family. While this family selected for the program will receive substantial financial rewards, many other rural and mountain families will be humiliated. This will be especially true for our young people who already have a difficult time establishing a positive identity for themselves. We will be meeting at our annual conference in March at Eastern Kentucky University. We would welcome the chance to start a dialogue with CBS about the show at that time. I would be willing to set up an open meeting during the conference that would facilitate that discussion. Please contact me at your convenience if you or any member of your staff would be interested in joining this conversation. Thank you, in advance, for your time and professional courtesy. Sincerely, Gordon B. McKinney President Appalachian Studies Association Mountain Top Removal Resolution RESOLUTION: Passed at the Business Meeting of the Appalachian Studies Association, March 20, 1999, Abingdon, Virginia WHEREAS, mountain top removal coal mining is extremely profitable to the coal companies who practice it, and WHEREAS, a large part of its profitability is that many fewer miners are required than in the usual traditional methods of coal mining, and WHEREAS, entire tops of mountains have been removed in the Appalachian areas of the states of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Ohio, and WHEREAS, the removal of mountaintops has resulted in severe and unlawful damage to the homes of persons living in the nearby communities, along with damage to wells, the bombarding of their homes with and massive amounts of dust, and “blast rock,” WHEREAS, the millions and millions of tons of earth and rock removed from the tops of mountains are dumped into the valleys next to these mountains totally destroying the springs and the headwaters of streams in these valleys, along with all animal and plant life in them, and WHEREAS, mountain top removal mining, by destroying home places, is also destroying ancestral ground, sacred ground where generations after generations have lived, worshiped as
family. While this family selected for the program will receive substantial financial rewards, many other rural and mountain families will be humiliated. This will be especially true for our young people who already have a difficult time establishing a positive identity for themselves. We will be meeting at our annual conference in March at Eastern Kentucky University. We would welcome the chance to start a dialogue with CBS about the show at that time. I would be willing to set up an open meeting during the conference that would facilitate that discussion. Please contact me at your convenience if you or any member of your staff would be interested in joining this conversation. Thank you, in advance, for your time and professional courtesy. Sincerely, Gordon B. McKinney President Appalachian Studies Association Mountain Top Removal Resolution RESOLUTION: Passed at the Business Meeting of the Appalachian Studies Association, March 20, 1999, Abingdon, Virginia WHEREAS, mountain top removal coal mining is extremely profitable to the coal companies who practice it, and WHEREAS, a large part of its profitability is that many fewer miners are required than in the usual traditional methods of coal mining, and WHEREAS, entire tops of mountains have been removed in the Appalachian areas of the states of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Ohio, and WHEREAS, the removal of mountaintops has resulted in severe and unlawful damage to the homes of persons living in the nearby communities, along with damage to wells, the bombarding of their homes with “blast rock,” and massive amounts of dust, and WHEREAS, the millions and millions of tons of earth and rock removed from the tops of mountains are dumped into the valleys next to these mountains totally destroying the springs and the headwaters of streams in these valleys, along with all animal and plant life in them, and WHEREAS, mountain top removal mining, by destroying home places, is also destroying ancestral ground, sacred ground where generations after generations have lived, worshiped as
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