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Peace Corps Nigeria and Home to West Virginia

2005-06-09T14:39:00.002-07:00

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All About Me
Julian Martin, Vice President for State Affairs, WV Highlands Conservancy wvhighlands.org, vice-chair Kanawha State Forest Foundation ksff.org.
Retired high school chemistry, physics and physical science teacher. Lifelong opponent of stripmining and mountain top removal coal mining in West Virginia.

Recent Entries
6/9/05
Peace Corps Nigeria and Home to West Virginia
6/7/05
Strike of 1877
6/6/05
Jay Rockefeller
6/5/05
WEST Virginia Quiz
6/4/05
Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining

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Rich Stonestreet
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This Journal has been read times since its creation on June 4, 2005

Thursday, June 9, 2005
5:34:21 PM EDT
Peace Corps Nigeria and Home to West Virginia
The first half of this article appeared in the summer edition of Friends of Nigeria newsletter. The second half will be in the Fall edition. As of just now(5:30pm June 9, 2005) it is not on their website.Should be fairly soon at friendsofnigeria.org
The day after Kennedy announced the creation of the Peace Corps, I called Washington and volunteered. I did not want to go to Africa. News from the Congo told of Simbas killing and raping nuns. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was beaten to death. By the time I heard from the Peace Corps I was about to start night classes in law at Georgetown University. By day I was training to supervise the production of sidewinder missiles at the Naval Propellants Plant in Indian Head, Maryland. My boss, trying to dissuade me from the Peace Corps, told me that we were waging peace by making missiles. I figured if they ever used our Polaris missile we would all be dead from the Soviet counter stroke on D.C. Five engineers near my age were killed in the one month I was at the propellants plant. Africa seemed safer.
After UCLA and in country training, I was picked up in Enugu by the priest and headmaster of my school. As he drove south he pointed with pride to the churches along the way that were built by his tribe of white priests and brohers. "Built by a black man", he said as he pointed to poorly built churches. We took an unpaved short cut that was busy with pedestrians, and bicyclists. The priest drove recklessly. He came close to hitting people, pressed his horn in anger and muttered hateful things as they scurried out of the way. I was feeling dizzy, my face was hot, there was a lump in my stomach.
After about a month teaching chemistry I casually mentioned to the headmaster that only one student passed the first test. The next day he came into my room, lectured the students on study habits and ordered them all, except the one who had passed the test, to line up at the door. As the students passed in front of him he bent each outstretched hand and struck it three times with a cane. He then marched them back in and repeated the process on the other hand. The boys were crying as they returned to their seats. I was horrified. When the priest left I told the students that I was very sorry and that it would never happen again. If necessary I resolved to physically prevent him from beating my students.
The school carpenter, told me that his brother was going to Fourah Bay College to study French. He confided, "I am beginning to worry now that all of the money is paid out and he has signed for the courses. Father said no Ibo man could learn French." I assured him that the priest was wrong about Ibos and that his brother would be able to learn French. He looked puzzled and said, "I have been wondering about this Ireland. Are there any people there but priests? Do they have a government there?" I told him that most of the people in Ireland were not priests and that they did have a government.
"Well, I thought that they were all equal and most of them priests and for this reason they don’t know people. These reverend fathers treat everyone like they don’t know any law. They treat workmen like they are very common and only local and cannot do a good job which is worth a fair price."
About a year after I got back in West Virginia I got a letter from the Irish lay teacher that the students at my school had rioted.
I didn’t let the headmaster ruin my experience. Those two years in the Peace Corps were happy, exciting and wonderful. I learned more than any other time in my life, met amazing people and learned to like warm beer, palm wine and palm gin delivered in an old plasma bottle. The boys on my track team were amazing physical specimens, I don’t know how they did it on their protein deficient diet. One athlete only five foot eight could, without any coaching, clear six feet in the high jump.
1962 and 63 were peaceful times in Nigeria. How could I have missed seeing the coming Biafra apocalypse? On a third class train trip from Enugu to Kaduna it was obvious that, while the people of different ethnic groups were kind and helpful to me, they ignored each other. And we had a Yoruba Peace Corps driver who told us that the Ibos ate people!
At the end of two years the admiration and respect for America that I felt in Nigeria extended all the way home through Egypt, Greece, Russia and France. In Moscow the hotel maids were crying as they watched President Kennedy’s funeral on TV.
After Nigeria I was West Virginia University’s first full time foreign student advisor. There was a large contingent of students from East Africa. Some pretty bad mistakes had been made, like housing all the Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika students in one section of a student apartment building. On top of that the Morgantown barbershops were segregated. With help from WVU students we integrated the housing and the barbershops.
As the Vietnam war got worse, I was asked to sign on as a charter member of Students for a Democratic Society(SDS). The SDS emerged from the tutoring program we organized for children in the economically devastated coal mining region around WVU. My membership in SDS and participation in the first picket at WVU against the war and a later picket against Robert Byrd did not please the president of the University. He closed International House and put me in a windowless office in an old Navy surplus building and I did not get a salary increase. The picket against Byrd was when his claims to fame were that he had been a KKK organizer, filibustered the Civil Rights Act and brought a lot of pork to WVU.
I fled to San Francisco and became active with other Peace Corps volunteers in the Committee of Returned Volunteers. Our purpose was to help end the Vietnam war. Today I am part of West Virginia Patriots For Peace. Each Friday at noon in downtown Charleston, West Virginia, we have a one hour vigil holding a "Wall of Remembrance" with the names of all the soldiers killed in Iraq. It now takes twenty people to hold the banner.
My Peace Corps teaching experience entitled me to a teaching license in California which was later transferred to West Virginia. After hitch-hiking home via Canada, I was director of the YMCA’s urban outreach program(imagine kids from the projects growing an organic garden.) Then for twenty-two years(finally settled down) I taught high school chemistry, physics and physical science in a small rural school not far from my birthplace.
I got active with environmental groups that are trying to stop the coal industry’s destruction of West Virginia mountains. After retiring from teaching I walked with a friend, whose home and family cemetery were surrounded by denuded, decapitated mountains, across West Virginia carrying anti-mountain top removal signs and speaking to community groups and media reporters along the way.
My life was changing when I joined the Peace Corps and the Peace Corps accelerated that change, and I am very glad.
I am most active with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. We have an excellent presentation on mountain top removal strip mining and would be happy to show it most anywhere. Contact me at imaginemew@aol.com. For more information on mountain top removal visit wvhighlands.org and ohvec.org. And if you would like a bumper sticker that reads I Love Mountains (Love is implied with a red heart) send me a #10 SASE to Julian Martin, 1525 Hampton Road, Charleston, WV 25314. The I Love Mountains stickers are a counter to the I Love Coal stickers given out by the coal companies. My dad’s eye was slit open in a coal mine, for that reason and a zillion others I do not love coal.

