Oh for the good old days when West Virginia was full of mountaineers who lived off the land. You know, before those evil coal companies came and enslaved the state to its grimey grasp.
That's the view of Julia Bonds, an environmental activist from the Mountain State whom Newsweek's Daniel Stone featured in an April 21 Web-exclusive interview.
Not once in his story did Stone press Bonds on specifics about how she expected to replace jobs lost due to the anti-mining regulations that she pines for, nor did he raise an eyebrow to Bonds practically suggesting that West Virginians would be better living in shotgun shacks without electricity (emphasis mine):
Story Continues Below Ad ↓[Stone:] It seems contradictory to advocate for the environment when the livelihood of your family history is intertwined with this industry.
[Bonds:] The people in my family were mountaineers before they were coal miners. We have been managers of the land for centuries. In the mountains here, God gave us everything we need. It wasn't until the rest of the country realized that there was coal in them there hills that they came and stole and conned our ancestors out of the land. That made us homogenized people rather than the self-reliant people we were. The Industrial Revolution turned us into slaves to the industrial world.
Bonds frequently returned to her Marxist, conspiracy theory-centered rhetoric, yet Stone failed to press Bonds to back up her rhetoric or to explain exactly what types of green energy -- wind, solar, hydryoelectric -- the state can turn to and how she's so sure those industries will replace all or most of the jobs lost to coal mining's demise.:
Indeed, at the close of the interview, the best Bonds could come up with was wild rhetoric comparing West Virginians to domestic violence or kidnapping victims:
The phenomenon is a lot like battered-wife syndrome or Stockholm syndrome. The state has allowed the coal industry to create a mono-economy in West Virginia, which takes away a person's choices. They feel that the only thing they can do is mine coal. That is absolutely a conspiracy because these people think they have to. If these men had a choice between a good factory job and what they're doing now, they'd probably take the job. They do have a choice, but it's very little of a choice.
—Ken Shepherd is Managing Editor of NewsBusters
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
I would refer Ms. Bonds to
April 22, 2009 - 12:18 ET by QueenMumI would refer Ms. Bonds to the writings of Jim Comstock if she wants to educate herself on the people of West Virginia. Her contentions re: employment choices are particularly laughable in light of the state's long term Senator, Robert Byrd. All he every brought to the State of W.V. is government jobs and projects. And as far as choices go, I live in a state where many from WV moved in order to find good jobs. The good people of WV are not slaves to the coal companies. Nor are they as ignorant as Ms. Bonds wishes to portray them.
And what's with the lefties latching on to the "Stockholm Syndrome"?
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of the tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. - Ayn Rand
The environmentalists are so stupid it is funny
April 22, 2009 - 12:19 ET by sevenObama has his way and the coal miners get fired. Then they get to sit at home in the dark because their light bill went up 300 dollars a month.
But we will have justice.
Not to worry, seven.
April 22, 2009 - 12:23 ET by QueenMumNot to worry, seven. Chairman Obama will see to it that the po' folks in West Virginia get plenty of government help. See how it works? Destroy the economic base and then replace it with government funding. All hail the Great Giver of all Good Things.
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of the tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. - Ayn Rand
Correct, QueenMum. When
April 22, 2009 - 12:29 ET by SpaceManSpiffCorrect, QueenMum. When currency is worthless, the new currency is power.
On the other hand, maybe they intend for those West Virginians to go back to living off the land, much like the rest of us are expected to.
Did Orwell predict the future? Or are the enemies of freedom following Orwell's example?
Bonds doesn't have a very
April 22, 2009 - 12:23 ET by SickofLibsBonds doesn't have a very high opinion of her fellow West Virginians if a good factory job is all she thinks they can aspire to other than mining.
How about making furniture out of sticks or, failing that, load up the truck and move to Beverly?
Sickolibs: Logging was once
April 22, 2009 - 12:29 ET by QueenMumSickolibs: Logging was once a major source of income in the State of W.V. The town where my husband grew up was once a boomtown because of the lumber business and coal mines.Thanks to government regulation and buying up of lands, this is no longer the case. Now all the town can do is work at becoming a tourist destination. Lots of beautiful forests in West Virginia now. I guess the squirrels are happy.
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of the tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. - Ayn Rand
Same
April 22, 2009 - 12:35 ET by RowaneIt's the same down here in south Arkansas, at least five logging companies have gone under in the past few months, the farming has plummeted and the factories are all either gone or going overseas.
