Journal Entry: Rape of the land and its people
March 11, 2021 My home 74
Dear Journal,
As you know, I grew up in West Virginia, a state so beautiful, so full of natural beauty that its beauty could take away breath.
I grew up wanting to paint that state so that others could see and feel it’s beauty.
I left the state and haven’t returned to WVa in well over ten years. My sister just got back from a visit. She visited the Northern Panhandle, the place where I grew up.
I was unprepared for her report.
I knew that the coal companies were filling the valleys with mine waste. I knew that the creeks were being used as dumping grounds for mine waste.
I know that reforestation is a big joke.
I have not supported fracking. I think we, the people, will pay dearly for allowing this to happen. No corporation can be trusted to do the right thing; not even those who are closely regulated. God help us when it comes to those corporations that are lightly or not regulated.
My sister spoke of mine wells everywhere, everywhere meaning every few miles; mine wells used by the refractors; the wells are used to extract the Marcellus Shale; Marcellus Shale is used to make energy; of the people having to buy bottled water because the water is brown and non drinkable; of heavy trucks driving without restraint of any kind; of a land that is totally destroyed.
When I consider that there is no national reporting of this, that most people do not know this is happening; that few understand the consequences of allowing this to take place, the rape of a land and its people, I shutter.
I am numb. I see no hope.
The people of the Dakotas, seeing the possibility of water being ruined, united and fought back. So far, they have won.
Remember that the Ohio River feeds from the waters of West Virginia and then flows into the Mississippi.
So tell me. When the Ohio becomes undrinkable and the Mississippi is affected, then will this story finally be made known?
Do not expect the people of West Virginia to take action. They have been completely brain washed and taken over by the pretty people who make the pretty promises, get elected to office and then forget all about the people who were foolish enough to believe them.
And so it is.
Dr. Barb
Barbara Lucas, PhD
bslucas@bellsouth.net
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