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Mountain Justice, Part 1

5/24/2012

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What a week. I am not sure where to start - or even if I should start. My week at the Mountain Justice Summer Camp has been - inspiring, confusing, disturbing, mind-stretching, soul-feeding, humbling.

I have been trying to figure out how I ended up at the camp, what led me to sign up for this week in Pipestem, WV. The best that I can recall - about a year ago, I read the Post-Gazette reports about the investigation into the Upper Big Branch mining disaster, and it made me ill - the callous disregard of coal mine owners, particularly Don Blankenship, for the health and well-being of the miners and the mining communities and the "look the other way" practices of publicly funded regulatory bodies made me ill. Shortly thereafter I decided to participate in the March on Blair Mountain, wanting to understand the issues better, wondering if and how they might connect to Western Pennsylvania's own fracking controversies. So I went to Blair Mountain, and then continued to read and listen, and somehow ended up at the Mountain Justice camp in the heart of the Appalachians.

My parents grew up in Harlan County, KY, in the small US Steel-owned coal-mining town of Lynch. They shopped at the company store, and lived in company-owned homes on the clearly socially-stratified main street of town (an old story - it was a little scandalous that my mother, who lived in the No. 6 block, married my father, whose family lived in No. 5). As a child, we visited Lynch often - the smell of the mountains this week took me back immediately to Lynch. 

None of my grandparents or uncles worked in the mines, but my dad's cousins and uncles did. I remember stories about black lung disease, and mine injuries. I also remember what I heard a lot about this week - the boom and bust cycle of being a miner. Boys I knew became miners as early as possible - this was in the boom years - and had big cars and married young. A few years later, they were poor. Back and forth, up and down.

My parents lived in Lynch for awhile after they married, then left when my dad decided to go to the University of KY to study engineering. But to my mom, Lynch was "home." So learning - or re-learning - about mountains and mining has pulled at me over the last year in ways that I can't quite understand or explain.

The camp took place at the Appalachian South Folk Life Center - a pastoral setting looking out on breathtakingly beautiful mountains. Each morning, I sat at the top of a hill looking out over the misted mountains, listening to the birds. And all day into the evening I attended workshops about mountain top removal from all angles - Appalachian culture and history, rural vs urban activism, facilitation practices, solidarity economics, non-hierarchical organizing. I was one of only a few folks older than 40 (okay, I was probably the oldest person there), and I had the privilege of learning from much younger people who were either born in some part of Appalachia or have chosen to live and work there, all serving as social justice activists. I don't know what I expected - I don't know that I had any particular expectations - but what I experienced was unexpected. 

The people in Mountain Justice, and related groups such as Radical Action for Mountain Peoples' Survival, Coal River Mountain Watch, Larry Gibson's Mountain Keepers, and others, work with community members to understand, monitor, plan, and act to stop the practice of mountain top removal. The movement to stop MTR is based upon the devastating destruction to the ecosystem of the mountains and related long-lasting harm to the physical, communal, social, and emotional lives of community members. There is a substantial body of research documenting the damage done to water systems, wildlife, human health, economic stability, community life.

And yes, the opponents of MTR are allies with others involved in fighting extractive industries, those involved with extracting coal, gas, and oil - with a particular focus on opposing the manner in which the industries operate, again with little regard for the immediate and long-term damage to human life and the ecosystem. So yes, this movement to end MTR is related closely to the efforts in Western PA and elsewhere to stop hydraulic fracturing for natural gas - better known as fracking.

What else did I learn? I got to spend time with people who defined themselves variously as radicals, activists, and anarchists, who question and are committed to swimming upstream against mainstream ideology and against business as usual, when this business hurts people. Today, two groups of campers participated in direct actions - one involving five people who chained themselves to a coal-carrying barge in Charleston, WV (yes, they were arrested) and another involving dozens of people who blocked a road leading up to an MTR site, making it impossible for the trucks that transport coal and other materials to pass through. 