Sad, QM. I guess "renewable
April 22, 2009 - 12:45 ET by SickofLibsSad, QM. I guess "renewable growth" only applies to trees.
Good Old Days
April 22, 2009 - 12:37 ET by allanfPerhaps she aspires to recreate those halcyon days of yesteryear when people died from communicable diseases, pottable water and indoor plumbing were non-existant and life expectancy was in the 40s.
Allanf
April 22, 2009 - 13:25 ET by ahusserShe probably does. Inside each eco-nazi is a little Pol Pot waiting to get out. Hatred of humanity seems to be a prerequisite attitude and could care less if loggers or miners lose their livelihoods. Hence the popularity of shows like mega disasters or apocalyptic scenarios such as super volcanoes or the new show "Life After People". They would all like hundreds of millions if not billions of people to just disapear so the earth will be "healed" and they all can sing Kumbayah and live the primitive life in harmony with the earth mother. They have no concept of the complexity of modern life or how much they even depend on modern technology. Of course they believe they will survive any cataclysm as the elite elect. Their ideology is not only moronic, ignorant and delusional but very dangerous to the rest of us non-elect humans.
"Somehow, I told you so, just doesn't quite say it." Will Smith in 'I, Robot.'
Modern Mayans
April 22, 2009 - 13:39 ET by allanfThe ancient Mayans sacrified humans as a tribute to the cosmos -- hoping to ensure the sun continued to rise. We now have Modern Mayans who want to sacrifice the Industial Revolution based on neurotic pseudo-religous guilt.
Every mindful of diversity of opintion their mantra is "There is no debate" and "Scientific consensus".
Bring back Carrie Nation and her axe.
Bonds practically
April 22, 2009 - 12:55 ET by Chris NormanBonds practically suggesting that West Virginians would be better living in shotgun shacks without electricity
If you ever need to come up with an example of a liberal elitest attitude, this will serve as perfectly well as any...
The "Mainstream" Media: By liberals. For liberals.
Queue the crickets
April 22, 2009 - 13:27 ET by DontFeedTheTrollsHello Mz. Julia Bonds, environmental activist, could you please enlighten me and tell me the first 10 cities in America to make the switch and run completely on solar/green/wind power? No? How about in the whole wide world? Take your time.
D
Keep the ILLEGALS out, join NumbersUSA to send free faxes to your reps.
The story is a lie...
April 22, 2009 - 14:01 ET by jdripperI was born and raised in West Virginia. The article says that she lives in Boone County. The coal is West Virginia comes from the Southern counties. The West Virginia she whines about is in McDowell, Mingo, Mercer, Logan, Raleigh and the other counties that make up the coal counties.
Coal is almost exclusively mined by machines now. Boone country is not "mono-economic" there are other opportunities there, but not in the Southern counties.
These "managers of the land" were not very good managers. Before mining there was the timber industry. People have been taking the natural resources of that land since whites first settled there about 200 years ago. She is a joke and the people who know her consider her a self promoting crack pot.
Jack
"If at age 20 you are a conservative then you have no heart. If at age 30 you are a liberal then you have no brains." Sir Winston Churchill
Actually, you're the liar...
April 23, 2009 - 09:43 ET by HillbillyKingor perhaps just simply mistaken? Try looking at the facts before you post....
Boone County WVa.
4,029
12,992,684
16,523,104
29,515,788
Hmmm, seems like ol' Boone is number 1 in all areas.
I hope you were just mistaken.
Oh, and here's a map of WV.
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
Don Marquis 1878-1937
How It All Began
April 22, 2009 - 14:04 ET by ronny117The goal is to cause economic hardship worldwide, thus reducing the world population (Mathis) this was also documented at the 1975 conference in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and organized by the influential anthropologist Margaret Mead, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), in 1974.
Richard Courtney wrote in Global Warming "How It All Began" that
Man-made global warming has become a major international political issue. The imagined risk has become a real risk in the form of proposed government policies to inhibit CO2 emissions. The Rio Summit in 1992 proposed actions to constrain the emissions and the Kyoto Summit in December 1997 is intended to establish binding agreements that will commit nation states to the constraints. Although there are no real and potential risks of the global warming, the effects of the constraints will cause real and severe economic damage.
