ENGAGE Human Rights Project

A human rights survey!!

2010-11-04T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hello ENGAGEers!

Please take our survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7ZBFPGR> for you about our human rights projects:

Have you been following the ENGAGE human rights group but not sure how you can use a human rights framework in your own education or organizing work?
Are you a student interested in learning more about human rights or getting others on your campus interested?
Would you be interested in hosting a human rights workshop in your community, campus, workplace, or somewhere else?
OR would you like to help develop workshop ideas and work with other ENGAGErs to use them around the country?

Please take this 5 minute multiple choice survey--we want to hear from you! See below for more history and context about this project
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7ZBFPGR

Based on several changes in the ENGAGE human rights working group --- the transitions report work currently wrapping up in Kentucky, as wellas personnel changes -- the working group has identified that our group is at a major transition point. Over the past year or so, the group's work hasbecome synonymous with the Kentucky project and collaboration with KFTC. However, as we no longer have a strong presence in Kentucky and thereforelimited capacity to build a long term base there, we are seeing a need to shift our focus away from place-based projects and toward the network. Ourvision is to develop into a a working group that integrates human rights into the ENGAGE network, whether it be collaborating with general members orbases on human rights based projects, developing or compiling human rights resources, or creating and facilitating human rights education.

Currently there is a group of HRWG members who is interested in creating human rights-based educational tools and workshops. Our interest is increating and implementing human rights education with bases and/or general members of the ENGAGE network. The first step in this process is surveyingthe network (you) to gauge interest in a project such as this. This 5 minute, multiple choice survey will ask your opinions about what you’d liketo see in a human rights workshop and what kind of support you’d need to pull one off. It will also ask if you are interested in working as a memberof our group to develop this workshop campaign. We look forward to hearing from you!

Again, that's http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7ZBFPGR

You can also contact humanrights@engagetheworld.org for more information!

Love,
Your Human Rights Working Group

Voices from Appalachia: Eastern Kentucky in Transition

2010-10-17T18:08:00.001-07:00

I am proud to present Voices from Appalachia: Eastern Kentucky in Transition. Congratulations to the report writers, Liz Aeschlimann, Becky Goncharoff, Vanessa Moll and Mariela Riches, as well as the countless others who have contributed to the report!!!

Hoping to build on relationships that were established in 2009 with the creation of Voices from Appalachia: A Human Rights Perspective, ENGAGE returned to Eastern Kentucky in the summer of 2010. With momentum building around the emerging Appalachian Transition Initiative, KFTC and ENGAGE decided to use the summer’s resources to profile and tie together projects contributing to an alternative vision of economic development in Eastern Kentucky.

Voices from Appalachia: Eastern Kentucky in Transition was researched late June to early August and written between August and September 2010 by ENGAGE members who lived in eastern Kentucky for the summer. It documents individuals and projects in the region working for an economic transition away from extractive industry and toward small scale, local economies.

For a copy of the report, please visit the ENGAGE wiki: http://engagetheworld.wik.is/Issue_Resources/Human_Rights/ESC_Rights/Campaigns/ESCR_USA_Mobilization_Project/Voices_from_Appalachia%3a_Eastern_Kentucky_In_Transition

Or download the pdf directly here:http://engagetheworld.wik.is/@api/deki/files/650/=KY Transition Report smallfile.pdf

Stage Fright is Completely Understandable When there is No Audience

2010-07-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

Yes, Stage fright, that is what I am feeling....why? Today is the day! No not my wedding day that is a bit non-existent (from my view point) any who, today is the PREMIERE!!!! No, not another Twilight movie, god forbid. It is of AMI's (Appalachian Media Institute's) premiere or screening whichever you prefer to name it. It is tonight! I'm excited because it only like hour and a half away! My weeks of being in AMI, will be shown in the Appalshop theatre. I was in the collectors group, yes it is about collecting...but not what you expect., when and if it gets to be put online . ^-^

Other than that tid bit, a couple of days ago Pike County in Kentucky was horribly flooded..... visit the link below to get a hint of what happened....

So with this issue still being fixed and worked on. I haven't had the ability to do much as a power leader...yet! I'm not giving up hope! I'm doing my best to go to WV to the Alliance for Appalachia. Slowly, but surely getting things going in an actual set direction. This is all I have to report. Stay tuned for a tomorrows update!

Where We Are At: July 10, 2010

2010-07-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

Thomada is 20-year-old person, looking for work. Thomada lives in Hazard, Kentucky and has a family of miners and ex-miners, and others in the service industry. Last night Thomada dreamed of going to China. It was great. Thomada feels that school -- no matter the level he/she has gotten to -- hasn't mattered to Thomada's life. For vacation, Thomada wants to go swimming at the nearby lake. Skills include idea generation, talking to people, story-telling, among others. Thomada's struggles include paying for things, transportation, health in the family, other obligations that come up due to structural poverty, sometimes a lack of confidence/imagination BUT more like a lack of confidence in the current system, because it's oppressive. Thomada hasn't necessarily named this oppression yet, but would identify with the naming of it, because he/she's lived it.

Della is 23, unemployed, living in Pike County. Her dad and younger siblings are coal miners, and her mom is a teacher. Last night she dreamed about hiking. She has an associates degree in communication and is creative -- she loves making things with her hands. She struggles with confidence and money. She wants to vacation at the grand canyon.

