Mountain Holler
RFK, Jr. blasts coal industry-government corruption
July 18th, 2007
Chorus after chorus of "Amen" filled Rebecca Chapel in Rock Creek, WV on Tuesday night, as community members gathered to hear Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speak out against the destruction of mountaintop removal. Kennedy blasted the corrupt connections between the coal industry and the government, claiming, "It's not just the erosion of the mountainsides…It's the erosion of American democracy."Kennedy traveled to West Virginia to work on a documentary, which will be based on his book Crimes Against Nature. The book describes the U.S. government's failure to protect its natural resources, and includes a section on mountaintop removal.
Before the chapel talk, he made a flyover to see the damage of mountaintop removal in Appalachia, and a trip to Marsh Fork Elementary, the school in the shadow of a coal silo and sludge dam. Kennedy also held a dinner-debate in Charleston Monday night with President of the WV Virginia Coal Association Bill Raney, whom he told, "I was asked here by the people of West Virginia who feel like they're being bullied by you and they don't have a voice. I'm here to amplify the voice."
Throughout his talk, Kennedy compared the coal industries' actions to crimes against nature committed on a national level. He described how the White House appointed corporation lobbyists as its environmental administrators, calling the administration a "captive agency": a regulatory agency captured by an industry it's supposed to regulate.
Trapped by its own captive agencies, West Virginia's mountains, rivers, and people have become "real victims," said Kennedy, by crimes of everything from theft to child abuse. Only by concealing the damage from the general public, he said, have the coal companies gotten away with their destruction. Kennedy described how during his flyover he saw "something that, if the American people could see it, it would cause a revolution. If a foreign enemy had done to this country what this industry has done to West Virginia, it would be regarded as an act of war."
When Kennedy handed over the mike to the public, though, the question pressed: what will it take for the law to give mountaintop removal its true conviction? Maria Gunnoe asked if Kennedy supported an Appalachian uprising. Joe Barnett pushed, "I really believe in legally, above-board [action], but it's been my experience that law enforcement have carted us away every time for standing up for what we believe in. I think I speak for everyone in this room when I say, 'Where do we go?'"
Kennedy acknowledged the complexity of the struggle, especially amid the corruption of the media and government. He called for a fearless and truly free media, campaign finance reform, and funds to help West Virginia find more sustainable economic opportunities, outside of mining.
He promised, though, to "stand by and fight," adding, "This is the most important fight that's going on in America, because if these companies steal West Virginia, they're gonna steal the country next."