Portrayal of McDowell inaccurate
Editor:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Chris Hedges is yet another Pulitzer Prize winner who loves to use the word "ravaged" ("Despair: After coal departs," Aug. 24).
Hedges is upset that coal miners actually left McDowell County when the coal ran out. What were they supposed to do? Hang around for welfare? And the mean old coal companies ravaged the earth and took all the money from the ravaged miners and skipped town.
That ain't the way it was.
For 100 years those miners removed 15 million tons of coal from McDowell mines every year. The miners and their families used the money to build schools and new lives. I'd guess McDowell County alone gave the state as many as 50 medical doctors, hundreds of lawyers, engineers, aviators, ministers, social workers, a couple of writers, and at least 1,000 school teachers.
All those new citizens demanded their children speak English and embraced the wonderful freedom America gave them. They came from almost every country in the Old World -- Italy, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, along with a couple of German and a few Johnny Bulls from Great Britain. Together they became the most American of all the Americans. Together, they were the great treasure of all.
How American is a Judge Murensky and a Judge Marinari, a mine operator named Signiago and his brother who ran a bank, a mailman named Mallamaci, a football player named Yokosuc, two lawyers named Hassen and businessmen named Lewis and Jones?
The New York Times thinks windmills can generate as much electricity as steam coal and coal is dirty and that makes coal bad. Coal's contributions to America's world-shattering industrial power that multiplied our standard of living 100 fold are forgotten.
I've got $10 bucks that says Hedges never left the Times office and he certainly ravaged the truth.
He did not see the healing green McDowell County hillsides that were once slate dumps. Certainly he knew that Elkhorn Creek, once a black stream of wet coal dust, is now crystal clear and loaded with prize-winning trout. Welch was ravaged, not by coal but two floods. Mayor Martha Moore rebuilt the entire town with money she got from the new penitentiary.
Surely that would give Hedges hives. Miracle worker Martha made a deal with feds to build a new minimum-security prison just outside town. She annexed the area and the federal government now pays Welch large sum of money each year for rent.
In the process she had to take the tops off about three or four ridges to get enough flat land. The whiners and greenies wept about the loss of those "mountaintops." The mayor said she had another 59 "mountaintops" and walked away. She died last year. Around Welch, Martha Moore is considered to be a saint.
Portrayal of McDowell inaccurate
Editor:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Chris Hedges is yet another Pulitzer Prize winner who loves to use the word "ravaged" ("Despair: After coal departs," Aug. 24).
Hedges is upset that coal miners actually left McDowell County when the coal ran out. What were they supposed to do? Hang around for welfare? And the mean old coal companies ravaged the earth and took all the money from the ravaged miners and skipped town.
That ain't the way it was.
For 100 years those miners removed 15 million tons of coal from McDowell mines every year. The miners and their families used the money to build schools and new lives. I'd guess McDowell County alone gave the state as many as 50 medical doctors, hundreds of lawyers, engineers, aviators, ministers, social workers, a couple of writers, and at least 1,000 school teachers.
All those new citizens demanded their children speak English and embraced the wonderful freedom America gave them. They came from almost every country in the Old World -- Italy, Russia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, along with a couple of German and a few Johnny Bulls from Great Britain. Together they became the most American of all the Americans. Together, they were the great treasure of all.
How American is a Judge Murensky and a Judge Marinari, a mine operator named Signiago and his brother who ran a bank, a mailman named Mallamaci, a football player named Yokosuc, two lawyers named Hassen and businessmen named Lewis and Jones?
The New York Times thinks windmills can generate as much electricity as steam coal and coal is dirty and that makes coal bad. Coal's contributions to America's world-shattering industrial power that multiplied our standard of living 100 fold are forgotten.
I've got $10 bucks that says Hedges never left the Times office and he certainly ravaged the truth.
He did not see the healing green McDowell County hillsides that were once slate dumps. Certainly he knew that Elkhorn Creek, once a black stream of wet coal dust, is now crystal clear and loaded with prize-winning trout. Welch was ravaged, not by coal but two floods. Mayor Martha Moore rebuilt the entire town with money she got from the new penitentiary.
Surely that would give Hedges hives. Miracle worker Martha made a deal with feds to build a new minimum-security prison just outside town. She annexed the area and the federal government now pays Welch large sum of money each year for rent.
In the process she had to take the tops off about three or four ridges to get enough flat land. The whiners and greenies wept about the loss of those "mountaintops." The mayor said she had another 59 "mountaintops" and walked away. She died last year. Around Welch, Martha Moore is considered to be a saint.
Welch now has River Walk along Elkhorn Creek as it runs into the crystal clear Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. Every bare building with a visible wall downtown is covered with incredible murals of local interest. This is not the stuff of dime store spray paint cans and chalk. It is art -- damned fine art. Funny that Hedges was more interested in a single drug addict in Gary. He can see plenty of addicts on the sidewalk in front of The New York Times. He should take trip to Welch some time.
R. L. Taylor
Former editor and publisher of the Welch Daily News
Durham, N.C.
Charges against NRA are baseless
Editor:
I read Janet Fitch's letter "Gun violence is not a partisan issue" and found it to be full of inconsistencies and opinions not based on fact. From what I read, she seems intent on fostering the same type of partisan "division, hostility and sense of unflinching righteousness" that she so passionately accuses of others. She speaks of others being divisive, yet shows little inclusiveness on her part. Furthermore, she seems reluctant to accept that individuals committing a crime are solely responsible and should be held accountable for their transgressions.
How can she accuse the NRA of being divisive, when their life-long focus on "preventing gun fatalities" is every bit as passionate as hers? How she can accuse the NRA of taking their role of protector "too far" while doing the very same thing with her own agenda. How is her "gun violence propaganda" any different from the "NRA propaganda" she so gleefully claims to expose? If she considers herself "inclusive," she should be fair and consistent in her portrayal of others.
Her take on the NRA is hopelessly misguided; there is nothing inherently evil in the NRA's mission. There is no real world factual evidence linking the NRA or legal gun ownership to the violence in our country. Nor have these folks in any way aided or abetted this violence, quite the opposite; the primary focus of the NRA is education and freedom.
Like everyone else in a free society, the NRA has a political agenda, and they have every right to be suspicious of our president, the left wing of Democratic Party and the United Nations, who would like nothing better than to use "basic gun laws" as a cover/ploy to disarm the American public.
The "obvious truth on the gun issue," is that these folks cannot be trusted with our lives. Our Native American Indian brothers can attest to that.
Von Albert Ehman
Charleston
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