Written by imaginemew . (Link to this entry)
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Tuesday, June 7, 2005
10:07:10 AM EDT
Strike of 1877

Why Armories were built in West Virginia--From Rich Stonestreet
Of the many strikes and general strikes during this period, the Great Upheaval of 1877 is particular noteworthy (and largely ignored by history books):
On (July 16, 1877) the first nationwide strike in history broke out on the railroads, a strike which spread from state to state and city to city, from West Virginia to Kentucky and Ohio, from New York to Chicago, from St. Louis to San Francisco. As fast as the strike was broken in one place it appeared in another. American troops fired on American workingmen as regiments under General Phil Sheridan were recalled from fighting the Sioux and thrown against the workers of Chicago. There was the Battle of the Roundhouse in Pittsburgh, bloody street fighting between troops and workers in Baltimore, and skirmishes the country over in which scores of workers were killed and hundreds wounded. From the first day of the strike the press declared it was a Communist conspiracy to overthrow the government by force and violence. It was not. It was the depression exploding. It was four years of humiliation, joblessness, and hunger erupting in struggle. Women were particularly valiant as the strike spread, hurling stones as they stood against the fire of United States regulars. Children were killed in Pittsburgh and elsewhere as they fought militia. Farmers came trooping in from the countryside to help the strikers, whose ranks were swollen by the unemployed, by coal miners, mill workers, by all the thousands whose lives had been made uncertain and bitter by depression. (Boyer and Morais, Labor's Untold Story, 1955, p. 59.)
The strike was put down after two weeks, but not until it had struck fear into the hearts of the capitalist class, who began to construct National Guard Armories in the major cities of the United States. These grim fortresses of brick and stone were built to protect America, not from foreign invasion, but from the working class. They are thus monuments to the Great Upheaval of 1877. (Jeremy Brecher, Strike! 1972, pp.1, 22.)
Written by imaginemew . (Link to this entry)
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Monday, June 6, 2005
7:05:42 PM EDT
Jay Rockefeller
When Jay Rockefeller ran for gov. of West Virginia the first time he was defeated by Arch Moore(later went to jail for lieing and stealing) because the coal companies matched Rockefeller's spending and the local bosses in the southern coalfields betrayed him. An in-law once removed was the boss for the republicans in Logan County--he used Jay's money to get Moore elected. The Dems agreed to support Moore if the repubs would support the rest of the democrat candidates--they did this with slates of candidates. These printed slates were handed to voters they controlled with money and other favors. At the top was Moore for gov and rest of the list were dems. I call it the rockefeller lesson that all politicians since are very aware of--if a rockefeller can't beat them who am I?
Here are quotes from rockefeller--
I will fight for the abolition of strip mining completely and forever. John D. Rockefeller IV, running for governor of West Virginia as a stripmine abolitionist, December, 1970“...mountaintop removal should certainly be encouraged, if not specifically dictated.” Governor John D. Rockefeller, IV. March 2, 1977, testimony to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Energy and natural Resources, March 12, 1977"Floods are part of our history. There is nothing we can do about them." Jay Rockefeller in the Charleston Gazette-Mail after the July 8, 2001 mountain top removal induced floods that destroyed 1600 homes and killed several people.Written by imaginemew . (Link to this entry)
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Sunday, June 5, 2005
3:28:15 PM EDT
WEST Virginia Quiz
Please feel free to offer answers and comments and suggestions for additional questions.
A West Virginia Quiz1. What law in 1779 determined the future of land use in WV? A. Virginia Land Act of 1779 B. Slave emancipation C. Bill of Rights2. 2000 A. Number of slaves at Kanawha salines(the Malden salt works). B. Amount in dollars it takes to buy a state senator.
