I know-- it's been a while. Yet, here we are. I think there might still be a need to gather and share concerns and happiness... and random musings.
Welcome to Brothers and Sisters, the weekly meetup for prayer* and community at Daily Kos. We put an asterisk on pray* to acknowledge that not everyone uses conventional religious language, but may want to share joys and concerns, or simply take solace in a meditative atmosphere. Anyone who comes in the spirit of mutual respect, warmth and healing is welcome.
I live in Appalachia... and have done so for the vast majority of my life. I brought a New Yorker here because he loves me and mostly raised three daughters here. As the the title of my says "This Land is Home to Me".
As such, what happens here matters to me a great deal. Appalachia seems to constantly be battling for its very survival. The rest of the world is after the resources the mountains have sheltered, and multi-national companies don't care what must be done in order to extract those resources.
This is a picture of what mountain top removal looks like-- it really does remove the top of the mountain.
We are allowing companies to literally tear down the Appalachian Mountains... for profit that the people of Appalachia never see.
They keep removing layers of earth and rock to get at the coal... until this is what remains:
... and that is what I call sin.
We should be taking care of the beautiful and awesome (in the original meaning of the word) land, fauna, and flora we have been given... no matter how you think all the natural world came to be. We can't recreate it.
In 1975 and 1995, a group of Catholic Bishops in Appalachia produced their own group of pastoral letters named "This Land is Home to Me", and "At Home in the Web of Life."
Link to the pastoral letters: This Land is Home to Me...
In both prose and poetry they tell the story of the Appalachia they love and serve... the mining and farming communities... the people doing the best they can... the drugs and poverty... the love and the beauty. They draw out the importance of place and home that is a hallmark of being Appalachian, and make it abundantly clear that economics and ecology cannot really be separated in such a place. Community is meant to sustainable... and if it is not sustainable, then it really isn't community at all.
This land really is my home... and I love it.
Peace to all of you, wherever you may be...