All industrial and economic growth requires an abundance of available energy supply. Anything that inhibits energy supplies reduces economic activity. At Kyoto, governments will be pressured to reduce CO2 emissions to far below their 1990 levels. This requires cutting fuel supplies and, therefore, economic activity. The effects would be much more severe than the ‘oil crisis’ in the 1970s because the constraint on fossil fuel usage would be greater, the increases to energy costs would be larger, and energy demand has increased since then.
Industrialised countries would not suffer alone. The economy of every country is affected by the performance of the world economy. The economic disruption in the developed world would harm economic activity everywhere. The largest affects would be in the developed countries because their economies are largest. But the worst effects would be suffered by the world’s poorest peoples (people who are near to starvation are starved by economic disruption.).
ronny117
April 22, 2009 - 14:28 ET by ahusserBecause of an unproved theory with unknown results which may or may not be a) man made or b) even exist these folks are willing to regulate, stultify and risk economic ruin for a fantasy. Even if we were to prove that this risk existed there would be no way of even gauging the real effects of said climate change until they manifested themselves and even with the billions spent on a possibly non-existent problem there would be no way of knowing whether our puny actions had any effect good or bad whatsoever except to impoverish this country. This is what enrages me about this so called ideology, Which, I believe, in the end and in reality is just a back door effort to re-institute collectivist, totalitarian governments in the world. A re-worked Comintern if you will.
"Somehow, I told you so, just doesn't quite say it." Will Smith in 'I, Robot.'
As a Mountaineer, I find her comments . . .
April 22, 2009 - 21:09 ET by CKA in Red State USA. . .somewhat embarrassing and failry typical of the fatalistic-victim mindset that's enslaved West Virginia for decades.
Lots of what the woman said was ill-informed hype. Would take too long to reply to all things she said.
But who knows? Maybe West Virginia can move from being an energy colony to a state? I hope so.
Meanwhile, closing coal, demonizing it and hoping against hope for alternative sources to appear qucily and fully to replace coal just seems a route to real troubles and great disappointment in the mountains.
Since we're all quote mining here....
April 23, 2009 - 09:25 ET by HillbillyKingallow me to present some of the other things Ms. bonds said in her interview:
NEWSWEEK: You're an environmental activist in the coal belt of Appalachia. How did you find that job listing?
Bonds: It didn't take much more than a couple summers full of bad air and bad water experiences. I remember seeing my grandson standing in a stream full of dead fish. Then black water started running down the river. I knew that [the coal miners] were poisoning the towns around me. I was witnessing with my own eyes the state of our children's future.
(Mr. Shepherds quote mine.)
In a community like yours, people have shaped their lives around this industry. It powers the local economy. How can you ask people to boycott and turn their backs on it?
I tell them that it's not OK to blast and poison your neighbors and your own children to make a living. There's a better way. We're pushing renewable-energy jobs that last forever and don't involve blasting your neighbors
Is that a tough case to make in a community with deep roots in coal?
Of course it is. But I'll say this: the most ardent and passionate activist is the one who's just been blasted or flooded. You have some people out here who are really angry about breathing all that silicone and that taste in your mouth. The problem is that after you've been blasted for so long, you start to get used to it. We have to activate people to let them know there's a choice.
How do you combat the notion that environmentalism is only for those who drink lattes and drive Prius cars?
I'm not a latte sipper, I'm a hillbilly, man. That used to be true, but what we're seeing now is a groundswell of people on the ground. We're talking about environmental justice. It's about people whose homes are being invaded by dirty oil refineries and coal-fired power plants. What we're seeing is poor Latinos in some communities around Chicago who had a Special Olympics this month with masks on because of the particulates coming from three coal plants in the area. We're seeing people who are being damaged by coal plants. The industries are taking advantage of poor people. It's real. It's happening.
How can you gauge whether your movement is gaining momentum?
We gauge from the expansion of our mailing lists and the numbers of letters and e-mails that are being sent to the EPA and the Obama administration. We are looking at the number of protests going on about mountaintop removal. Also, we can see how many new documentaries and books talk about mountaintop removal in Appalachia. Years ago that wouldn't have happened, and now this region is becoming the poster child for dirty coal.
You say there's a better way with renewables.
