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LOCAL News :: Environment/Food/Health : Human Rights : Youth/Education

Ed Wiley could kick Chuck Norris' Ass (for the kids)

Author

  • Matt_Noerpel

Date Created

  • 24 Aug 2006
Grandfather Ed Wiley is currently walking from Charleston, WV to Washington DC to raise funds and awareness to build a new school for the kids of Marsh Fork Elementary in their community. The school sits right beside a coal processing plant and 2.8 billion gallon leaking sludge dam. Ed will arrive after in Washington DC at the end of his 40 day trek on September 12 and he invites all to walk with him. Visit www.PenniesOfPromise.org
If we fail as parents, we have failed as Americans - Bo Webb

Grandfather Ed Wiley is no traditional environmentalist, child rights advocate, or political activist. His history and his heritage run deep into the coal encrusted veins of the Appalachian Mountains.

Ed Wiley has never fought sludge impoundments. He has built them.

He has never boycotted coal. He has extracted it.

He worked in processing plants just like the one less than a football field from Marsh Fork Elementary School, in Sundial, WV - full of enormous clanging machinery, explosive gases, and chemically treated coal dust.

He helped build the 2.8 billion gallon sludge impoundment directly above Marsh Fork Elementary School where his 11-year old granddaughter goes to school and is poisoned everyday by those same chemicals.

Now this man is spending his retirement walking 455 miles over 40 days and nights in the heat of summer!

Why?…

Ed attributes his "wake-up" to his 11-year-old granddaughter Kayla, who attends Marsh Fork Elementary. After having to pick up the perfectly healthy and enthused child from school three days in a row, color-drained from her skin, Ed asked Kayla (who he affectionately calls "Possum") what was going on.

He puts it as follows.


Kayla had tears running down her face. She said "Gramps, these coal mines are making us kids sick."

The day this child had tears in her eyes, that's when I woke up.

-Ed Wiley

WELCOME TO MARSH FORK ELEMENTARY (small building with lawn, lower left.) If that man-made dam broke (and its had NUMEROUS violations) those children would have 17 seconds to live.

Behind the dam there is 2.8 billion gallons of toxic sludge. Behind that theres a 1849 acre Mountaintop Removal site that's growing in size and waste output.

These children deserve a new, safe, local place to learn!

The runoff from the site flows into the sludge dam. The Mine Safety and Health Administration has cited the dam repeatedly for violations in its construction and maintenance. In 2000, a sludge dam in Kentucky, operated by the same company, released over 300 million gallons of sludge in what the EPA called the worst environmental disaster in the Southeast. The spill was nearly 30 times the volume of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spill.

These children deserve a new, safe, local place to learn!

There is a coal silo less than 300 feet from Marsh Fork Elementary School. That's illegal. The silo houses tons and tons of toxic chemically treated coal dust. Ever heard of black lung disease? Well, nowadays you don't have to go into the coal mines to breathe coal dust and get black lung disease. You just have to go to class.


A survey was performed on 60 households with kids at the school.

Of those 60 households…

-88% had children who were commonly ill

Of those houses with a commonly ill child

-91% had kids with regular respiratory problems


According to Ed Wiley, "15-20 kids leave each day" because they are sick from the coal dust they are inhaling.

These children deserve a new, safe, local place to learn!

For over TWO YEARS the children of this community have been insulted, ignored, and brushed aside by big coal interests and the government of West Virginia!

Now, Grandfather Ed Wiley is taking a radical step. He is taking the voice of the people of the West Virginia Coal Fields straight on out of the hollow, straight on out of the county, on passed the West Virginia border, and all the way to Washington, DC!

The conventional wisdom in WV is that people CAN'T make a difference…and thats where we come in.

Ed needs your support!

Today, he passed 100 miles. There is no dobut that the man is in fit enough physical shape to finish the walk well ahead of his exhausted teenage support team. SCREW CHUCK NORRIS! Here's a real American hero.

The trip has been an amazing success, Pennies of Promise has a short video of Ed talking about the trip,

as well as coverage of Day 1 of the walk, and a newly created second videoof the trip.

