I was in Beckley the other day and saw a company vehicle from a local car dealership. It had Friends of Coal stickers more prominent than the dealership stickers.
I have noticed the Friends of Coal are either dealerships looking to kiss the coal company’s butt or dealerships looking to kiss the coal miners butt or individuals looking to kiss anybodies butt within the coal industry. They are all followers.
One thing that has always appealed to me about West Virginia is the complete unselfishness of just about anyone you meet. At least that’s the way it used to be. Now we have people running around saying mountaintop removal is a good thing but one person’s job on an MTR site takes the place of at least *7 miners underground. I’ve heard people say because you are against mountaintop removal that means you are trying to take the food from someone’s table. BS! - If you work on a mountaintop removal site you are not trying to take the food from someones table you have already done so - 7 times more so than I ever could. To be honest, if you are selfish enough to think your job on a mountaintop removal site is worth all the suffering and destruction MTR causes then YES I would like to see you unemployed.
The title to this post I thought of when contemplating the Friends of Coal and their loyalty not to coal but to a crook named Blankenship. Believe me, I’m not putting the coal miners in the same class as Marines. There would have to be honor and tradition involved and I guarantee those you will not find in the ranks of the Friends of Coal.
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It is hard for me to say some things on this blog and get my point across without misleading the reader. This post isn’t aimed at the traditional coal miner. I put miner in italics because I don’t consider anybody working on a mountaintop removal site a coal miner. They are heavy equipment operators plain and simple. If they were real coal miners then they would know a little something about honor and tradition and this MTR nonsense would have been over before it started.
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*7 is a conservative estimate based on the number of coal miners in the state in 1950 (125,000) compared to 2004 (19,000). Although there has been a sharp decline in jobs within the coal industry during the 54 year time frame - coal production increased by 83% during the same time.
I was being very conservative with the number because most of the 19,000 jobs in 2004 were underground. My point was not the number it was the simple fact they tell me I’m trying to put someone out of work. I could live three lifetimes, be the activist from hell and still not put the number of people out of work mountaintop removal has in the last twenty years all by its lonesome.
February 18th, 2008 at 3:56 am
Maybe we could “google bomb” the MTR supporters? Don’t know if you have the following to achieve it or not. If you have not read about what a google bomb is, you can start here:
http://www.webpronews.com/topn.....ast-google
and here: http://searchengineland.com/070125-230048.php . In effect you would pick some text to use as the anchor in links to their sites and we all write stories on our blogs including multiple links to their site with say, Union Breakers as the text in the link. Next thing you know, the friends of coal has 300 links pointing at them and google ranks them high for union busting as a search term.
Just an idea…
February 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Brian - that’s definitely an interesting idea but I would feel like I was bringing myself down to their level. When the simple fact of the matter is we can beat them with the truth. They have to use dirty tactics because they don’t have the truth.
That is also why they use a cartoon bug in their commercials. If they had truth there would be a scientist or an ecologist telling us mountain habitats will return or whatever they are trying to say with the bug.
I had never heard of a “Google Bomb”. To be completely honest I wouldn’t want to generate traffic for them regardless of the keyword involved. It was an interesting idea though.
February 18th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Yeah, I can see your point.. I first read about a what a google bomb was when I read about how some group Ranked the church of scientology #1 in google for the keyphrase “dangerous cult”. Just goes to show the power of the internet
February 19th, 2008 at 8:52 pm
I once made a google bomb … It exploded premature, and I was burried in hot links. I climbed out from the pile and said, “Now, who will make the flapjacks and get some maple syrup!”
Denny, I would never here about mountaintop removal issues from your state unless I read your blog. You write with passion about the concerns and opinions that you have. Well done, and I believe in your cause.
I have a sudden hunger …. FOR JIMMY DEAN SAUSAGE!!!!!!! Yhaa Hoo.
February 19th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
Thanks Speedcat - it took me a second to get the sausage pun then it hit me “hot links”.
I love it when you visit - always a smile.
Take care my friend and thanks for your support!
February 21st, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Good post Denny and good comments all. I have to agree with you Denny that resorting to a “google bomb” would be a tactic that could potentially hurt rather than help your cause. You should just focus on continuing to get the word out and telling the truth.
February 21st, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Thanks Matt - I agree with you. I think just being straight forward will accomplish much more. I actually had to take another look at the way I was dealing with the issue after I wrote this post. Had to refocus…