Voice
Anyone who has been paying any attention to the news lately knows that the planet is getting warmer and environmentalism is getting cooler. Magazine covers with people dressed in shades of green have been popping up like kudzu. Newsweek put…
The Answer is Blowin’ in the Wind
A famous British politician once said that Americans can always be trusted to do the right thing – that is, after we’ve tried everything else. So how many roads do we have to go down before we start to do…
Voices on the Wind
Why Not Now? In Kentucky, we trumpet our low-cost electricity, cheapest in the nation, but hardly ever mention that we’re also a leader in wasting electricity. And we sure can’t brag about the quality of our air or the mercury…
Appalachian 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…
The Last Leaf
I had risen, as was my custom, around 7:00 am, turned on the coffee pot, and looked across the tree tops to the bare mountain opposite my cabin on Blackrock Mountain. Pastel streaks of dawn lifted away the last vestiges…
Smiling at the Gas Pump
Think badly of me if you must, but I’ve actually enjoyed watching gasoline prices rise to their recent unprecedented levels. When the local TV news crew does a story on higher gas prices at the pump, I smile as the…
Mountain Roots
Seems there never was a time when, growing up in the upper Cumberland Plateau of East Tennessee, I didn’t smell the dust from coal trucks passing by our house on their way up the mountain. Now when I go back…
Colossal Failures of the Government
As the shock of the tragedy in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina begins to fade for some Americans, the horror remains and, for many, their emotions are beginning to turn to anger. After all, it…
