Dynamite to Dust

It's a three-fold fubar conundrum
When you feel the pound of the explosion
The sound imploding in your eardrums
25 dead and still another shift's begun


Machine's ripping into the mountain
See the Big John Shovel
Here it comes
Twenty years of coal dust
and no pension
Water table's busted
There's no fixing it

It's just dynamite to dust
What's to become of us?
How will the mountains 
and her people stay alive?
When they're tunneling in,
blowing off the tops
and dying inside?


I wrote this song after a visit to Larry Gibson's homestead,  Kayford Mountain, or what's left of it after MTR, just outside of Charleston, WV.  I just rewrote the opening and chorus to pay tribute to the miners killed in the Upper Big Branch explosion on April 5, 2010.  


Almost everyone from Appalachia either has family who work in the mining industry or knows people who do.  It is a pervasive mono-economy.  It is also an invasive one, for the miners and their families gave up land (mineral) rights many years ago to the greedy outsiders who saw the  black gold at the end of the tunnel.  The mountains are owned by people who aren't from them, but worked by those who grew up in them.  It is the best paying job around--one that men and women today are proud to do, just like their daddy did.  But it's killing them and the mountains.
    
The fat cats and the working people live in the same world, but share very different realities.  Recall the opening to Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities?
          It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of     foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way...


My song goes on, "Now the miners are fighting the mountain man
                             Both from the same place taking opposite stands
                             While back in the cities the lights burn
                             But here in the hills we got valley fills
                             And no where to turn..."


I understand the economic necessity of taking the best job in town, but I am beginning to believe that the hold the big man's dollar bills has on the working people and the desperation it causes can only be conquered  together by those who want to save the mountains and those who dig coal inside them.  Contrary to popular belief, these are sometimes the same people.  Many of the environmentalists working to end mountain-top removal come from a long line of coal miners.   Yet, the boss promises he has good intentions for his workers, stirs up their patriotism and leads them to violently riot at peaceful gatherings of those standing up to end the fouling of the waters, the unrecoverable desecration of  the mountains' majesty, and now, the tragic and preventable death of deep miners.  


This same coal baron  played a central part in breaking up the unions in the 80's, so his employees are at his whim and have no union voice to speak out against the unsafe conditions they work in.  He also "donated" 3 million to a state judge's election campaign and that same judge voted in favor of his settling another environmental dispute at one of his surface mines.  The national reporters today are having a hard time getting quotes from the miners in Coalmont, WV because they fear what they call, "the long arms of Massey."  


Outsiders indeed.  The Kings of Coal came from the outside and bought the people.  Hard-working people who want to make an honest living, yet they call the people who want to lead the way in sustainable alternatives to this dangerous profession the outsiders.  Fear and greed are a deadly mix.  


Misinformation and lack of vision are too.  I heard three young men on the MU college radio station discussing the Upper Big Branch disaster yesterday, and they all had the same point of view.  They didn't even consider bringing on someone with the opposing view for a civil discourse on college radio.  


Some of their quotes that stand out: 
 "This is our heritage and we will dig all the coal until it's gone.  No need to even consider alternatives until then because it's not going to happen."  
(No, if you don't consider wind, sun, water, and crop alternatives, they certainly won't happen, boys.)


 "If you get right down to it, you can blame the eco-freaks for this, because they are trying to end mountain top mining, which is much safer for our miners."  
(Safer yes, but the jobs are few and many are taken by outsiders brought in by the company.  Plus, I was told by several locals in the area that Massey closed down one MTR operation just a week before many local miners would have hit their 20 years of employ, then reopened it later with a different name so they didn't have to pay the pensions.)


"We're all a big family and have to keep the outsiders and commies out of this so we can keep our economy thriving."  
(I almost ran off the road when I heard that one.  If you consider a few thousand risking their lives to make a living while the quality of life continues to spiral down to the point of no return with no alternatives after all the mountains have been destroyed, "thriving,"  then you certainly have no vision for the mountains of your heritage or your people living in them.)


A philosophical rift of long-lasting consequence grows as innocent, hard-working people die, as the lifeblood of a people, the earth and water, falls away, useless and foul.  


It's just dynamite to dust
What's to become of us?


I believe we have to keep speaking out and finding ways to make a shift to sustainable energies and other ideas that can maintain the mountains and the mountain people.  No, we 're not trying to shut down the jobs and turn out the lights tomorrow.  We are trying to find better ways to provide and protect.  Maybe I'm just idealistic and the land and water lover's will turn into land and water barons if given the opportunity to bring better uses of the mountains to the people.  I hope not.  


The final quote from the  college radio boys: "The mountains of West Virginia really aren't good for much except the minerals inside them.  We have to mine them.  That's what we do."  
(That's what people resign themselves to do because it's what has always been done, because it's the only alternative the rich outsiders have given them.  But the mountains were here before the humans and would still offer up providence and plenty if only the people could see.)  

My heart goes out to the loved ones of those lost deep in the mines.