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We’re happy to share this guest blog post by Kathy Selvage. Last month, Kathy traveled to Florida to speak at Gainesville Loves Mountains. There she found engaged citizens with open hearts and minds.
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I landed at the airport in Jacksonville, FL., on Saturday afternoon, April 14, 2012 at the behest of Jason Fults who invited me to be part of the second Gainesville Loves Mountains series of events and activities. The image of two smokestacks near Jacksonville, seen from high above the earth, seemed to drive their image into my chest as we descended. It haunted me for quite awhile but quickly dissipated by the warm and wonderful people I met afterward.
Saturday night was devoted to getting to know my extraordinary hosts, Jason Fults and Laurel Nesbit, and I was thankful for that time to unwind slightly before we wound ourselves up again for what has proven to be a whirlwind of events.
The very next morning, I attended service with amazing people at UC Gainesville. It was a beautiful service, amazingly inclusive, a wonderful sermon by a seemingly “too young to be a minister” young man named Vince Amil. The repetitive words from a song stuck with me: “When the worship is over, service begins.” After crossing a very inviting courtyard, we met at 11:00 in a separate room for an Adult Education Class on Mountaintop Removal. How cool is that? I left them with a book for the church library accessible to all to remind others of the consequences of burning fossil fuels in this country, the consequence that is most often left out and ignored, the consequence of the extraction process on the Appalachian region and its people. I left there knowing in my heart that these intelligent, thoughtful people would engage and continue to be creative in ways not yet imaginable by me.
Circles close quickly when we are open to others and will have heartfelt conversations with them. I met a woman in the Church who was born in Wise, VA, where I have lived nearly all my life.
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First of all I wanted to give my profound thanks from the entire Appalachian Voices team and to Adam Hall who joined us on this latest tour. Adam, a native of Raleigh County West Virginia, is a highly decorated veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars (Recipient of: Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart), whose family farm was destroyed by the 
One of my favorite people to see quoted in the news is the ever-dour NMA mouthpiece Luke Popovich. This guy has a simple job description which reads “Say whatever the coal industry tells you to say.” They even make up the numbers and statistics for him. Easy as pie! However, while we expect that Popovich will happily put on his blinders, collect his check in DC, and spout the nonsense of the day about Appalachia, the incredible thing his how he continually manages to screw up his message. Popovich would be hilarious if he wasn’t using his words to support something as reckless and deadly as mountaintop removal. 
“The effect [of passing the Appalachia Restoration Act] would be fairly devastating because you would see the loss of up to 17,000 jobs…And with those jobs, of course, would be a terrific impact on the communities that coal supports: the candlestick makers, the dry cleaners who all depend on the coal payroll. Then you would have a corresponding impact on the state and local budgets.”
