Coal miners and supporters of the coal industry showed their support of the coal industry Wednesday as they rallied at the nation's Capital.
The Stand Up For Coal Jobs Rally took place beneath the shadows of the Capitol because the crowd says Congress is putting their future in jeopardy.
WASHINGTON, D.C. - West Virginia coal miner Dick Curry has an idea for getting political leaders come to grips with the importance of coal: Shut off the supply to the nation's capital.
"I guarantee you they don't know how important coal is," said Curry, 64, a miner of 43 years in Philippi. "I think we should flip one of the power plants off. The coal we produce lights up Washington, D.C."
Coal miners and supporters of the coal industry showed their support of the coal industry Wednesday as they rallied at the nation's Capital.
The Stand Up For Coal Jobs Rally took place beneath the shadows of the Capitol because the crowd says Congress is putting their future in jeopardy.
By Bill Raney
President, West Virginia Coal Association
As we close the books on another truly great game, the Friends of Coal would like to thank the people of Huntington for playing host to thousands of our state's best - our hard-working coal miners and their families.
Over the past five seasons, this game has been the highlight of our annual calendar, whether it was held in Huntington or Morgantown. It is our honor to serve as the sponsors of the game.
While we all love football, our Mountaineers and our Thundering Herd, the Friends of Coal Bowl is about more than a game. Every fall, whether you wear the Blue and Gold or the Green and White, it lights up our expectations. It fills the pages of our newspapers and our television screens. It energizes us. It has become a symbol of our state, much as that little black rock for which it was named, has energized our nation for the past 100 years.
But it is more than football. It is about more than pride. It is about our future.
About what is done to or for it.
The cover of The American Scholar quarterly carries an impertinent assertion: “The Earth Doesn’t Care if You Drive a Hybrid.” The essay inside is titled “What the Earth Knows.” What it knows, according to Robert B. Laughlin, co-winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physics, is this: What humans do to, and ostensibly for, the earth does not matter in the long run, and the long run is what matters to the earth. We must, Laughlin says, think about the earth’s past in terms of geologic time.