And I also learned that I have a whole lot more to think about. Not sure where I fit into this whole scenario, or where I go with what I learned. More later... about people, and food, and music, and stories...

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The morning-after thoughts

6/25/2011

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Been feeling a little unsettled today after yesterday's posting - not sure why. Maybe because I had such a strong reaction to Jose Antonio Vargas' story, the human side of it, and for me maybe, the humanistic side of it, without really having a lot of knowledge about some of the things I was talking about - factual knowledge. Has that ever happened to you? I mean, how much do I really know?

What I know - or think I know...
  • First, I need to learn more about immigration and immigration policy.
  • Immigration - documented or undocumented - is a complicated subject.
  • Our nation was built on the backs and with the minds and hearts of immigrants. We often forget that white Europeans who settled the US were originally immigrants.
  • Sometimes it feels like the brouhaha about immigration now is related at least in part to the reality that many of the people who want to enter our country and become citizens have dark skin.
  • It also feels like the tension is related to fear about the future, about the economy, about what might be ahead. We often react with fear when faced with the unknown.
  • Immigrants, of both types, contribute to our economy - as workers, consumers, and often taxpayers.
  • Whether or not we want to acknowledge it, our economy depends upon the labor of immigrants, of both types.
  • Immigrants of both types also use public services.
  • We have policies that are supposed to support and oversee legal immigration.
  • These policies are far from perfect, and are cumbersome, costly, and confusing.
  • There are passionate arguments on both sides, some carefully researched, some rising from strong feelings ... browse through these three web-sites:
  •         Drum Major Institute for Public Policy - Contributions of Immigrants
  •         US Illegal Aliens - The Dark Side
  •         Pappy's Ponderings - Illegal Immigration
If you have been reading my blog, you might know that I have biases - arising from a combination of my values, ethics, experiences, profession, politics, faith, and education. I have a world-view that some, but certainly not all, share. The lens through which I view the world is that it is a world of abundance, not scarcity. There is more than enough for all, though that might mean that for all to have enough, things might have to level out a bit. I know that others may have had experiences, terrible experiences, that have led them to view life through the lens of scarcity. Yet I have known people who have had terrible experiences, lives of devastating unfairness and fathomless losses, who are still able to view the world as abundant, who are still able to hold out hope and to act with generosity. What allows this to happen? I don't know. Most of the time, I believe that we have a choice about our lens, but I don't really know.

When I think about Jose Antonio Vargas and others like him, I see adults, but I also see the children within the adults - who they used to be - the kids whose parents wanted them to have lives better than theirs. I have children - I get this.

When I read Pappy's Ponderings and the site US Illegal Aliens, tears come to my eyes - I sense so much anger and fear in those words. It makes me sad. I believe that listening to, understanding, getting along with people who are different from us is important. We need to do this for the good of all of us who share this home called earth. 

It is complicated, and I want to learn more.
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Faith Hope and Charity by Diana Bryer
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Work

6/5/2011

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Work, by Ford Madox Brown
I love the print posted here, called simply Work. Ford Madox Brown, an English painter, depicts English folks at work during the mid-Victorian era (~mid-19th century). What strikes me about this scene is the people - work involved bumping up against, talking or arguing with, sweating beside people.

I browsed Google for other images of work -- so many of them were focused on computers, desks, chairs - and often there were no people included at all! I looked at several dictionaries for definitions of "work" - the first definition in most volumes was about effort - "activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result" from Merriam-Webster. I guess computers and other machines "work" - but to me, effort is a purposeful phenomenon, complete with choices and behaviors, most often done by humans or other animals. What do you think?

I remember something that my anthropology professor at Transylvania University said -- that, throughout history, most of human effort has gone toward figuring out how to work less. True or not? 

Why do we work? Do we work primarily to earn money for food, clothes, shelter, medical care, and some extras? Is it one of the ways that we find meaning in our lives? Is it something that we do that contributes to the well-being of others? All or none of the above?

