Fellow Sierra Club Members:
I have pasted some information below which is extremely distressing because, first, Maria is my friend and, second, if something bad happens to Maria, we will have difficulty getting coalfield citizens to speak up and to testify in future litigation. In addition to the links below, Maria and her homeplace are featured in our yellow brochures.
This is an extremely scary situation which we can't let Maria face alone. Maria has two children who attend school in the Bob White community and so we have to worry about their safety too. The miners have been showing up in the early A.M. hours and picketing her house in their fluorescent striped workclothes. There have been threats to burn her home and many other harassments.
Any financial aid will be appreciated to enable us to provide 24-hour protection for Maria's homeplace until the help mentioned below becomes available. As Dianne mentions, we are keeping this quiet so as not to inflame more passions.
Thank you for any assistance. Please don't hesitate to give me a call if you need any further information.
Regina Hendrix 304-343-5211
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For now, please *don't* publicize or write letters to the editor about the harassment mentioned below, as a lot of publicity at this time may inflame the situation.
Because of a lawsuit filed by WV groups, Judge Robert C Chambers recently imposed a temporary injunction which prevents a new, huge valley fill in Boone County from being built (for now, at least). The company says they couldn't keep mining the mountains unless they have this new valley fill to dump the former mountaintops into. We hear that 39 workers are in the process of being laid off. The valley fill would have employed these 39 workers for 12 months.
Shortly before we won the injunction, an OVEC meeting in Boone County (Sept 19) was forcibly taken over by about 60 mountaintop removal workers, who crowded into the large room and made it impossible for others to get in. These people were angry because they had apparently been told that OVEC was going to take away their jobs, and that Maria Gunnoe, in particular, was to be targeted.
We have not publicized this more widely because the threats and outright intimidation have been widespread and we are trying to promote calm. Some of the gov't authorities are involved with us, to help reduce the chances for violence.
We need immediate help in continuing to provide the funding for people to continue to keep watch over Maria's home night and day - as they have been for over a month now. _We've been promised some bigger financial help but we_ _won't have this funding immediately_. So we've been soliciting private donations, and we now find it necessary to ask more widely. We need _$300 a day_ to keep Maria's home protected.
*Any amount* you can contribute would be deeply appreciated. Please send to Maria Gunnoe at
PO Box 46,
Bob White WV .
The mine on the mountain above Maria's house has already caused flooding that damaged her barn, swept away bridges connecting her homeplace to the main road and washed away nearly five acres of her land. Some of the washout gouged the land to a depth of five feet. Here are some links to see what has happened to Maria's home:
http://journals.aol.com/imaginemew/LoveMountains/entries/2006/06/11/more-mar... mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/Regina%20Hendrix/Application%20Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/0n3sksj3.default/Mail/mail.verizon.net/Inbox?number=1516564073 http://www.stopmountaintopremoval.org/marias-story.html mailbox:///C%7C/Documents%20and%20Settings/Regina%20Hendrix/Application%20Data/Thunderbird/Profiles/0n3sksj3.default/Mail/mail.verizon.net/Inbox?number=1516564073 For more links just google Maria Gunnoe.