So, how did it get to be this way? So that grandfathers were walking 100s of miles to raise awareness because the state was ignoring the fact that coal poisoning their kids and grandkids?

I think of the modern American fixation on oil as a similar situation. Democratic Senators Byrd and Rockerfeller of West Virginia are good on almost everything, but remain deep in the pockets of the coal companies. Local and state officials are the same way. Coal Company "X" can poor millions and millions of dollars into a race for school board if they have to.

West Virginia, because of its geographic makeup (mountains and "hollows") is also very difficult to organize. Some of the most amazing labor battles in American history - such as The Battle of Blair Mountain - took place in the coal fields of Southern West Virginia. The Battle of Blair Mountain remains the largest post civil war battle in American history. Needless to say, the unionizing miners lost at Blair Mountain to a federal militia, and the only bombs America has ever dropped on its own soil out of airplanes.

Over 200 years of company towns, violence, union-busting, and exploitation by the coal companies, the people of West Virginia expect nothing else but the shit end of the stick time and time again. And that's what they get! 51-54% of America's electric energy comes from coal, and yet the coalfield counties are some of the poorest counties in the United States of America.

Ed worked on these sites. He has cleaned up spills. He has pumped sludge around the impoundment to relieve pressure on the violation stricken dam. And now…he has to spend his retirement WALKING ACROSS AMERICA SO THAT HIS GRANDAUGHTER ISNT POISONED AT SCHOOL?!?! MY grandfather would be HUMILIATED if he had to do something like that!!! And yet - heres Ed, carrying an 8x4 ft flag and standind out like a flower in a desert…
"If we do not stand up and take part of whats happening in our Appalachian mountains we all are going to suffer from this." - Ed Wiley

Support Ed and keep up with his progress at www.PenniesOfPromise.org
(Thanks to the Daily Kos)

 

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Comments

Re: Ed Wiley is also to blame!

25 Aug 2006
by Steve
Reply to this comment
who built the dam who worked the mine

WHO MADE THE MESS - Ed Wiley!
 

Re: Re: Ed Wiley is also to blame!

25 Aug 2006
by Anonymous
Reply to this comment
And what is your point? I understand that he is acknowledging his role and trying to do something about it now.
 

Re: Re: Ed Wiley is also to blame!

25 Aug 2006
by Anonymouse
Reply to this comment
So did countless others, when you work the mines the bosses don't tell you that you are doing irreperable harm to the environment, they just want you to work and if you die in the mines they look for a replacement, most miners aren't able to get good educations, because the bosses want to get them working asap and long hard hours so when you get home their really is no time to study or energy either. At least Ed has realized the destruction what he and others have done and are trying to spread the message and get people organized against these horrid mining practices, what are you doing Steve, what are you doing?
 

Re: Ed Wiley could kick Chuck Norris' Ass (for the kids)

26 Aug 2006
by meegee
Reply to this comment
Anyone live in Northern Virginia Area? Or in DC? Look at the route map on Pennies of Promise. Ed comes through NOVA starting around the 7th. He will be in Leesburg on Saturday, the 9th of September, speaking at the tally Ho theater in downtown. Starts at 10:00 am. Show up, tell your friends, support the pathway to a brighter future. At the very least, walk with him into DC on the 12th.
 

Re: Ed Wiley could kick Chuck Norris' Ass (for the kids)

31 Aug 2006
by JW
Reply to this comment
I wrote this, originally at the Appalachian Voices blog. I appreciate everyone's feedback and comments. Except Steve's. Totally unproductive. But besides that, PLEASE visit penniesofpromise.org and learn where you can go to walk with Ed (I warn you, he walks fast) or just bring some friends to cheer him on. I know he needs it. Hes been out there for a month. Peace, JW
 

Re: Ed Wiley could kick Chuck Norris' Ass (for the kids)

05 Apr 2007
by eatmyshorts
Reply to this comment
Thats 17 seconds to live...I fully agree ! Prolly less than that. Theres no swimming when sludge be smushing someone to death & also with their classmates elbows. Will we sit and allow our children to be sacrificed to the goal dumn asses ? Pull your children out of school !!! Some parents they are !
 

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