I love my work for which I am paid. I do find meaning in it, and I get pleasure and satisfaction from it. It helps me support myself and the family. And I believe/hope that it contributes to the well-being of others outside of my family. Most of all, I love (most of) the people I work with. We may not sweat much or bump up against each other, but we do talk, argue, and, thankfully, laugh a lot. I do admit that some of the time work is work - it is hard. But I am always grateful for the job that I have and the work that I feel called to do.

Do you feel secure in your work - your job or career? We are living in times when things don't feel so secure. Unemployment figures for the last month were just released a couple of days ago - and it wasn't good news. It's hard not to feel some anxiety or worry - or even anger - when reading news about the national work scene.

A different question - do you feel safe at work? Is your work setting physically safe? Emotionally safe? Does your work involve risks or dangers for you, your community, or society?

The March on Blair Mountain, happening today into next weekend, is in large part about work - people are gathering to advocate for safe, fairly-compensated, humane work that does not harm their homes or sense of well-being:

Hundreds of people from Appalachia and across the nation will embark on an historic march to demand an end to mountaintop removal, the strengthening of labor rights, sustainable job creation in Appalachian communities, and the preservation of Blair Mountain. 

Does your work nurture or threaten your sense of well-being? Work often requires people to move away from home, even though for many people being near family and loved ones, living in a place that feels like home, is central to a sense of well-being. Nathan Hall, a young environmentalist from Appalachia, left his Kentucky home to pursue bigger and better things, but kept feeling pulled back to the mountains. He came home and worked in deep underground mining, hoping to learn all that he could from this work so that he could, with integrity, challenge the status quo in his community - so that he could truly understand how mining work both fed and damaged his people. He will do his important work in his home-place.

Others are not so fortunate. David Bacon is a photographer and journalist who brings us stories about immigrants. In 2008, he wrote of "the right to stay home" or "derecho de no migrar," a human rights movement in which laborers in Mexico and other parts of the world that have been affected by globalization demand the right to be able to support themselves from work in their home communities. Immigration and migration are thorny issues, from any perspective. On the one hand, some Americans act as though those who migrate to the US, "illegally" or not, are "taking" something from them. Reading Bacon's words reminds us that, in some situations at least, those who come to our country might rather find meaningful and viable work at home.

Do you do work for which you are not compensated? How does that fit into your life? Most of us work in our families and communities to take care of one another - I would argue that this is the most important work of all, though it is woefully undervalued by many. I would not trade my years of being a mom of young children, taking care of Michael and Julie, for anything - and I would call it work - purposeful effort devoted to nurturing two little people toward becoming good family members, friends, workers, and citizens. Yes, I would call it work, and I would say that it was not always easy.

Dealing with the "grand challenge" of global climate change, as individuals, communities, and nations, is also work and it is also not easy. What is often easy, however, is denial of this challenge, a turning away from it, stuffing it into a dark seldom-visited corner of our lives. Coming to terms with the changes in our economy, natural environment, physical and emotional health, that are related to climate change and environmental degradation will be work - it will take purposeful effort, both mental and physical, to find new ways of doing things together. We must rise to this challenge for which we do not have ready answers and solutions. We must take on this work - we must be people working together.


The Real Work 

It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come to our real work, 


and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey. 


The mind that is not baffled is not employed. 

The impeded stream is the one that sings.  

~ Wendell Berry ~ 

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    Author

    Mary Beth Mannarino is a licensed psychologist who provides coaching in the areas of leadership, career, life, and parenting. She is also an environmental and climate educator and activist. Dr. Mannarino is professor emeritus at Chatham University where she continues to teach courses to students in health professions related to environment and well-being.

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    My Bloggy Rules...
    I write about my own experiences, opinions, dreams, and ideas. I invite you to share your ideas, and to be part of a dialogue. I will make mistakes! But it is great to take the risk to put this out there and, more importantly, to hear from you.

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