3. 60,200 A. Acres covered by Sutton dam. B. Acres in malls in WV C. Acres of WV land George Washington owned D. People at a Pitt-WVU game.4. What was the major activity in the years 1880 to 1920 that just about destroyed the West Virginia environment? A. Mountain top removal B. Forest clear cutting5. What was the relationship between Henry Gassaway Davis and Stephen B. Elkins? A. Cousins B. Business rivals C. Lovers D. Father and son-in-Law6. Davis was the leading (Republican, Democrat) in West Virginia and Elkins was the other.7. Davis was from out of state. Which state? A. Ohio B.Maryland C. New Mexico D. Virginia E. Alaska8. Was Davis a resident of Maryland when he was elected to the U.S. Senate for West Virginia? 9. Elkins was from out of state. Which state?(select from list in question 7)10. Do Davis and Elkins qualify as out of state environmental extremists? 11. How did Davis and Elkins get rich? A. Organic Farming B. Timbering C. Mountain Top Removal D.Teaching at Davis and Elkins E. They were born rich12. 8.5 million acres A. Area of WV. B. Area of the lake at Summersville dam C. The area of virgin forest cut in WV by about 192013. Was the Monongahela National Forest created before or after all the good timber was cut? 14. Did the timber barons make a big profit by selling clear cut land to the government for inclusion in the Monongahela NationalForest?15. The Monongahela National Forest was created. A. To stop logging within its boundaries B.To stop mining within its boundaries C. For flood control D. To make Davis, Elkins and others richer.16. If a railroad was built across a farmer’s land, after WV became a state, who was liable for damages if a train got hit by a cow? A. The farmer B. The railroad company C. The state government D. God17. Over 100,000. A. Coal miners killed in the US. B. Coal mining jobs lost to mechanization since 1960 C. About what it takes in dollars to buy a governor 18. 90% A. Land in Boone County owned by large corporations. B. An excellent grade on a calculus test.19. 250,000,000 gallons A. The Exxon Valdez spill.(Don’t pick this one it was only 11 million gallons) B. Spirits consumed at the last Republican national convention C. Sludge that went into the Big Sandy, Tug and Ohio rivers courtesy of Massey Coal. D. Spirits consumed at the last Democratic state convention20. By 1935 at least 764 men were killed by Union Carbide A. In the Farmington Mine explosion B. With MIC at Institute. C. Digging the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel D. In the Buffalo Creek flood.21. Name the only man to run for governor, in a general election, who was for the abolition of stripmining. What was his position on stripmining in his second try? 22. 125 people were killed and 4000 made homeless by the Pittston Coal Company at A. Buffalo Creek B. Matewan C. Farmington D.Big Ugly23. What Governor let Pittston Coal Co. off in the Buffalo Creek flood with a $1,000,000 fine when just the cleanup cost several times that amount? A. Underwood B. Moore C. Rockefeller D. Barron24. Which of the four governors in the previous question went to prison?25. What did Judge Haden rule about WV mountains? A. Streams couldn’t be filled B. Mountains couldn’t be decapitated. C. No hunting on Sundays26. Who said, “The most precious thing in the world is capital.” ? A. Gandhi B. Jesus C. Ralph Nader D. Richard Lawson(As president of the National Coal Association)27. 60,000,000 and climbing A. Population of WV B. Board feet of timber lost to mountain top removal every year C. Cost in dollars of three elections and two houses for Jay Rockefeller28. 300,000 acres and climbing is A. Hardwood mountain area destroyed by mountain top removal. B. The size of a park being planned by the coal industry as a gift to WV. C. The area of some counties in WV. D. The last territorial demand of the WV Coal Association29. Which of the following did the Coal Bell, the stripmining industry newspaper, use to describe West Virginia Mountains. A. A worthless piece of dirt. B. Good for absolutely nothing save for snakes and scrub pine C. A useless mountain top30. What caused the “Matewan Massacre”? A. Eviction of striking miners from their homes B. Indians attacking settlers31. Why was Sid Hatfield murdered? A. For killing Baldwin-Felts detectives at Matewan B. Because he had gold teeth32. Who said “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” A. Governor Underwood B. Governor Moore C. Mother Jones33. Who were Frank Keeney, Fred Mooney and Bill Blizzard? A. Union leaders tried for treason B. Bank robbers C. The threemusketeers34. Where was the first and only bombing of American civilians by American air force planes? A. Blair Mountain B. Charleston C. Selma, Alabama35. Where was Sid Hatfield of "Bloody