City of Redemption

OPPORTUNITY

Go to Google Maps, and in Satellite mode, zoom in on southern West Virginia and/or eastern Kentucky. You'll find some odd grey patches. Zoom in closer and you may be puzzled by these features, until you realize they are the result of a mining practice known as mountaintop removal -- at which point you may become quite horrified.

You might even be brought to tears. The Appalachians are the oldest mountains on Earth, but the coal companies (and by extension, government) show them no respect.

Protest as we might, they keep blasting. One of the reasons they manage to get away with it is that the mountains in question are in remote, sparsely-populated areas. Even with acreage akin to that of small cities in some cases, the sites are visited by almost no one except mine employees.




One oft-repeated placation about the practice is that it leaves behind flat land, in areas where flat land is at a premium. This much is true, certainly, and one can imagine a mine company executive looking around at one of these places after the coal is gone, thinking of all the things that could be done with the reshaped land...

Well, sure -- except that the sites are all fairly remote, with only very small towns nearby.

You'd have to build a whole community to take advantage of such a place.




...And there's the opportunity.


How nice would it be to be able to build something in the Appalachian Mountains, knowing you cannot possibly do any damage? These places are already ruined; You can't make them worse. Anything you do will be an improvement.

I know of at least one small airport, Big Sandy Regional, that was built on such remains. In the past, it has been necessary to use cut-and-fill to build and expand airports in West Virginia...

In general, these beautiful mountains have indeed been an obstacle. There is only room for so much -- so yeah, the coal companies have that part right. Someone could build a resort -- or an entire resort town. A corporation could theoretically move its headquarters to one of these places, relocating hundreds of employees...

Or, if there was backing for such a project, a nearly self-sustaining planned community could be built. There is room for all of these things and more, and there is the architectural opportunity of a lifetime attached to any one of them...

In this setting, with still-untouched mountains all around, imagine architecture that looks like it came from science fiction, surrounded by lush vegetation. Imagine having everything you need close by, even though you're living in a place that was previously 'far from civilization'. Imagine thumbing your nose at the 'Friends of Coal' by powering everything with solar and wind.

Imagine the satisfaction of being part of the reclamation of land torn asunder by greed. The coal companies are required to 'restore' the land to a certain extent, and Mother Nature would take over in full force eventually, but in the right hands...


Mountaintop removal is an abomination. It should be stopped. However there is no reason not to take full advantage of the sites left behind.




Phil Smith
April 18, 2008

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Optimism

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Over time, we learn.

I can only speak for myself, but this has been my experience -- and I certainly hope the majority shares this experience.


From something I've learned recently, my optimism has been reinforced. It seems that the secret societies of the East have decided to assert themselves, and refuse to allow the secret societies of the West to continue on their previous course.

That course, that path, was one of destruction. Rumours of its machinations have been spreading for decades, spawning many dire predictions. Some of those may yet come true -- but overall, the picture has changed dramatically.


We sit back and watch, wondering when and if the economy of the United States of America will collapse, whether there will be a new currency, and whether it will be shared with Mexico and Canada, within a North American Union.

It's not difficult to understand why North Americans in general (and it seems, Canadians in particular) are apprehensive to say the least about the possibility of the formation of something like the NAU. Looking at the way government has been run over the past century or so, who can blame them?

One viewpoint is that the formation of the NAU would bring us all one step (Giant leap?) closer to the "New World Order", wherein secret government would hold the entire world in its clutches. The more you know (or think you know) about the plans of the conspirators, the darker our future appears...


Hang on a minute. Does it have to be that way? Couldn't the union of these three countries be an opportunity to implement the kind of oversight each of their governments could seriously use? Might it not, possibly, allow us to reduce the stain of corruption?

In the past, we could have been almost certain that such a union would only lead to more corruption and take control farther away from the hands of the people. We could not have known, could merely have hoped, that some force for positive change would come along...

...and now it has.


The secret societies of the East have entirely different motivations from those of the West. Genocide, for one thing, is not on their agenda. A reduction of the world's population, to them, seems neither necessary nor desirable. War is off the table. Though they may rule with an iron fist, they believe in balance and harmony.

They have made it clear that any member of Western secret government who 'misbehaves' will be dealt with, Ninja-style.


Ultimately, it doesn't matter what form of government we have, secret or otherwise, as long as our needs are properly met. Mostly, as a species we need to keep ourselves from destroying the planet -- and each other. Eventually, I would like to think, whatever form of government we will have will be a transparent one, and no larger than necessary.

As the title of this blog suggests, I would very much like to see the people of this planet unified -- by choice. Inch by inch, we're getting there.



Phil Smith
April 6, 2008

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