Those were a couple potential readers of ENGAGE's next report. Right now, we've laid out the following potential experience for our audience:

-->First BAM! A great profile and photo and attention-getter: In the words of someone living in Eastern Kentucky, THIS is the need for a transition away from extractive, outsider industry economy to grassroots-led and grown economy.
--> Context and profiles: Naming the structural poverty, human rights issues, and oppression in the region
--> Roots of Solidarity Economy: Profiles of transition projects happening – divided into doing and supporting (business v. organizations v. projects) -- done in a way to show existing relationships and spark ideas for potential future relationships
--> Resistance happening: Esp. the Stay Project, vision profiles from youth…a visioning exercise
--> Summary of resources, tips, next steps (MACED< etc., list format)
--> Summary of Policy Recommendations

Throughout the report, we'll have policy recommendations relevant to project profiles, quotes showing how Eastern Kentucky's local history, culture, and youth can support a solidarity economy in the region, and first steps specific to certain projects.

The last couple of weeks, we have been frantically driving from county to county to catch youngsters to elders, carpenters to educators, and visionaries to doers, for interviews. We hope that this report can be useful for all of them. And we've been using this week to step back from the immersion in interviews (though continuing to some extent), to identify themes and objectives for this transition report.

In addition, the process of building this report has supported our long-term visioning for ENGAGE's presence in Eastern Kentucky. Why are we here anyways? We've held some very important check-in's with our most reliable partners: KFTC and Morehead State...But more on the results of that to come

And what does all of this have to do with human rights? Well, we would like to maintain this theme not only as an organizing tool, but perhaps an organizing principle. But like they say -- you can't just land in a region or a community and start organizin'. We hope that our presence here can serve as a wholesome orientation to EK for ENGAGE, and that together we can build a dream job for a lucky ENGAGEr here -- can we see solidarity economics, human rights, popular education, and food justice converging in Kentucky and ENGAGE's future...I'd like to think so!

Please give us feedback on our report visioning process thus far. We are in the process of writing a more detailed description of its goals, objectives, outcomes, audience, a distribution plan, etc. And the outline for the report is flexible (and obviously needs more detail). So your suggestions will be more than welcome on any of these aspects!!

And now we'll leave you with a little limerick love.

So things in the mountains are bad
And for youth there are few jobs to be had
But engangers made a decision
Supporting the young is our vision
So that life in Appalachia will be rad!

From the Mountaintop

2010-06-10T16:50:00.000-07:00

Around 15 hours after we moved into our new home in Nippa, KY, our group headed out for Mountain Justice Camp at Jenny Wiley’s last resort. The camp served as an orientation to the issues, the movement, and the people who surround mountain top removal coal mining. Our campground was settled on a valley fill created by the construction of the highway, nestled within a temperate forest, and overlooking the scarred Black Mountain. We attended different workshops throughout the day on topics ranging from MTR 101, cultural organizing in Appalachia, to facilitation (no CIEE, you will never escape us!). As we learned about the history of resistance we were told that this movement “stands on the shoulders of giants”, referring to the Battle of Blair Mt. and other legendary events that initiated this movement over the past century. At night we heard from residents from the coalfields, Ken Heckler (the only US congressmen to march with MLK!), Larry Gibson, and Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry offered words of wisdom concerning the sense of urgency so many feel in the environmental justice movement:

“I don’t think we can treat these ecological crises as emergencies. You’ve got to maintain the integrity of your own life… You’ve got to be able to stick for a long time.”

Over the four days we learned a lot about what it is we’re jumping into. It would be an understatement to say that coal is a contentious subject in this region. It has divided communities over what will be the future of Eastern Kentucky and the region of Appalachia. On Monday we attended a Kentucky Sustainable Energy Alliance (KySEA) meeting in Lexington. We were briefed on the past Kentucky General Assembly, where House Bill 408, the one that would pave the way for a renewable energy future was barely considered. We are learning that this is going to be an uphill struggle, but also that this movement is filled with a diversity of people working on all sides. There are those in suits who focus on policy and legislation, the young college activists who are educating their campuses, and those from the coalfields who lock down on mining sites so that the machinery cannot operate.

All of the things we have learned have made us even more excited for our project. After talking with Lisa from KFTC, we have decided to create a report that portrays a snapshot of alternative economic projects in the region. What we’ve found is that plenty of institutions have created statistical analyses of Kentucky’s capacity or suitability for industries other than coal, but none that are aimed at the community audience or pay heed to the cultural distinctness of Eastern Kentucky. We are so excited to begin profiling, interviewing, and learning from community members from all over the region who have already taken on that nebulous concept of “Green Jobs” and created sustainable work for themselves.

By Becky Goncharoff, ENGAGE Kentucky Base Intern

From Cornfields to Coalfields -- I'm in the mountains!

2010-05-12T10:37:00.000-07:00

I arrived at Mariela's house in Lexington last Thursday. Since getting here, Mariela and I have had some inspiring and informative meetings in preparation for the upcoming interns, convergence, and overall development of the ENGAGE project here in Kentucky.

Just before coming to Kentucky I read an article in The Nation, highlighting the growing grassroots movement against unjust coal mining practices in Appalachia. The article pointed to the increasing success of this movement, as it focuses more and more on the effects of coal on people here in the region -- rather than solely the effects on the environment and climate change, oftentimes the focus at the national level. It has been helpful to read the news about the current political situation surrounding coal and then hear about it from the perspectives of various people and organizations in Appalachia.

I was able to meet Rick Handshoe on Saturday. Since Lisa Jackson's announcement about potential EPA regulations, it seems that people here are finding a few outlets where their voices are heard. Rick has continued on steadily, steadily monitoring his and neighboring communties' streams and water supplies, and reporting his findings as needed. But now, he has been able to speak directly with various influential figures in the world of coal and coal regulation. In fact, last week Rick didn't even have to report that the stream near his property became darker than is natural or healthy -- the inspectors came themselves. The mining company has attempted to hold back pollutant discharges with curtains, but seeing that these aren't working they are transitioning to aerators. He says these efforts are all a good sign -- small steps towards meeting regulations. But he and other community members are preparing themselves in case spoken promises are not kept.

