My Mother was born in West Virginia, as was her Father before her. At one time, my Grandfather helped the coal miners in their attempts to organize for their own protection and well being against the large coal companies. I remember in later years, my Grandmother told me that the only time in his life that my Grandfather ever carried a pistol [outside of his service in the U.S.A.A.F. during World War Two], was during that time when he was helping the coal miners.
So, I know a little bit about what coal has done to the people and the land of Appalachia. That is why I get so angry when I hear politicians, developers, and so called ‘environmentalists’ try to tell us that we need wind projects in Maine, to save the Mountains of Appalachia from coal mining. They want us to believe that if we; strip the trees, destroy sub-alpine habitat, blast the Mountain tops level, poison our waters, drive out and kill our animals, crack our aquifers, kill our birds and bats, sicken and displace our residents, run off our tourists, string hundreds of miles of power lines through our wilderness areas, and turn our State into a giant wind plantation, then we will somehow be saving the People and the Mountains south of us.
If you will pardon my language, that is what is generally referred to around here as; A load of Bullshit!
If we strip and blast every Mountain in Maine, and put up thousands of wind turbines, it will not stop, or even slow the coal mining in this country. That’s just not how it works. Large amounts of American coal are already being shipped to China and other developing countries, and if demand here weakens [wind won't help that happen], then we will simply ship more of the coal overseas, where it will be burned in even dirtier factories than we have here at home. That is an economic and political FACT! And no amount of feel good B.S. from those pushing wind will change that.
But of course, the developers, politicians, and especially the so called ‘environmentalists’ who are profiting from the wind scam [and often from coal and oil, at the same time], don’t want to talk about any of this.
It makes me sick!
Tonight I heard the song; ‘Paradise,’ written and sung by John Prine. The song describes the scene as a coal company basically digs up and carries away a place from his past.
It touched me, and I had to sit down and write my own version of the same story. The version that is playing out across New England, while we are still being fed the lie that it will help Southern Appalachia.
So, with my apologies to Mr. Prine, I give you the song that I sincerely hope that I am NOT signing in my old age:
MY PARADISE
When I was a child, my family would travel,
Up to western Maine, where the Mountains were born.
And there’s a backwoods old farm there that’s often remembered,
So many times that my memories are worn.
And Daddy won’t you take me back to Somerset County,
Down by Kennebec River, where the otters do play.
Well I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in askin’,
Mr. Baldacci’s wind law has blown it away.
Well, sometimes we’d travel across the Old River,
To the abandoned old farmsteads on Mahoney Hill.
Where the bears roamed the woods: we’d shoot with our pistols,
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
And Daddy won’t you take me back to Somerset County,
Down by Kennebec River, where the otters do play.
Well I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in askin’,
Mr. Baldacci’s wind law has blown it away.
Then the wind company came, with the State’s largest lift crane,
They stripped all the timber, and bulldozed the land.
Well, they blasted those Mountains till the Land was forsaken.
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.
And Daddy won’t you take me back to Somerset County,
Down by Kennebec River, where the otters do play.
Well I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in askin’,
Mr. Baldacci’s wind law has blown it away.
When I die, let my ashes float down that wide River,
Let my soul roll up, on old Wyman dam.
I’ll be half way to Heaven with My Paradise waitin’,
Just five miles away from wherever I am.
And Daddy won’t you take me back to Somerset County,
Down by Kennebec River, where the otters do play.
Well I’m sorry, my son, but you’re too late in askin’,
Mr. Baldacci’s wind law has blown it away.
David, you outdid yourself this time. Both the essay and the song really touched me. We should print up the lyrics and sing it at every rally for the mountains. I’m not positive but I thought John Denver wrote that song and John Prine adopted it… My dad was a WWII US Army Air Corp vet and along with a bunch of other medals I have , he was awarded the DFC, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the highest medal the Air Force has to give. I have that one, too. He was a Tech Seargent engineer/gunner on B24′s and I’m sure would be happy to use one to take out First Wind, Iberdrola and all the goons behind the industrial wind scam in our amazing Maine mountains, if he was still with us.
Thanks, Bob.
All of the documentation that I can find says that John Prine wrote, and originally sang, ‘Paradise.’ I can’t find any connection to Denver.
As for singing my version—well, this one, and all my songs, are available to anyone [hopefully with more talent than I have], to sing at any meeting or rally.
It sounds like your Father was a fine man. You should be proud. We could sure use more of his type to help us fight our battles today.
Never give up!
DC
Yeh, my dad was quite a guy. One time, when I was 12 and embarrassed to be seen with a parent, we were in a tough area doing some errands. As we were walking to our car, there was a commotion and we both looked to see what was happening. Five or six thug kids had encircled and were taunting a very clearly handicapped, defenseless guy who could barely talk. It was one of the most cruel and heartless things I’ve seen people do in person. A whole group of people were looking on frozen in shock. Only my father stepped forward and put a stop to it. He had to kick one of the kids in the ass and push another one aside until they left. We walked the man he had helped home. To this day, I feel compelled to stand up to bullies.
Nice lyrics, David.
A coal miner came to the University of Maine in Fort Kent a year or so ago to give a talk about mountain top removal. He showed slides of the mountains he grew up in and loved and what was left of them after the mining companies were done. He showed slides of towns surrounded by mine tailings, slides of the rivers and streams that had been destroyed. He explained that the reason big machines were used to level entire mountains was financial; it was cheaper to mine that way than to pay more miners to make tunnels into the mountain and follow the veins of coal the way they did in the old days. I was sure that the whole slant of this presentation was to urge us to embrace industrial wind but that wasn’t the case. He urged us to protect our environment and to protect our mountains.
Destroying Maine’s mountains won’t save any of Appalachia’s mountains. Resource extraction is what humans excel at, and when large amounts of money are involved, the Clean Water Act no longer exists. If it did, mountain top coal mining would never be permitted. We’re seeing that same sort of corruption here in Maine as wind developers rush to extract as much money as they can from the taxpayers before the subsidies run out.
What’s happening in New York, the state taking away the self governance of small towns to remove ordinance restrictions and favor wind developers, is unconstitutional and appalling.
Hey Dave, If the wind developers wouldtell the truth(HAHA!) like you do, the state of Maine and our country wouldn’t have to go through all this BULLSHIT!!