Mingo" killed? A. In a Tug River feud B. In a saloon in Mingo County C. On the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse D. At the Battle of Blair Mountain36. Who killed Sid Hatfield?A. Baldwin-Felts detectives B. Randolf "Ranel" McCoy D. Radical union miners37. After Students were killed at Kent State University while protesting the Vietnam war, Students and faculty blocked traffic at the WVU Campus. What happened to the leaders?A. They were joined by the community and a peaceful demonstration ensuedB. They were fired upon by the National Guard.C. A Faculty member was stripped of his Department Chair position and a 4.0 student was denied entrance into law school. D. They were beaten and jailed
38. Between 1897 and 1928 how many underground coal miners were killed inWest Virginia? A. 1,000 B. 5,000 C. 10,000 D. 20,00039. 2000 A. Number of slaves at Kanawha salines(the Malden salt works). B. Amount in dollars it takes to buy a state senator. 40. Famous freed slave who worked at the Malden salt works. A. George Washington Carver C. Booker T. Washington 41. What was one of the rewards for fighting against the Indians at the battle of Point Pleasant? A. Bottled water B. The Indians land C. Fighting for democracy 42. The Mason-Dixon Line separates West Virginia from: A. Ohio B. Pennsylvania C. Maryland D. Kentucky E. Bosnia43. Ask me or tell me how West Virginia got a northern panhandle?44. Ask me or tell me how the US constitution was violated to make West Virginia a state?45. Chuck Yeager of Hamlin was the first person to break the sound barrier. How fast does sound travel? A. About 900 Feet per second B 185,000 miles per second46. Who was the former WVU all-American to be the first defensive player ever selected Most Valuable Player in the super bowl? A. Hot Rod Hundley B. Jerry West C.Randy Moss D. Chuck Howley47. What West Virginia governor went to jail for bribing the jury foreman in a bribery trial? A. Walley Barron B. Arch Moore C. Hulett Smith D. Jay Rockefeller48. Who paid the largest share of the half million dollars spent in Governor Underwood’s second inauguration? A. The governor B. The taxpayers C. Coal Companies D. Methodist Church49. What attempted tax destroyed the political career of Governor Marland? 50. Who made these two contradictory statements: “ I will fight for the abolition of strip mining completely and forever.” and “...Mountaintop removal should certainly be encouraged, if not specifically dictated.” Why did he change his mind?51. In what state did a woman have a 180 pound goiter removed?
52. By whom and where was "Solidarity Forever" written? A. Ralph Chaplin, at Paint Creek, WV B. Karl Marx in Germany
53. Why were armories built in West Virginia?
Written by imaginemew . (Link to this entry)
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Saturday, June 4, 2005
1:24:33 PM EDT
Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining
Mountain Top Removal
A Federal study says that between 1992 and 2002, 380,000 acres of mountain tops were destroyed. This is over four times the land in WV state parks. By 2005 the estimate is 500,000 acres. That is 500,000 football fields.
3,000,000 pounds of explosives are used against West Virginia mountains every day.
The 800+ square miles of mountains already destroyed equals a one-quarter mile wide swath of destruction from New York to San Francisco.
Of the mountains flattened less than 5% have any economic development.
Over 100,000,000 board feet of new growth hardwood timber is lost every year, forever, to Mountain Top Removal strip mining. In 2005 that is enough to build 4,000 homes every year forever.
1000 miles of West Virginia streams have been permitted to be buried in Valley Fills. This is longer than the Ohio River.
One Million Acres of West Virginia Mountains were Strip Mined and Mountain Top Removed between 1939 and 2005.
In 1950 there were 125,000 miners in West Virginia, in 2005 there are about 15,000.
The late Bill Maxey, retired in protest against mountain top removal. He was the highly respected director of the West Virginia Division of Forestry. He said of mountain top removal:
"All native plant and animals are practically eliminated....makes the landscape so unsightly that it ruins tourism....actually destroys more coal mining jobs than it creates....is analogous to serious disease, like AIDS..."
West Virginia Highlands Conservancy wvhighlands.orgP.O. Box 306 Charleston WV 25321Written by imaginemew . (Link to this entry)
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Peace Corps Nigeria and Home to West