On Monday (on the way I saw Reclamation --below), we were honored to follow through on KFTC organizer Kevin Pentz's invitation to the Allian ce for Appalachia meeting at Natural Bridge State Park. We heard from about a dozen organizations about the major work they had been doing, and got to see in person some of the most active and influential activists in the region. We were able to give a short presentation about our project and to express interest in future collaboration with all of them. Everyone there was very positive about the reports and interested in further distribution. In fact, next time we should consider a kick-off party, and we should definitely put out a press release...!

Most organizations at the Alliance meeting seemed relatively positive, though cautious (maybe in shock?) about the recent political discussions. The organizations are all doing incredible work -- related to scientific and legal research, organizing and advocacy, media, etc. -- to educate themselves and others about legislation, the different directions (positive and negative) each piece of legislation could go, and the effects that will have on people and the environment. I cannot express my level of respect for those doing this work, especially those in mine-affected communities, where mentality, health, and relationships of the people there are not the most conducive to such hard work. As Rick said, he is not an angry person by nature, but sometimes you have to be the one to step up and get angry in order to get anything done. This alone can take a toll on one's energy.

It was also a real pleasure to deliver a whole stack of reports to the Floyd County Chapter Meeting Monday night. Audra, one of the members at the meeting, rushed off to distribute some to the library and various other places in town, and everyone took some to show around their community. I hope it also made for a good visual introduction to KFTC's work and the issues for one local woman, who was at her first KFTC meeting.

Beyond these great opportunities to meet active folks in the area, Mariela and I have been moving forward with planning for interns and the convergence. We visited Morehead, where the convergence will take place, the day after I got to Lexington. It is a beautiful campus in a small town, and I hope that especially everyone who has been involved with the human rights report can make it out to the convergence in order to support our relationships here and the project (register here!). On Monday we invited Floyd County community members, in addition to those present at the Alliance for Appalachia meeting.

All in all, I am overwhelmed at what this summer will bring!...much more to come.

Sounds of Solidarity

2010-05-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

The sun was just rising behind the traditional Buddhist wat, when the Internet connection finally came through. I couldn’t help but grin when I heard the familiar twang of Eastern Kentucky voices. The skype call between villagers of Na Nong Bong in Northeast Thailand and community organizers of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth had officially begun. Each community has experienced similar struggles; a gold mine was built in Na Nong Bong 6 years ago, and the consequences of Appalachia coal mining have continued for over a 100 years in Floyd County, KY. Both communities have been organizing around their respective mining issues for years, but now they have decided to make a connection in order to share stories, support, and strategies.

I found the situation to be pretty surreal. I didn’t realize people in Thailand had even heard of Kentucky when I arrived 3 months ago, and I didn’t expect the two areas to have anything in common. They each talked about how the mine had made their water unfit for human consumption, destroyed their landscape, and broken old friendships. Ecological degradation, human rights violations, and hope for the future have created a relationship between the mountain communities.

The relationship between Na Nong Bong and Kentuckians for the Commonwealth is still very young. The conversation was largely focused on background stories. I hope that in the future community members can exchange organizing strategies and that they come to realize how they can assist each other. Despite their similarities, differences remain. Much of Kentucky’s energy depends on coal, where as gold is a commodity to be bought and sold. Kentuckians have been fighting mines for decades, whereas Na Nong Bong is new to the struggle. However, under a common language of human rights these communities can find solidarity.

As I listened to the conversation that spanned 3,000 miles, I thought about the power of solidarity. What if people from rural Thailand no longer thought of Hollywood and our other cultural exports when they thought of the United States, and instead thought of friends with a common struggle in the hollers of Appalachia? What if people in Eastern Kentucky realized that they have more in common with people in Isaan than their policy makers in Washington D.C.? There is immense power in making these types of connections across cultural and political boundaries that have otherwise separated us. Hearing each group say, “Our problems are the same,” and “We have friends across the world,” sent chills up my spine.

Members of our group often lament that our work we do in Thailand is much needed in the United States, and that we should be building relationships with communities at home instead of here. When it comes to mining, the struggle is the same. Some students from past semesters in Thailand were there in Kentucky, talking to their former host families in Na Nong Bong via skype. There need not be a separation between struggling for the recognition of human rights and the preservation of livelihoods in Thailand or the United States. It is the same struggle and the more aware we become of this connectedness, the more powerful our movement will be.

Written by Rebecca Goncharoff, current study abroad student with CIEE Thailand in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Rebecca is originally from Paris, KY and is studying at Transylvania University.

Voices from Appalachia

2010-04-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

After many months of hard work, I am proud to present Voices from Appalachia, a series of profiles highlighting the human rights violations faced by communities in eastern Kentucky.

In 2009, ENGAGE members worked with KFTC and Floyd County community members to document the community’s experiences with coal mining in their county. The report features a history of coal in the region, and profiles of affected community members as well as community members who are proactively working towards change. The process of creating the report fostered a stronger community identity and helped the community understand the rights they share.

Future steps will involve working with KFTC to determine the best ways to apply the messages and lessons of the report in community outreach and educational and legislative settings.

Click here to go to the ENGAGE wiki where you can download a copy of the report.

Thanks to the many ENGAGE and KFTC members who were involved in putting this report together!!

Appalachian Studies Conference

2010-03-24T15:00:00.000-07:00

This last weekend (March 18-21) Mariela and I got the chance to attend the 33rd Annual Appalachian Studies Conference at North Georgia College and State University in Dahlonega, GA. The weekend was a big success.

We were invited by Professor Sue Tallichet from Moorehead State University to speak on a panel with her discussing the book Reformers to Radicals: The Appalachian Volunteer and the War on Poverty by Thomas Kiffmeyer. I spoke on the panel about our project in Floyd County to make connections between radical reform movements of the 60s to what strategies and ideas youth movements are working on today. The panel went really well and we got a lot of feedback from fellow panelists on our project.

