H-L Column - Coal country needs outsiders' protection

Lexington Herald-Leader Column

Coal country needs outsiders' protection

Most politicians are like a man who went in a liquor store and asked them for a half-pint of Old Rabbit. â€We got Old Crow," said the clerk, â€but we ain't got no Old Rabbit."

â€Well," said the man, â€I didn't want to fly, I just wanted to hop around a little bit."

Most politicians don't want to fly over Eastern Kentucky for the same reasons many victims of cheating don't tail their husbands. Most politicians look down on Eastern Kentucky, but certainly not from a plane. Gov. Steve Beshear has been taken to task for flying, but most of us think that if every single member of his administration were required to fly over every visible mile of coal country, it could turn out to be the best investment of money we ever had, unless of course the members of his administration align themselves anew with the mindless oafs.

The scale of it is what you see from the air. The totality of the destruction of one of the last beautiful places in the country being performed by an industry in death throes itself. In my county, 65,000 acres have been destroyed already, and there is not a single reason all the rest of our acres won't be also.

Those who choose to not just hop around but to really fly and really know are presented with stark personal choices that go to the heart of morality and stewardship of the Earth. They are eating of the apple of knowledge and now must choose right from wrong...