By Jon Gensler / March 1, 2010
Cambridge, Mass.
As a captain in the Army, I was used to seeing the blasted, wasted landscapes of unfamiliar countries. From the window of a plane or the door of a helicopter, they were a familiar sight, the last high-level view before descending into a nasty fight.
I expected such images of destruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. But not in West Virginia.
Yet the ugly reality of mountaintop removal coal mining is what greeted me on my return home after a year-long tour in Iraq. Seeing the land I fought to protect being abused in such reckless fashion hit me in the gut, hard. It took years to recover my motivation to continue to fight for what I believe in back home.
Appalachian families are facing serious decisions about their future, and these decisions are intimately linked with America’s future.
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