Throughout the conference we got to meet and make connections with a lot of really great people who are doing very interesting work. We had 170 printed copies of the final draft of the Floyd County report. Over the weekend we gave out about 25-30 to various groups and Mariela took the rest back to Kentucky to be sent on to the Floyd County Chapter for them to distribute and use as they find useful. In addition to the conference KFTC distributed copies of the report to legislators during their lobbying week in Washington D.C. earlier this month. It's clear that the report is definitely getting out there and is starting to gain a certain amount of visibility, which is exciting news.

Black Gold

2010-01-30T16:17:00.000-08:00

After having the wonderful opportunity to go the meet-up in Kentucky, I wrote this speech to describe to a class at my school some of the things I saw, the people I met, and the thoughts I had.

This weekend I went to eastern Kentucky, to the heart of Appalachia. In a meeting in Hazard, Kentucky, I met a woman named Pam Maggard. Pam was at the meeting because trucks barrel down her small street from early in the morning until late at night. The trucks come every day, even on Halloween. They leave the roads and the houses along them black with dust, so that parents worry about letting their kids play outside.

As I speak, trucks all across this part of America are rushing to and from of pitted mountains, carrying coal to places that have not been blessed with their own deposits.

At Carleton, we live in a time and a place where protecting the environment is important to a lot of people. Recycling is automatic and climate change is bad. But I don’t hear too much about the impact of our decisions about the environment on people.

Sometimes the thread that links someone like me and someone like Pam Maggard is hard to find and easy to ignore. But now I know. Workers blast open a mountain, load coal onto trucks, speed them through Pam Maggard’s neighborhood to a chain of factories. I plug in my computer, and electricity brightens the screen.

When you follow the thread to the source, the human impacts are everywhere. Bev May is a nurse practitioner who sees former miners trailed by tanks of oxygen. The Bailey’s house cracked through the brick from the daily blasts at a mine. Water is contaminated and people like Clinton Handshoe and Lucy Gearhart must pay for bottled water, week in and week out. Creeks and ponds like the ones where Josephine Martin where used to fish break and fill with toxic runoff.

But everyone understands that people need work, and coal companies provide some of the only jobs. Everyone has some connection to the industry. “It’s like a civil war,” Pam told me. The coal companies pay for local elementary schools to run a pro-coal energy program. In the windows of some shops and restaurants, signs read, “Black gold” and “We support Kentucky’s coal industry!”

The Carleton Voice states that our wind turbine accounts for about a third of our electricity, with the remaining 2/3 coming from conventional sources like coal. One of the things that is so special about our wind turbine is that we can see it. We can’t see the coal mines from our bedroom windows, but it doesn’t matter. We have to look beyond the obstacles of distance and abstraction and see Pam Maggard, Bev May, Clinton Handshoe, Lucy Gearhart, Josephine Martin.

Everything we do connects in some way to other people, especially in the things we use. Nothing comes from nowhere. Someone made every component of everything we use, someone transported it, someone sold it to us. And each of those actions--the making, the transporting, the selling--affected other people.

As society gets more and more complex, everything affects more and more people. Take a computer. 66 minerals go into the production of a computer, even before electricity is required to run them.

It’s not a simple matter. We can’t avoid interacting with other humans. But we can be aware that our decisions of what to buy, what to use and how to use it affect real, identifiable people with names and faces. We need electricity. But maybe we don’t need so much.

Reducing our consumption of electricity and connecting our actions to the lives of other people are small, important steps. But I believe that consumer power is not our only power. The laws of our country dictate the rules and regulation of coal mining, and we can advocate for responsible laws. Once we have laws, we can make sure that they are being enforced.

“We have some good laws,” says Rick Handshoe, a retired police radio operator from Floyd County, Kentucky. The problem is the inspectors and the officials who don’t hold the companies to them or fine coal companies pocket change when they are in violation. Rick spends hours each week meeting with inspectors, leading them to contaminated ponds, and painstakingly documenting the effects of mining on the county where he grew up. To prove that a particular stream naturally flowed year-round, he once photographed the running water every week for a year.

Rick, Pam, and thousands of people in Eastern Kentucky are fighting the assaults on their health, their homes, their water and their culture, but their voices are often unheard.

According to the Department of Energy, coal produces more than half of the electricity consumed in America. But the places where coal comes from are disproportionately poor and forgotten. According to the Census Bureau, the median income of Floyd County is $21,168, a little more than half of the national median of $41,994. Two out of three of my friends from Kentucky have never set foot in a county where coal is mined.

But if we, as outsiders, refuse to ignore the people who feel the effects of our illuminated rooms and clacking computers, if we shine the light of the media on this marginalized part of our country, if we question and demand action from our Congress, our President, and our corporations, maybe the coal industry will be held accountable to protecting people to whom we are linked every day.

2010-01-20T13:26:00.000-08:00

After a long hiatus from this blog, we are back and hoping to update more regularly. At least as appropriate based on our group's activity. A lot has happened since June 19, 2009, that's for sure. We have completed the ESCR report with the Floyd County KFTC chapter, and are putting on the finishing touches for its first round of printing and distribution at the end of this month. Since then, it's been lots of conference calls and meetings to coordinate the project long distance. See the post immediately below for a recap of the weekend meet-up we just had in eastern Kentucky, internship and staff positions, and upcoming events. We'll be in touch!

Engage Human Rights crew

ENGAGE Human Rights Meet-up in Kentucky

2010-01-20T09:59:00.001-08:00

This past weekend, eight ENGAGE Human Rights members came together in Kentucky (including 3 recently returned students!) to create a long-term vision for our working group and to spend some time with KFTC and community members.

