We’ll get to Bob’s letter, that’s in response to a local newspaper article in a minute. But first, you need to look at the picture below. It’s a photo H.O.R.N. friend, Kid_A, took of Kayford Mountain, or what’s left of it, in West Virginia. This picture would never have been possible, and you would not have been able to see the sun setting that low in the sky from this vantage point, had the wonderful coal companies not blown the mountains the hell out of the way first. How “friendly” does that sound? Bob titles this picture “Sunset In Hell.”

And now, on to Bob’s letter….

It’s so nice to see that the Friends of Coal are “giving back to the community” this Christmas season! It’s the least they can do. Really. The very, very least, since these “friends” spend the rest of the year taking from West Virginians.

Mountaintop removal coal takes away our health and well-being, our homes, our communities, our children’s future and even the bare necessities of life like clean air and water. While they give toys and trinkets during the holiday season, the “Friends” of Coal give three million pounds of high explosives “back to the community” every day of the rest of the year. They “give back to the community” the mercury that accounts for IQ deficits in our babies. They “give back to the community” the asthma that has made rescue inhalers a commonplace in our children’s pockets. They “give back to the community” selenium and arsenic and aluminum and a whole host of other poisons in the water we use to bathe and baptize our children. They “give back to the community” the clouds of ghastly pollution visible from space that choke the very wind, some of it from West Virginia coal they sell to China. The West Virginia coal burned in China powers the production of the poisons in babies’ formula, poison in our toothpaste, poison in our pets’ food and even the often-toxic toys these “friends” will “give back to the community” to celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace.

Early European arrivals to this continent “gave” the Indians blankets laced with smallpox and called it “charity.” The Register-Herald article claims the “Friends” of Coal are “giving” to the community, too. What they’re giving, however, wasn’t printed.

(The article Bob is replying to can be found here.)