2005-06-09T14:39:00.001-07:00

Peace Corps Nigeria and Home to

2005-06-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

West Virginia Quiz and Mountain Top Removal Coal Mining

2005-06-06T16:48:00.000-07:00

Mountain Top Removal Strip Mining

A Federal study says that between 1992 and 2002, 380,000 acres of mountain tops were destroyed. This is over four times the land in WV state parks. By 2005 the estimate is 500,000 acres. That is 500,000 football fields.

3,000,000 pounds of explosives are used against West Virginia mountains every day.

The 800+ square miles of mountains already destroyed equals a one-quarter mile wide swath of destruction from New York to San Francisco.

Of the mountains flattened less than 5% have any economic development.

Over 100,000,000 board feet of new growth hardwood timber is lost every year, forever, to Mountain Top Removal strip mining. In 2005 that is enough to build 4,000 homes every year forever.

1000 miles of West Virginia streams have been permitted to be buried in Valley Fills. This is longer than the Ohio River.

One Million Acres of West Virginia Mountains were Strip Mined and Mountain Top Removed between 1939 and 2005.

In 1950 there were 125,000 miners in West Virginia, in 2005 there are about 15,000.

The late Bill Maxey, retired in protest against mountain top removal. He was the highly respected director of the West Virginia Division of Forestry. He said of mountain top removal:"All native plant and animals are practically eliminated....makes the landscape so unsightly that it ruins tourism....actually destroys more coal mining jobs than it creates....is analogous to serious disease, like AIDS..."

West Virginia Highlands Conservancy wvhighlands.orgP.O. Box 306 Charleston WV 25321

WEST Virginia Quiz

1. What law in 1779 determined the future of land use in WV? A. Virginia Land Act of 1779 B. Slave emancipation C. Bill of Rights

2. 2000 A. Number of slaves at Kanawha salines(the Malden salt works). B. Amount in dollars it takes to buy a state senator.