We spent most of the weekend discussing goals, values, and upcoming projects – but also talked about expansion of the ESCR-US project to Detroit and Southern California.

KFTC and community contacts

We met on Saturday with Land Reform Committee members (Lyle, Truman, Sue), KFTC organizer Kevin Pentz, and two community members (Rick and Bev) after their LRC meeting.

We discussed the role they can play within this project and our group and decided they should primarily play an advisory role, and we will have regular meetings and/or conference calls with them. (Our next conference call is February 22nd at 8pm if you would like to participate) We also hope they can be a bridge between us and KFTC, and help with certain projects, such as distribution of the Floyd County report.

On Sunday we met at the new house of KFTC Floyd County organizer Brittany Combs, just as she was moving in! We had lunch with Brittany, caught her up on our meeting with the LRC, and talked about our future projects and some organizing plans she has had on her mind. As always, it was great to spend time chatting and dreaming with her about possibilities.

Intern and Staff positions

We are very excited to create summer intern and long-term staff positions in Kentucky. We encourage anyone looking for a summer position to apply for the KY internship. We will work with individuals on securing funding from schools and looking into other sources and options. We are hoping for a group of interns to work together on a collaborative project with KFTC, possibly including a report with a new community, and developing educational curricula and workshops. Please contact ilanagg@gmail.com for information and an application.

We also would like to encourage members – especially graduating students – to consider coming to eastern KY to be a part of an ENGAGE KY staff team. Please contact Mariela to discuss this more in depth if you are at all interested!

Upcoming events

March 7-11 KFTC lobby week in DC - If you’re interested in attending please contact shintaro@engagetheworld.org

March 19-21 Appalachian Studies Conference in Georgia – In addition to attending the conference to meet other organizations working in Appalachia, we will have a representative on a panel discussing From Reformers to Radicals: The Appalachian Volunteers and the War on Poverty. If you’re interested in attending, please let us know – we’d love for you to join!

June 18-20 ENGAGE Convergence - ESCR-US will be hosting this year’s annual convergence in Kentucky. More to come soon!

Books on Appalachia that we encourage people to read!

* From Reformers to Radicals: The Appalachian Volunteers and the War on Poverty by Thomas Kiffmeyer (book we will be discussing at conference)
* Uneven Ground: Appalachia since 1945 by Ronald Eller

And recommended by KFTC LRC members:

* Coal Tattoo by Silas House
* Night Comes to the Cumberlands by Harry Caudill
* Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina
* Unquiet Earth by Denise Giardina
* As Strange as this Weather Has Been by Ann Pancake

2009-06-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Prestonsburg on Monday evening to meet and have dinner with Brittany Combs, the new Floyd County organizer for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC). She decided to take the job as an organizer after working for an oil drilling company and feeling ashamed of her company's role in pushing people from their homes. As a Floyd County local, she's excited to be working in her hometown and in a great position to begin organizing communities. Immediately following dinner she took us to the KFTC Floyd County Chapter meeting, which was a semi-intimate gathering of about 12 people, representing an array of communities within Floyd. Cloe, Alvin and Caitlin were asked to give a quick presentation explaining why we had come to Floyd county and what we hoped to get out of the week. This was the first in a long line of presenting ourselves everywhere we went throughout the week! The meeting was not terribly impactful aside from giving us insight into some of the issues in Floyd, but it did allow us to meet some people whom we later spent time with throughout the week. More on that later!

We spent our week living in the trailer of Rick Handshoe. He had lived in the trailer until the blasting from a contour mine came too close to his home, at which point he moved up the hill and across the road to a larger trailer. He had planned to build a home on his property, but in the midst of the devastation from the mining, he realized he was better off settling for a trailer. Rick has lived in Floyd County his entire life and feels a close connection to it. Until Brittany was hired, he served as an unofficial organizer in the area. In his fights against the dust and unlawful mining practices surrounding him, he has become well-versed in filing reports, writing letters, and meeting with the big wigs since he rarely sees results or respect coming from working directly with the coal mining. He currently attempts solely to get the laws enforced. Once that happens, he feels he can begin working on getting them changed.

His current efforts are directed mainly at dealing with a devastating flood on Mother’s Day weekend of this year that sent orange water with chemicals and heavy metals through the creek on his property as well as streaming through the fields and vegetable patches of residents throughout the region. The flood was made worse by the runoff from the stripped mountaintops and the breakage of a silt pond. “I didn’t report it for 17 days,” he said, “because the inspectors were in there every day; but they never reported it.” This was one of many examples of the inadequacies of the officials in following regulations at the mining site.

First thing Tuesday morning, we joined Rick for a hike so that he could show us the mountain top removal site which is easily seen from the top of the mountain behind his house. After seeing how extensive the MTR is behind his house, it was easy to understand how the constant blasting in close proximity to Rick's home had caused physical and mental distress and unsettlement, especially as the worksite edges closer and closer to his house. Rick pointed out that our presence at his trailer indicates to mine workers that outsiders are paying attention to the mine, so they often reduce the blasting and take better care to reduce the dust on the roads from the coal trucks when Rick has guests. We experienced a bit of the animosity from the mine workers in the afternoon when a truck that was blocking the road to halt traffic during a blast stopped right out front of Rick's house and continually revved his engine for about 3 minutes.

We were invited to the Wayland City Council Meeting in the evening. Wayland is a small town in Floyd County that is affected by polluted waters seeping from abandoned mines and may have an MTR site in the near future. We quickly sensed tension coming from the city council members as we entered the meeting. We had heard that the previous city council meeting was very unruly and hostile (a council member told a resident voicing a concern to shut her mouth). As residents brought up concerns, including coal trucks on the roads and abandoned homes, the council members met them with excuses and no promises to try to work on solutions. The council members were intimidating, but the residents were organized, polite and straightforward. While it still didn't seem like the city council members were very concerned with being proactive about issues brought before them, we later learned that the meeting was somewhat positive in that there was a better level of respect and order than had been there in previous meetings, probably due in part to the city attorney who was asked to be present to keep a sense of order throughout the meeting.

