Post by Ann Meador on Jan 26, 2008 16:05:50 GMT -5
On Dec 27, 2007 12:13 AM, A M goul51@yahoo.com wrote:
Letter to the Editor,
I was born in Letcher County in the 1950's, but had to leave that area as a child because of circumstances beyond my control. Memories of my life in this place will always be one that I will love and cherish forever. I have been reading a lot of articles from the Letcher County area on this thing called mountain top mining, and tonight I saw photos of some of this so called mining and it put a terrible grip on my heart, it was an article in The Kentuckian News by Rachel Colby, published 9/04/07 called Black Mountain Massacre, I was appalled at the pictures that were taken there, I understand that people have to make a living for their families, matter of fact my dad was a coal miner by night and a farmer by day, but never do I recall the mountains being demolished as they are today.
There has been an interest of the Eastern Kentucky Mountains as to like no where else in America, the traditions and experiences of the people from this region have inspired from books, short stories, music and songs to award winning movies that have been made. I have not been back home for several years now, but after reading all the articles and seeing the photos, I begin to wonder will it be the way I have always described the mountains to my family or will it be a place that is just held in my childhood memory. In closing this letter I would like to share with you a piece I had written at my last visit.
"As I make my way back home for a visit to a place I had left many years ago, It seems to me the mountains take on a magical life all their own and I feel a lonesomeness that comes to me in no way I can explain in words, as it still takes my breath away to behold such awesome grandeur and beauty of such a marvelous place." If there is anyway you can save your beautiful mountains, do it, they are your heritage, man can destroy but never replace what God has given you from the beginning of time.
Letter to the Editor,
I was born in Letcher County in the 1950's, but had to leave that area as a child because of circumstances beyond my control. Memories of my life in this place will always be one that I will love and cherish forever. I have been reading a lot of articles from the Letcher County area on this thing called mountain top mining, and tonight I saw photos of some of this so called mining and it put a terrible grip on my heart, it was an article in The Kentuckian News by Rachel Colby, published 9/04/07 called Black Mountain Massacre, I was appalled at the pictures that were taken there, I understand that people have to make a living for their families, matter of fact my dad was a coal miner by night and a farmer by day, but never do I recall the mountains being demolished as they are today.
There has been an interest of the Eastern Kentucky Mountains as to like no where else in America, the traditions and experiences of the people from this region have inspired from books, short stories, music and songs to award winning movies that have been made. I have not been back home for several years now, but after reading all the articles and seeing the photos, I begin to wonder will it be the way I have always described the mountains to my family or will it be a place that is just held in my childhood memory. In closing this letter I would like to share with you a piece I had written at my last visit.
"As I make my way back home for a visit to a place I had left many years ago, It seems to me the mountains take on a magical life all their own and I feel a lonesomeness that comes to me in no way I can explain in words, as it still takes my breath away to behold such awesome grandeur and beauty of such a marvelous place." If there is anyway you can save your beautiful mountains, do it, they are your heritage, man can destroy but never replace what God has given you from the beginning of time.