VIOLENCE BREWING IN THE COALFIELDS

RANDY WALTERS
COAL FED FAMILIES
　
The consequence of actions is something all should realize. It makes no difference what the action, an equal and opposite reaction can, and should be expected. The coming reaction in the coalfields will not be an exception to the rule.
On Monday evening this writer was informed of a group of coal miners who went in search of an environmental protest march to Frankfort. The objective of the search was to find the environmentalists marching to oppose surface mining, and do them physical harm.

As one of the miners explained, “We’re tired of sitting back and doing nothing while these people do things that are going to take our jobs. We’re not going to do it anymore.”

If it were just talk it would be different, but it’s not. In an article posted on the Kentucky 912 website last year this writer warned “When the leaves turn green.” It now seems the miners are not going to wait for spring to express their feelings toward those who would shut down surface mining operations.
“We couldn’t find them(the tree huggers) even though we traveled a great distance throughout eastern Kentucky. But, the next time they have a meeting, we’re going, and we’re going to whoop their asses.”

The environmental movement has caused many a miner to worry about how he or she is going to support their family if their jobs are shut down. The EPA, The Army Corps of Engineers, and MSHA under Barack Obama, plus Kentucky’s own Division of Water under Steve Beshear have tightened the screws on the eastern Kentucky coalfields through bogus regulations to the point that violence is on the table now as a way to fight for survival.

The hard working Americans of the eastern Kentucky Coalfields do not plan to go quietly into an unemployment line to be rewarded with a token government check just to appease the liberal environmentalist movement.

This should serve as a warning to those who think they know what’s best for everyone. Mountain people are not strangers to confrontation, and those who think our livelihoods are any less valuable than their own may soon discover a cold, harsh reality.
It’s that opposite reaction law of physics, but the likelihood of it being an “equal, but opposite reaction” is slim to none.