Following the meeting we were invited over to a couple's house nearby, Larry and Anna, where we were able to relax and enjoy their company and share stories for hours. We had a great time talking about the meeting and what their experience has been in Wayland thus far, and the hospitality they showed us was amazing. We all agreed that it really reminded us of our time in Thailand the way they took us in and genuinely enjoyed having us there and making us feel as welcomed as possible.

Wednesday we set out to talk to Brittany's grandma Joesephine Martin. She is in her 80s and has lived in Wayland her entire life. She was able to tell us of the changes in the region over the years. In her childhood, she swung on grape vines in the woods and ate huckleberries (wild blueberries) from the mountains. This is drastically different from the current reality of topless mountains. She talked of all the visitors who used to flock to the region to look at the beautiful mountains and wondered whether anyone would ever come again if the mountains continue to be destroyed. MTR hasn't specifically moved into the town of Wayland yet, but it's residents are feeling the effects nontheless.

After leaving her house we went down to the Wayland Historical Society, which houses a collection of things donated by people in the community just to showcase the history and culture inherent in Wayland. A man named Jerry Fultz runs the society full-time, and we were able to get his perspective on what the Wayland community means to him. He has the utmost dedication to preserving and building up the community. When we explained why we had come to eastern Kentucky in the first place, his initial response was a very honest "I'm not saying I'm for coal mining, but I'm not saying I'm against it either." He went on to explain how he wasn't a fan of removing mountaintops but he understood its necessity for the region. We asked basic questions about changes he's seen in Wayland since the shift from deep mining to mostly strip mining. As we were talking, he began to think about things in a different way and expressed that he was really being challenged to make connections he hadn't made before in regards to the effect of MTR in shaping the community. It was powerful to witness such an emotional and honest process. He was truly looking at mining in Wayland in a way he had never considered before.

After talking to Jerry, we headed up the street back to Larry and Anna Tignor's for the KFTC Wayland Community meeting which also included a potluck dinner! We again explained to the community what some of our ideas were for helping facilitate community empowerment and working together to explore alternatives and ways of reacting to issues specifically related to MTR. Those present at the meeting focused first on thinking of reasons why they love Wayland, one of which was "because WE grew up here." They talked about what is important to preserve in the community. Everyone emphasized the improvement of the city council meeting from the night before over the previous month's meeting. It is important in the early stage of organizing to see and acknowledge progress and successes. We saw community members coming together to make the community a better place. Moreover, they discussed ways to improve relations with city council members, thus indicating their understanding of the importance of communication and unity within the community. There was a positive atmosphere in the way they collaborated, and the meeting ended with individual members initiating that they meet even more regularly than scheduled by KFTC to continue their efforts in creating change. After the meeting a small group stayed around to talk and socialize at the Tignor's again, this time with a slightly larger crowd, hence more bonding!

Thursday morning we had the opportunity to sit in on a groundbreaking courtcase regarding MTR. Residents of the town of Allen joined forces to sue Frasier mining for issues with dust. Sister Kathleen, whom we'd met the first night at the Floyd Chapter meeting, talked us through the deliberations. At the end of the hearing it was determined that the coal processing company on defense had 21 days to rectify the situation by enforcing policies to avoid excessive dust and other issues the community was having to deal with. There were 100 people (60 different families) represented in the hearing, and the judge made a special statement indicating this was the first time a coal company had attempted to come to an agreement with the prosecuters, thus ending the ruling in favor of the community members at the coal company's expense.

Caitlin, Cloe and Alvin went to breakfast with Sister Kathleen and Barbara, another woman dealing with MTR near her home. We were able to discuss what we'd been seeing in the communities and receive honest feedback as to how we could be effective in our work with the communities. She took us on a grand tour of strip mine-related destruction in the county -- places where water had been contaminated or where flooding had caused the silt ponds to break and run down the mountain side, contaminating natural streams that were once usable as clean drinking water. We also went up a cell phone tower road to the top of a mountain overlooking a massive slate dump. When we met Sister Kathleen on Monday she had expressed the intensity of her week and that she would have little time to spend with us. However, she took home a copy of the Gold Mine report and read it before seeing us again at the hearing. She was very impressed with the power of the report and her offer to spend the entire day showing us around and discussing issues with us is indicative of her appreciation for the reports as well as her excitement for our possibilities working with local communities.

Donnie and Judy Combs, Brittany's father and stepmother, were both born and raised in Wayland. We met with them on Friday morning to learn what it was like growing up in a town centered entirely on mining. Donnie himself worked in a deep mine for roughly 15 years before having to quit after a serious mining injury to the head. The more time we spent in Wayland, the more apparent it became that coal mining goes hand in hand with Wayland and always has. In fact, Wayland was initiated by Elk Road Mining Company and identical homes were built lining the streets housing only mine workers and their families. A local "scrip" currency was used, where residents could purchase goods at the local store, attend the local theater, or have a visit from the local doctor. The entire community was run by the company. Judy talked of men dying in the mines and the company evacuating their wives and children to the streets within a day with no money, food, or a place to go. Mining is a way of life in Wayland that cannot be easily opposed. What is needed in Wayland is unity and understanding among community members and respect for the basic necessities of every individual.

On our way out of Wayland, we stopped one last time to talk to Jerry. He emphasized the need for our work to lead to action. "Whatever you do, it must give us a way to move forward and pick our community back up" he said, indicating a row of reports on his shelf that were sitting there unopened and ineffective.