3. 60,200 A. Acres covered by Sutton dam. B. Acres in malls in WV C. Acres of WV land George Washington owned D. People at a Pitt-WVU game.

4. What was the major activity in the years 1880 to 1920 that just about destroyed the West Virginia environment? A. Mountain top removal B. Forest clear cutting

5. What was the relationship between Henry Gassaway Davis and Stephen B. Elkins? A. Cousins B. Business rivals C. Lovers D. Father and son-in-Law

6. Davis was the leading (Republican, Democrat) in West Virginia and Elkins was the other.

7. Davis was from out of state. Which state? A. Ohio B.Maryland C. New Mexico D. Virginia E. Alaska

8. Was Davis a resident of Maryland when he was elected to the U.S. Senate for West Virginia?

9. Elkins was from out of state. Which state?(select from list in question 7)

10. Do Davis and Elkins qualify as out of state environmental extremists?

11. How did Davis and Elkins get rich? A. Organic Farming B. Timbering C. Mountain Top Removal D.Teaching at Davis and Elkins E. They were born rich

12. 8.5 million acres A. Area of WV. B. Area of the lake at Summersville dam C. The area of virgin forest cut in WV by about 1920

13. Was the Monongahela National Forest created before or after all the good timber was cut?

14. Did the timber barons make a big profit by selling clear cut land to the government for inclusion in the Monongahela NationalForest?

15. The Monongahela National Forest was created. A. To stop logging within its boundaries B.To stop mining within its boundaries C. For flood control D. To make Davis, Elkins and others richer.

16. If a railroad was built across a farmer’s land, after WV became a state, who was liable for damages if a train got hit by a cow? A. The farmer B. The railroad company C. The state government D. God

17. Over 100,000. A. Coal miners killed in the US. B. Coal mining jobs lost to mechanization since 1960 C. About what it takes in dollars to buy a governor

18. 90% A. Land in Boone County owned by large corporations. B. An excellent grade on a calculus test.

19. 250,000,000 gallons A. The Exxon Valdez spill.(Don’t pick this one it was only 11 million gallons) B. Spirits consumed at the last Republican national convention C. Sludge that went into the Big Sandy, Tug and Ohio rivers courtesy of Massey Coal. D. Spirits consumed at the last Democratic state convention

20. By 1935 at least 764 men were killed by Union Carbide A. In the Farmington Mine explosion B. With MIC at Institute. C. Digging the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel D. In the Buffalo Creek flood.

21. Name the only man to run for governor, in a general election, who was for the abolition of stripmining. What was his position on stripmining in his second try?

22. 125 people were killed and 4000 made homeless by the Pittston Coal Company at A. Buffalo Creek B. Matewan C. Farmington D.Big Ugly

23. What Governor let Pittston Coal Co. off in the Buffalo Creek flood with a $1,000,000 fine when just the cleanup cost several times that amount? A. Underwood B. Moore C. Rockefeller D. Barron

24. Which of the four governors in the previous question went to prison?

25. What did Judge Haden rule about WV mountains? A. Streams couldn’t be filled B. Mountains couldn’t be decapitated. C. No hunting on Sundays

26. Who said, “The most precious thing in the world is capital.” ? A. Gandhi B. Jesus C. Ralph Nader D. Richard Lawson(As president of the National Coal Association)

27. 60,000,000 and climbing A. Population of WV B. Board feet of timber lost to mountain top removal every year C. Cost in dollars of three elections and two houses for Jay Rockefeller

28. 300,000 acres and climbing is A. Hardwood mountain area destroyed by mountain top removal. B. The size of a park being planned by the coal industry as a gift to WV. C. The area of some counties in WV. D. The last territorial demand of the WV Coal Association

29. Which of the following did the Coal Bell, the stripmining industry newspaper, use to describe West Virginia Mountains. A. A worthless piece of dirt. B. Good for absolutely nothing save for snakes and scrub pine C. A useless mountain top

30. What caused the “Matewan Massacre”? A. Eviction of striking miners from their homes B. Indians attacking settlers

31. Why was Sid Hatfield murdered? A. For killing Baldwin-Felts detectives at Matewan B. Because he had gold teeth

32. Who said “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.” A. Governor Underwood B. Governor Moore C. Mother Jones