There is a better way. For one thing, there's more jobs. Here's the problem: they talk about prosperity, that [abandoning coal mining] would take away so many jobs for West Virginia. But West Virginia is last in terms of income. Where is the prosperity? The problem is that we're mining more coal in Boone County today then we ever have before, but yet the poorest counties are the coal-producing counties. Explain that. The transition I'm talking about, it's inevitable. But are we going to do it while we still have time, or will we wait until it's too late?
But to the people around you, there's still big money in coal. Isn't that a reasonable motivator for them?
There are very few people here in West Virginia who enjoy the large paycheck they're getting from strip mining. The rest of us are living off minimum wage.
(Mr. Shepherds quote mine)
Hmmm, I think it's rather obvious by the choice of Mr. Shepherds quotes, and the length and tone of his post, (in relation to the overall length & context of Ms. Bonds entire interview), that he was behind in his hit piece quota for the day and this provided an "easy" target.
The issues at hand in my beloved West Virginia are complex and divisive. Mr. Shepherds post, along with the one by Newsweek and the others of that ilk, do absolutely nothing but trivilalize and distort a matter that is of grave importance to those that it directly effects.
It would be remarkable if ideological propaganda was cached in the form of rational persuasive presentation, instead of the pedestrian name calling form it so often takes.
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
Don Marquis 1878-1937
wv
April 23, 2009 - 14:02 ET by rowdygirlSo she just had to go and say "them there hills" and make us look lilke a bunch of ignorant hillbillies. I'm also from WV (and still liver here) and I don't appreciate her talking trash about us. The rest of the country already has a bad perception of WV and she is NOT helping us. If you can't be positive and do something to make the state a better place, then shut up!
By the way, I don't work in a coal mine and neither do any of my "kin"... and we're doing just fine thank you!
wv
April 23, 2009 - 14:02 ET by rowdygirlSo she just had to go and say "them there hills" and make us look lilke a bunch of ignorant hillbillies. I'm also from WV (and still live here) and I don't appreciate her talking trash about us. The rest of the country already has a bad perception of WV and she is NOT helping us. If you can't be positive and do something to make the state a better place, then shut up!
By the way, I don't work in a coal mine and neither do any of my "kin"... and we're doing just fine thank you!
wv
April 23, 2009 - 14:02 ET by rowdygirlSo she just had to go and say "them there hills" and make us look lilke a bunch of ignorant hillbillies. I'm also from WV (and still live here) and I don't appreciate her talking trash about us. The rest of the country already has a bad perception of WV and she is NOT helping us. If you can't be positive and do something to make the state a better place, then shut up!
By the way, I don't work in a coal mine and neither do any of my "kin"... and we're doing just fine thank you!
wv
April 23, 2009 - 14:03 ET by rowdygirlSo she just had to go and say "them there hills" and make us look lilke a bunch of ignorant hillbillies. I'm also from WV (and still live here) and I don't appreciate her talking trash about us. The rest of the country already has a bad perception of WV and she is NOT helping us. If you can't be positive and do something to make the state a better place, then shut up!
By the way, I don't work in a coal mine and neither do any of my "kin"... and we're doing just fine thank you!
wv
April 23, 2009 - 14:03 ET by rowdygirlSo she just had to go and say "them there hills" and make us look lilke a bunch of ignorant hillbillies. I'm also from WV (and still live here) and I don't appreciate her talking trash about us. The rest of the country already has a bad perception of WV and she is NOT helping us. If you can't be positive and do something to make the state a better place, then shut up!
By the way, I don't work in a coal mine and neither do any of my "kin"... and we're doing just fine thank you!
wv
April 23, 2009 - 14:03 ET by rowdygirlSo she just had to go and say "them there hills" and make us look lilke a bunch of ignorant hillbillies. I'm also from WV (and still live here) and I don't appreciate her talking trash about us. The rest of the country already has a bad perception of WV and she is NOT helping us. If you can't be positive and do something to make the state a better place, then shut up!
By the way, I don't work in a coal mine and neither do any of my "kin"... and we're doing just fine thank you!
wv
April 23, 2009 - 14:05 ET by rowdygirlSo she just had to go and say "them there hills" and make us look lilke a bunch of ignorant hillbillies. I'm also from WV (and still live here) and I don't appreciate her talking trash about us. The rest of the country already has a bad perception of WV and she is NOT helping us. If you can't be positive and do something to make the state a better place, then shut up!
By the way, I don't work in a coal mine and neither do any of my "kin"... and we're doing just fine thank you!