Our last exchange of the week was spent with Kathy Curtis, a member of Maytown in Floyd County. "We're a third world country here," she stated, citing the impoverishment and conditions of families in the region. She felt a way for empowerment was through providing ways to work in the community but not within the coal industry. Students leaving school must be told about the well-paying options to weatherize homes, work with solar or wind power, or take on a profession entirely unrelated to the energy industry. According to Kathy, "The Appalachian people are used to being invisible, they have been trained to be invisible...We're teaching the kids now, you can't even get a job, you can't even hold a job at McDonalds." She was adamant that the people of Floyd county must be picked up and empowered. She sees a great ability of a human rights approach to empower the people but felt strongly they would first have to be convinced they had rights. Moreover, like Jerry said, our work must lead people to action or it will not be effective.

Saturday was the day we'd all been waiting for, KFTC's Land Reform Committee meeting. The meeting was held in Hazard, the so-called epicenter of MTR, as was evidences by the massive amount of mining visible even from the center of the city. We witnessed the workings of KFTC and heard updates regarding Floyd's surrounding counties. After a presentation given by Caitlin, Alvin, Cloe, and Shin, who arrived to represent ENGAGE, the committee accepted us as partners with KFTC to complete our work. We emphasized the participatory emphasis of our work, the power of a human rights approach, and the possibilities we hope to create through partnerships between ENGAGE, SEEC and KFTC.

During the drive home, Rick brought us past his childhood home where his parents still live. The opening to an active underground mine lies just 200m away from the house and for the first time we were able to witness the devastation coming from deep mining. The house has had 3 wells drilled, and each is filled with methane gas, although the inspectors say "They're safe, just don't smoke [cigarettes] by them." Runoff from the mine pollutes the stream where his nephews play upstream and the dust covers his father's porch.

In just a week living with residents in Floyd County, we built relations like those created in Thailand and heard stories of polluted water, harmed health, compromised homes, and decimated landscapes resulting from mining, similar to the results of development projects in Thailand. The use of a human rights approach to combating development projects in Thailand was hugely powerful. Likewise, the human rights project tailored to the needs of Floyd County will serve to empower communities and create understanding and unity among individuals, many of whom are currently divided on deep-rooted issues of mining in the region.

ESCR Summary Assessment #1

2009-04-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

When asked why they did not move, all of the people we spoke with cited two primary reasons—cultural and economic. Economically, they argue that the land has depreciated in value, which would make it difficult for them to make enough money off of the sale to move to another comparable place. In addition, few people would be willing to buy the property due to its numerous problems with the mines. Culturally, they have lived on the land for generations and identify themselves with the creeks and mountains that surround them. In many ways, they are of the land and feel a strong bond with it that transcends the mere beauty of the scenery. The other people who live around them have lived on that land for similar amounts of time, meaning that families have grown up together and have an enduring sense of community.

More research is necessary before we can make a full assessment, but at this point, it’s pretty clear that the people of Hueysville and Handshoe have endured and continue to face significant human rights violations. Worth exploring further are rights associated with housing, water, food, health, culture and economic self-determination.

Day Two, March 31, Hueysville (Floyd County)

2009-04-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

We returned to Hueysville and spoke went and spoke with Lowell, another key leader who works with Rick. Lowell and his family have also lived in Floyd County for numerous generations—in fact, he and Rick are family. The two men showed us around the property, including a place behind Lowell’s house where the mining company stripped the land of any trees or top soil but did not mine it. For various reasons, they decided that it was no longer necessary to get the coal that was in this particular section of land. The land is now seeded with grass that is not native to Kentucky; the grass will probably die soon. This grass covers an area that used to be filled with trees. Lowell described how he used to know all of the best places to find rare mushrooms that only grow in this area and how many of these have been stripped away now. After the company stripped the hill of trees, it built a pond on the land in order to catch and hold the run-off from the hill. This pond was a strange color and smelled a bit like sewage—Lowell and Rick spoke of how the water was filled with so many chemicals that it was eating through some of the metal pipes lower on the hill.

Like the others we spoke with, the damage done to Lowell’s property through the mining is not limited to the land—explosions have affected his home to the extent that his floor is now buckling and no longer even. This is a result of foundational damage caused by the blasting of the nearby strip-mining work. He estimates that it would take close to $8,000.00 for repairs.

Day Two--31 March, Handshoe (Knott County)

2009-04-12T20:26:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Rick took us a few miles away—just across the Floyd County-Knott County line—to meet members of his family that have been affected by a deep mine operation. His sister, Deb, and her husband along with their three children live in a house across the street and over a creek from their father, Clinton Handshoe. This was the place where all the children were raised and is actually known on some maps as “Handshoe” due to the long presence of the family in the holler. The mine operates day and night and is a little over 300 feet from Clinton’s doorstep.

We first spoke with Deb, who told us about the problems with water she has had as a result of the deep mine less than 200 yards from her house. Prior to the mine, they had one well that provided them with water for years. Since the mine has been there, they have had two additional wells that have all caused significant problems and negatively affect the health and well being of her and her children. They were told that the current well is safe and will not have the problems with methane that the others had, but at the same time they told her that it would be unwise for anyone to smoke around the well. Methane has no scent, but it’s highly explosive and poisonous.

The effects of coal dust from the mine site on her two young children (ages 6 and 4) are a huge source of concern for Deb, who is a respiratory therapist. She has noticed a consistent cough and respiratory problems in herself and her children, which she believes is a result of the large amount of coal dust that blows from the mine. The dust has also caused sties to form on her 6-year-old son’s eye, which the eye doctor confirmed as being a result of the coal dust. The large amount of coal dust that coats their house also means that they must spend a great deal of time washing the house and anything that might sit outside—toys, a trampoline, etc. She described her children’s hands and feet as being black whenever they play outside, meaning that they must limit their time outdoors for their safety. There have not been adequate studies on the effects of methane or the coal dust on the children, something that the entire family worries about.

