Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/28/aoc-v-co2.html
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It’ll be hard for her to cut through and dispel 40+ years of conservatives lies and fearmongering about Appalachian coal miners’ “traditional values”, but I’m hoping her fiery no-BS approach will help remind them of their true heritage:
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I hope the whole thing is televised. I want to see some brains melt in real time.
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“Failure to plan is planning to fail and I feel like we’ve been failing Appalachian communities for a very long time and it’s time to turn that ship around.”
Hot Dam! Go get’m AOC.
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Schuylkill County, PA, needs a visit, too! Anthracite never gets any love.
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I hope like hell that she’s not placed in front of astroturf town halls and Potemkin protests. I really hope that she really does get a shot at talking to real people instead of a puppet protest army. I can really see the other guys trying their best to do that to her.
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I dunno. It would be good for these bossa nova Democrats to face this stuff as early as possible.
Old White Men have been using that strategy for centuries. It isn’t going away.
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That’s great that they finally get some attention from government. Those coal miners had it way harder than slaves, you know.
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It’s a much harder love to give. 
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This can go several ways. People are kind and polite and a lot more intelligent than the mental image people have of Kentucky. I live in Kentucky, but because I grew up elsewhere I’m considered very much an outsider in certain parts. I live this regularly.
If she shows any hint of east coast (especially New York) knowing more than them, it will go badly. They feel condescended and spit upon by urban elite. Doesn’t matter her background, she’ll be seen as part of that group. It’s a headwind she’ll need to deal with.
If she takes the approach that she wants to learn from them, it can go well.
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You want to get tricked into falling down a mineshaft? Because that’s how you get tricked into falling down a mineshaft.
Dark humor aside, I hope this has a positive outcome.
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I hope she gets to talk to real people of that region and not strategically placed shills with an agenda to make her look like “the enemy,” no matter what.
If she does, her down-to-earth persona may be just what’s needed to be able to really connect with them.
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a person of colour speaking truth to power. please don’t put those words next to each other.
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Right on!
As I was saying:
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An activist who has gone largely under the radar while accomplishing quit a lot in defense of the earth is Kentucky native Mike Roselle. He co-founded Earth First!, hung a gas mask on Mt. Rushmore, was the “dean” of Ruckus Society which he also co-founded, the organization behind the very effective nonviolent shut down of Seattle during the WTO meeting there, and has sat on the boards of Rainforest Action Network which he ALSO co-founded, Greenpeace and a number of other groups. Prior to all of that, he was an oil roughneck.
About 15 years ago, Mike returned home to Kentucky and started working to end mountaintop removal for coal mining. It’s true, the coal interests have exploited a divide and conquer approach and also true that someone who grew up there can be much more effective in reaching people than a well-intentioned outsider. But people are being physically ripped apart by exploitative coal bosses. The communities have begun to turn against them. They’re in a tough place, defending what they see as an honorable profession in spite of all the evidence that it is bad for their communities. What has really eroded their support for the mining companies has been a combination of this grassroots effort AND the companies themselves. The mining interests have doubled down, rushing their operations and bringing death and misery to new levels. Massey Coal has arguably put itself against the ropes. I hope AOC will be welcomed as a like minded person who can help advance their cause for healthy communities and good jobs.
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He just wants to get her in front of coal miners that will scream at her about pie in the sky ideas like solar energy and wind power generation. When you are in a dirty hole in the ground for your entire working life solar and wind can look like pie in the sky. He just wants these people to holler at her and tell her she is hurting them, that’s all he wants.
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Show up unannounced?
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Bit too late for that, methinks.
Upthread, someone mentioned activist Mike Roselle; hopefully she’s coordinating with people like him.
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Are there proper hard numbers available (as opposed to fuzzy numbers put forth by the lobbyists) about the rates of disease and health care expenditures among the area’s residents?
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I know what you are quoting there, but I still can’t ‘like’ this comment.
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