1,200+ come out for I Love Mountains Day

We knew it was going to be a great day, and by 8 a.m. our room in the Capitol Annex slowly began to fill up with people arriving early to lobby. A few of the people there had arrived in Frankfort the night before, staying in a hotel room or with friends, so they could start extra early. The stream of people arriving was so steady, we resorted to holding rolling lobbying orientations, starting every 15 minutes or so to keep people moving through.  The larger groups from Louisville, Berea, and Lexington had their own rooms where they could orient themselves separately and meet with their local legislators. Elsewhere, in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floor reception areas, members from other areas, grouped by legislative district, worked to arrange meetings with their own legislators. Those who were unable to get a meeting filled out Valentine's cards for House Leadership, the governor, and their representatives.  By the end of the day we had handed out nearly 3,000 of these Valentines.

Jefferson County members met with their legislators in House Chambers.

In the lobby meetings many members expressed frustration that the "Stream Saver Bill" was being stalled in the House Natural Resources Committee. "If you're going to have forward thinking about economic development in eastern Kentucky you will have to give us more choices than just mountaintop removal mining. Pretty soon we will have no coal, no jobs, no mountains or streams," said Cari Moore from Knott County in a meeting with Rep. Keith Hall. All told we likely had more than 300 people lobbying in the morning before the rally, more citizen lobbyists than we have ever had before on one day.

Rallying on the Capitol steps

As we filed out onto the Capitol steps it became readily apparent that we had met and even possibly exceeded our goal of 1,000 people. Randy Wilson started off the rally with a radicalized version of "This Little Light of Mine." KFTC Fellow Teri Blanton emceed the rally, keeping the energy level high by leading chants. Father John Rausch spoke of the necessity of caring for God's creation, and read off a long list of faith communities who opposed the practice of mountaintop removal mining.  Wendell Berry gave a fierce and inspiring speech, calling our state legislators to task and our supporters to action. KFTC members Bev May, Carl Shoupe, and Rick Handshoe spoke of their daily experiences living near mining sites, explaining the urgency to the issue and its relevance to their lives, and Ronnie Banks, a high school student from Harlan county read a poem to the crowd about mountaintop removal. The rally wrapped up with Clack Mountain String Band performing "Sow It On the Mountain, Reap It In the Valley." By the end of the rally we could confidently say that we had more that exceeded our goal for the day, making this the biggest rally against mountaintop removal ever held in Kentucky.

Those who could stay after the rally spent the next hour either trying to get lunch in the packed cafeteria or doing some last minute lobbying before the legislators went into session. Then around 1:30 the several hundred people who were still there lined up along both sides of the tunnel between the Annex and the Capitol building in hopes of catching legislators as they traveled to their chambers. Co-sponsors of the Stream Saver Bill were met with cheers, however the tightly packed tunnel formed a sort of gauntlet for legislators who refused to meet with us, forcing them to meet eyes with those they had let down.

We ended the day with a debriefing session in one of the Annex committee rooms.  Members shared personal reflections on the day, discussed next steps, and laid the groundwork for organizing future actions.