The wind is another problem that has resulted lately due to the mountain top removal that also surrounds their land. While these are no longer active, the removal of the trees and top soil means that the wind speeds have significantly increased—prior to our arrival, there was a windstorm so severe that it blew the large and heavy trampoline from one side of their house, over the house, finally landing in the creek nearby. The son is now so frightened by the wind that he requested that we go inside as soon as the wind picked up a bit. Deb said that she and her sons were forced to stay in the closet all night during the high winds.

After speaking with Deb and her son Gage, we went and met Rick’s father, Clinton. He has lived on his land all of his life and feels a deep sense of connection to the land and the community that has been built on it. He remembered times where he and his wife would sit out on their porch and watch the animals come down the hill. He said that neighbors saw him there so often that they called it his “roost.” His schedule was based on a life lived outdoors and with a deep sense of connection to the people and landscape.

Now, due to the deep mine, he is unable to spend much time outdoors due to the amount of coal dust in the air. The noise and harassment he has directly experienced as a result of the miners has also been a problem that has negatively affected his quality of life. He described several instances of harassment and intimidation by the miners.

Due to other health concerns including emphysema and stomach cancer, his health is precarious and fragile. The stress of the mines has led him to use anti-anxiety medication as a means of coping; in addition, he must also leave the holler every now and then in order to escape the constant stress and coal dust on his already weakened lungs. The place he once knew as home is now a stressful and unhealthy environment.

The large amount of coal dust in the air also means that they are unable to grow their own food, something that the community members had previously relied upon for a large portion of their diet. Clinton and Rick showed us dozens of containers of canned food ranging from tomatoes to venison that they had grown and canned themselves. During growing season, the dust now covers the crops.

Day One--30 March, Hueysville (Floyd County)

2009-04-12T19:53:00.000-07:00

As he stepped out of his home to greet us, Rick Handshoe tells us that the coal company will notice our car in the driveway. Us being there means that the coal trucks will slow down. He tells us to put our bags in the trailer across the road; he likes to house guests there so that they might have the chance to feel a blast from the explosives used to blow off parts of the mountain face above his small community of Hueysville.

Rick, an organizer and affected member of KFTC, lives on Kentucky’s Route 7, a windy mountain road that runs barely fifty yards in front of his house . His home sits on a hill and faces the state road that Miller Brothers Coal Company uses to transport the coal and other machinery from their nearby mountain-top removal mining sites.

Until recently, laws and other regulations designed to prevent dust and mud from leaving the mine site were neither followed nor enforced. The results have affected his ability to live a normal life. Rick believes his property value has depreciated due to the proximity of the mine as well as the debris and noise that result from this operation. In addition, he is unable to grow any food in the garden as he and his family have traditionally done due to thick covering of dirt and other unknown substances that coat everything outdoors.

The blasting that occurs multiple times a day has been so strong that it has cracked the foundations of his two trailers, forcing him to actually move from one to the other, which he now occupies. This blasting, aside from the frightening and sudden sound that has knocked objects off the walls, also has a directly negative impact on his belongings. The movement of the foundation has created cracks in the walls, separation of pipes, and the separation of his porch from the trailer. All of these things have resulted in Rick being disadvantaged economically in a way that he has no control over except through the organizing work he does through KFTC.

Rick was our guide during our time in Floyd County and took us on a hike around his property to show us the results of the mining first hand. The land surrounding his has been strip mined with little regard to the impact it has on the people. He told us more about the ways the mining companies took advantage of a people he described as being trusting. According to him, the mining companies would pay individuals and families (depending on how the ownership of the land was divided up) a few thousand dollars for the rights to the land for 5 years. After that point, if they had not found coal, they would get the land back. For people in the area, this seemed to be a good deal. However, they would only sign the last page of the agreement. Then, the company would take the last page, detach it, and attach it to a new lease, which stated that they had these rights for 15 years. Rick stated that he found out about this when he was fined for trespassing on his own land after the 5 years had ended. This sort of manipulation, according to Rick, has been the companies’ standard way of dealing with the people in the county.

Welcome to the ENGAGE/SEEC Human Rights Project!!!

2009-03-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the ENGAGE/SEEC Human Rights Project blog! We have created this blog so that participants in the project and others doing this work (or interested in doing this work) can learn from our process and experiences in planning and implementing the early stages of an Economic, Social and Cultural Rights project in the United States.

The ENGAGE/SEEC ESCR team has been together since January 2009. In mid-February, we were able to identify an organization--Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (www.kftc.org)--that has helped to facilitate our work with community members in areas impacted by Mountain-Top Removal, a violent coal-mining process practiced throughout Appalachia. Check out KFTC's website and www.ilovemountains.org for more information.

During the next few days, Allyn Steele and Lindy Bunch from SEEC will be meeting with community members in Floyd County, KY, and blogging about their experiences in order to create a shared effort and seamless pass-on between participants. Over the weekend of April 03-05, more ENGAGE members will spend time with KFTC members along Montgomery Creek (near the community of Vicco--close to the Knott County/Perry County line).

The goals of these two visits are to (a) introduce KFTC members to the idea of framing their struggles within a Human Rights framework, (b) deepen ENGAGE/SEEC's understanding of the community members' stories and (c) to solidify a relationship with KFTC in the hopes of creating a more sustained ESCR project (which will be decided on April 18th by KFTC's Land Reform Committee). We hope that our pictures and entries will be helpful to the process of creating the ESCR reports.

Make sure to follow along over the next week to learn more about the stories the group learns from KFTC's affected community members. Also, feel free to contact either of us with questions or comments.

Allyn Steele (864.205.2047)

Lindy Bunch (803.331.8680)