It’s Getting Hot In Here

All 13 (even more than we initially counted) of the activists arrested yeterday for occupying WV Gov. Manchin’s office have been released on charges of obstruction. The rally at the office was demanding that the the Governor build a new school for the students of Marsh Fork Elementary school in their own community. Their current school is just 225 feet from a coal silo (think moving lots of chemical laden coal = lots of coal dust in the lungs of children and teachers) plus a coal processing plant and 2.8 billion gallon LEAKING sludge impoundment just upstream. Oh, and you can’t miss the 1,849 acre mountain top removal site in their backyard.

The protest was a response to a SECOND silo the state’s Surface Mining Board approved on Tuesday which would mean exposing thsese young children to twice as much coal dust. This ruling overturned a 2005 Dept. of Enivronmental Protection ruling that the silo wasn’t legal.

The arrests were overly aggressive and targeted. All I can say on this is to watch the video and pass it along. Gov. Manchin should be embarrassed by this obvious display of brutal force against a non-violent action in a public space.

This was an affront to the community of Marsh Fork and those community leaders who have been fighting for the sake of these children for the past 3 years. These include people like Ed Wiley who walked 455 miles from WV to DC to ask Senator Byrd to help bulid the school and Larry Gibson one of the longest standing opponents of mountain top removal (over 20 years!) and who leads tours of his family’s mountain which is now surrounded by the flat tops and industrial noise of a 12,000 acre MTR site. Both Ed and Larry were arrested yesterday along with fellow community members and students who came out specifically to stand (or get dragged) in solidary with these local leaders. Learn more and take action after the jump.

The second silo is appalling. The arrests were overly brutal. But the key here is that these children desperately need a new school in their own community. Some parents are afraid these actions will spur the school district to simply close the school and force the children to bus up to 2 hours to other rural schools, which is entirely unacceptable. This practice of rural consolidation is a tactic of the coal industry and government to force people out of their homes and off their land (what parent can stand to have their children on buses for 2 or more hours a day?). Therefore, it is imperative we demand the children of Marsh Fork get a new school in their own community.

So - we need your help! Don’t let the Governor think throwing people in jail will end this. Gov. Manchin has national ambitions as Chair-Elect of the National Democratic Governor’s Association and many speculate this may be a step towards a Senate run or even (eek!) a VP position. Take some time this weekend to write a Letter to the Editor or Editorial article for your local or campus paper (especially if you’re in a state with a Democratic Gov - we need to ensure they’re just as appalled by Manchin’s inaction to protect children as the rest of us). Pass this blog post around to everyone you know. Call Gov. Manchin’s office to tell him to build the new school now.

Sample LTE:

Dear Editor,

On Friday, 13 local leaders and students were arrested in the office of WV Gov. Joe Manchin’s office for demanding he build a safe school for the students of Marsh Fork Elementary in their own community. When these children go out for recess they face a coal silo just 225 feet away, a coal processing plant, a 2.8 billion gallon sludge impoundment just 400 yards upstream and an 1,849 acre mountain top removal strip mining operation. Last week the state of WV approved a second silo just 300 feet away. These children are being poisoned for coal industry profits - and they’re not the only ones.

We must demand a stop to King Coal’s destruction in Appalachia and the rest of the country. The coal industry is responsible for environmental injustices all over the country, but we have the power to stop them. James Hansen, a chief climate scientist at NASA recently recommended a moratorium on all new coal-fired power plants, but we also need to put an end to the destructive strip mining practices of corporations extracting the coal in the first place.
(The next paragraph should localize it - here are some ideas) Here at ________ we are fighting for _________ to reduce our dependance on coal and other fossil fuels that are cooking the planet and destroying the land and people where they are extracted and processed. Or - In our state we are demanding greater development of renewable energies to replace the outdated and toxic practices of the fossil fuel industry that are destroy the planet and threatening humanity both here and globally.

And you can call, fax or email the Governor’s office - info here from a previous post.