33. Who were Frank Keeney, Fred Mooney and Bill Blizzard? A. Union leaders tried for treason B. Bank robbers C. The threemusketeers

34. Where was the first and only bombing of American civilians by American air force planes? A. Blair Mountain B. Charleston C. Selma, Alabama

35. Where was Sid Hatfield of "Bloody Mingo" killed? A. In a Tug River feud B. In a saloon in Mingo County C. On the steps of the McDowell County Courthouse D. At the Battle of Blair Mountain

36. Who killed Sid Hatfield?A. Baldwin-Felts detectives B. Randolf "Ranel" McCoy D. Radical union miners

37. After Students were killed at Kent State University while protesting the Vietnam war, Students and faculty blocked traffic at the WVU Campus. What happened to the leaders?A. They were joined by the community and a peaceful demonstration ensuedB. They were fired upon by the National Guard.C. A Faculty member was stripped of his Department Chair position and a 4.0 student was denied entrance into law school. D. They were beaten and jailed

38. Between 1897 and 1928 how many underground coal miners were killed inWest Virginia? A. 1,000 B. 5,000 C. 10,000 D. 20,00039. 2000 A. Number of slaves at Kanawha salines(the Malden salt works). B. Amount in dollars it takes to buy a state senator.

39. Famous freed slave who worked at the Malden salt works. A. George Washington Carver C. Booker T. Washington

40. What was one of the rewards for fighting against the Indians at the battle of Point Pleasant? A. Bottled water B. The Indians land C. Fighting for democracy

41. The Mason-Dixon Line separates West Virginia from: A. Ohio B. Pennsylvania C. Maryland D. Kentucky E. Bosnia

42. Ask me or tell me how West Virginia got a northern panhandle?44. Ask me or tell me how the US constitution was violated to make West Virginia a state?

43. Chuck Yeager of Hamlin was the first person to break the sound barrier. How fast does sound travel? A. About 900 Feet per second B 185,000 miles per second

44. Who was the former WVU all-American to be the first and only defensive player ever selected Most Valuable Player in the super bowl? A. Hot Rod Hundley B. Jerry West C.Randy Moss D. Chuck Howley

45. What West Virginia governor went to jail for bribing the jury foreman in a bribery trial? A. Walley Barron B. Arch Moore C. Hulett Smith D. Jay Rockefeller

46. Who paid the largest share of the half million dollars spent in Governor Underwood’s second inauguration? A. The governor B. The taxpayers C. Coal Companies D. Methodist Church

47. What attempted tax destroyed the political career of Governor Marland?

48. Who made these two contradictory statements: “ I will fight for the abolition of strip mining completely and forever.” and “...Mountaintop removal should certainly be encouraged, if not specifically dictated.” Why did he change his mind?

49. In what state did a woman have a 180 pound goiter removed?

50. By whom and where was "Solidarity Forever" written? A. Ralph Chaplin, at Paint Creek, WV B. Karl Marx in Germany

Jay Rockefeller

2005-06-06T16:14:00.000-07:00

When Jay Rockefeller ran for gov. of West Virginia the first time he was for the abolition of strip mining for coal. He was defeated by Arch Moore(later went to jail for lieing and steeling) The coal companies matched Rockefeller's spending and the local bosses in the southern coalfields betrayed him. An in-law once removed was the boss for the republicans in Logan County--he used Jay's money to get Moore elected. The Dems agreed to support Moore if the repubs would support the rest of the democrat candidates--they did this with slates of candidates to vote for. These printed slates were handed to voters they controlled with money and other favors. At the top was Moore for gov and the rest of the list were dems. I call it the rockefeller lesson that all politicians since are very aware of--if a rockefeller can't beat them who am I?
Here are quotes from rockefeller--
"I will fight for the abolition of strip mining completely and forever." John D. Rockefeller IV, running for governor of West Virginia as a stripmine abolitionist, December, 1970

“...mountaintop removal should certainly be encouraged, if not specifically dictated.” Governor John D. Rockefeller, IV. March 2, 1977, testimony to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Energy and natural Resources, March 12, 1977

"Floods are part of our history. There is nothing we can do about them." Jay Rockefeller in the Charleston Gazette-Mail after the July 8, 2001 mountain top removal induced floods that destroyed 1600 homes and killed several people.