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We need help testing streams for their pH
(how acidic they are). Many of our streams are as acidic
as lemon juice and run bright green from the mine run off.
We
wish to test as many streams as possible this year. We
need help going door to door listening projects in
communities next to these mines. We need photographers
and writers to come and document the damage being
done and to spread the word. Silence and ignorance are
these
greedy corporate carpetbagging coal companies greatest weapon.
We must show America and the world this is a crime
of geologic proportions. We need artists to help
us make signs and props for rallies and demonstrations which
we will keep
and use for years. We need cooks to prepare food,
community organizers, people to go through our
towns before tours fliering and postering to increase turn
out.
We need musicians to learn and create and
sing songs of our mountains and the annihilation of entire
communities and watersheds. We need scouts
with trucks to travel gravel back roads to ID mines and permit
sites–we need help. Cooks, geologist, map makers,
artist, musicians, drivers–we need you and your help
for the summer.
But volunteer with open eyes. Mountain
Justice Summer is modeled (loosely) on Mississippi and Redwood
summers.
In both campaigns the realities of the settings were made
explicitly clear to participants. The coal companies we
are resisting
have a long bloody violent history. Our mountains are being
blown off with a terrifying amount of explosives. Coal trucks
slam down our mountain roads at times forcing school buses
off the road. In August, 2004, a 3-year-old child was crushed
in his home by a 600 pound boulder.
Our forest are diverse and rugged with
copperheads, rattlesnakes, yellow jackets and cliffs. Landslides
abound in many of the old mining sites where “reclaimed”
mine sites are blowing out and bleeding soil down hillsides.
Mountain Justice Summer is committed
to safety–but have no illusions ours
is a land literally under attack. Measure your commitment
and
understand why you are volunteering–ask questions,
research and do some soul searching. We are committed to
being transparent
to everyone about the conditions and risk we face struggling
for the survival of our mountains. Join our electronic
newsletter for updates. Fill in our contact
form and we will respond to answer all of your questions.
We want all the participants to be
crystal clear about the on-the-ground situation–you
will know everything we do, no secrets.
Additionally there will be training throughout
the summer in safety, security culture, first aid, and field
survival
skills. The
organizers of Mountain Justice Summer are committed to your
safety and preparation. There will be risk and the possibility
of danger–but we will do everything we can to assure
your safety, to provide training to add to your skills,
and to communicate with you openly and clearly about the on-the-ground
conditions.
Our effort is historical. The loss future
generations will suffer is unthinkable. Redwood summer
and Mississippi
summer are in the history books. In the future history books
will either report our success or mourn the eternal loss
of
200 million year old mountains–the most biologically
diverse mountains in the world turned into a toxic parking
lot for the greed of an already obscenely wealthy few. Geologic
history is already being carved and blown out of our mountains.
We must turn the tide before it is to late. We cannot do
this alone–we must have help. Not for our organizations,
nor for ourselves–but for the mountains, watersheds
and forest which are a legacy for future generations.
Please contact organizations within
the region you would like to work.
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