Thursday, October 29, 2009

A few questions for a few UK students

We have a few questions we'd like to ask the University of Kentucky students who protested the naming of the new basketball dormitory, to be paid for fully with private donations, the Wildcat Coal Lodge.

How many of you pay your own electricity bills as opposed to having mommy and daddy foot your room and board expenses?

Are any of you actually from Kentucky's coal counties, or the coal counties in neighboring states?

Do any of you have anyone in your family who is employed by the coal industry or its related businesses?

Do any of you have family or friends who are from the communities that rely on coal money for a large percentage of their economic activity, such as retail sales?

If so, then you have skin in the game (to quote your beloved president, Barack Hussein Obama) and you have standing to criticize the decision because you have a personal stake in the future of the coal industry. You are the ones who will be paying higher prices for electricity and you are the ones who will see the hometowns of your relatives and friends suffer economically.

If not, then leave the discussion to the grownups and those who would be most impacted by the demise of coal mining, and go protest something like UK's ban on alcohol on school property. Your opinions would be much more relevant in that debate.

6 Comments:

At 5:24 PM, October 29, 2009, Blogger Troy said...

I'm a uk student and I pay my electricity bills. My ancestors grew up in the hills of western Virginia and East Tennessee, working in mines and forestry. I am fully aware that the power that turns on the lights in my home comes from coal combustion. I am also aware that things can change, for the better, with alternative energy sources. I am very aware that carbon dioxide, mercury, selenium, and fly ash--all pollutants from coal power--have devestating effects on the environment, and poison the people who live near coal mines and power plants. Mountaintop removal permanently destroys riparian environments, displaces and kills thousands of animal and plant species, and permanently alters the oldest mountain chain on Earth. The writing is on the wall for coal miners and operators. We no longer manufacture buggies, grow indigo or harvest whale oil. The people in those industries found something else to do, those associated with the coal industry will find something else as well.

 
At 8:40 PM, November 01, 2009, Anonymous Anonymous said...

While they wait for that "something else" dads and moms will go without jobs and their children without food, clothing and medical care and electricty rates will be more expensive as will the expense for heating their homes....no wait!!! Obama will spread the wealth... they'll be fine. Get real tlf...people are tired of bats, trees and minnows having more rights than them.

 
At 8:43 PM, November 01, 2009, Blogger Troy said...

the dads and moms can move to where the jobs are. that's what my appalachian ancestors did.

 
At 5:01 PM, November 03, 2009, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope your ancestors didn't move to Detroit, tif.

 
At 2:15 PM, November 04, 2009, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I wouldn't care if TLF moved to Detroit...would even buy his ticket

 
At 9:18 PM, November 18, 2009, Anonymous Vietnam 1971 said...

I am not a UK student, but I once was, some decades ago, and my ancestors, too, came from deep inside western Virginia. Some of my forbears eventually emigrated to eastern Kentucky, where I was born -- in the coal fields -- several decades ago. My grandfather was killed in the mines, leaving my father's family homeless as a result. For those who take offense at any criticism of the coal industry -- who like to take snide shots at anyone who dares to offer a contrary view to the only real industry in eastern Kentucky -- I would ask whether you have ever wondered: Why is that? Why is coal the only real industry? And more importantly: Why should it be that way? Not everyone in central KY is a horse breeder, for example.

 

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