BR: What is your vision for the future?

JB: It can go two ways. Hopefully, I envision people in West Virginia finally rising up and speaking in one voice. I hope the coal miners will join with us and say the coal companies need to comply with the law. They [the coal companies] need to be better neighbors, they need to be kinder to the environment. I hope the technology – the scientists – will say, "Yes, we do have a better way to produce energy and we will use it now because we know what is going on."

But on the other hand, if these things do not come about, I envision – fifty years from now, I envision a revolution. I see it happening. I can see it in the making right now.

The say 100 years for coal? No way!

BR: Who is saying 100 years for coal?

JB: The coal industry, Calhoun from OSM [Federal Office of Surface Mines], Ben Greene for the mining association. They [the mining industry] have a new mouthpiece in Chris Hamilton, a slick silver-tongued lawyer. He helped a lot in this past legislative session – you’d be surprised what he got accomplished down there.

We’re trying to attack it on all fronts – we know we have to be aware of the elected officials, we have to be aware of the DEP [West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection]. I think we’ve made an impact on the DEP, especially the local people that write the violations.

I think people are becoming more aware – I think this is the beginning of something – hopefully we can teach it to our children, at least teach our children how to fight these things, hope to stand up to what’s going on, how to be heard – that’s the key to survival.

You ask me what I envision, – well – I think of our society as a triangle. At the top of this is the very rich – very, very rich and powerful people. And the middle of that triangle are the middle class people. Our jobs for the middle class are rapidly disappearing to the lower bottom of the triangle – the working poor, the very poor and the people on public assistance. I see that lower bottom of that triangle becoming more and more ... [eventually] the middle class being dissolved into that lower class of people.

I don’t know how long its going to take – and I see that the lower echelon of that triangle becoming so huge and these people getting so fed up and outraged at what these powerful people in the upper part of the triangle -- ... I see it coming – I don’t know the time frame. I don’t think I’ll live to see it. That’s why we need to teach our children.

BR: I was talking with a fellow from a logging supply place yesterday. He volunteered his opinion that he felt this country was in real trouble.

JB: It sure is, and people are beginning to see that. With Granny D [her message given in her walk across the country ] – we see all this money that people are receiving to run these elections, jetting from one part of the country to another – it’s all about money to them. It’s corruption, and people are beginning to see that.

BR: All these people fed up – something’s going to pop.

JB: Something IS going to pop. I have no idea of the time frame, but its going to give way. My nine-year old grandson can see what’s going on – he’s been to Washington.

BR: Tell me about your experience with your grandson at the school.

JB: Oh yeah – well, Massey Coal – they’ll give the kids t-shirts – propaganda, brainwashing. Last year [the students] had a field trip and were supposed to wear purple and gray, the school colors. [The school officials] sent a shirt home to wear on the field trip. It was a beautiful shirt – it was green with a timber wolf, the school emblem, on it. It said "Partners in Education" [with Massey coal prominently displayed on shirt]. My daughter called the school and said, "My son is not wearing this." [Then was told], "Well, they have to wear the school colors," and [she responded] "Well, he can wear a purple shirt – he’s not wearing THAT."

She explained what this coal company was doing to us. They said you can send the shirt back, but my daughter said, "No – we’ll keep the shirt – that will keep another child from being brainwashed." So we threw [the shirt] in the trash.

My grandson know’s what is going on – he wanted to know if he could take the book, An Appalachian Tragedy [Ayers, Hager, & Little, Sierra Club Books] -- which is a beautiful, beautiful book -- to school. He showed it to the teacher and she wanted to know if she could keep it for a couple of weeks, and [grandson] said yes. After each child finished [his or her] work, they were allowed to go up and read a little of the book, especially about the area of Rock Creek [a Raleigh county community near Whitesville] and the local Coal River area.

Then I noticed the following week the school teacher sent home my grandson’s vocabulary words, and in these vocabulary words were the words. "pollutant," "headwaters," [and other environmentally related words]. That amazed me – my heart lifted – I knew that she had learned something from that, that we are creating [the problem] – when we’re killing the earth we’re killing ourselves. That really heightened my day – I’m still excited about that – and, of course, my grandson knew what these words meant ... It made me proud of that teacher – to teach what these words are.

BR: Could she get in trouble with the school?

JB: Not with these words.

BR: Does the coal company own the board of education?

JB: Of course ... Well, maybe they could put pressure on her. These teachers are like the rest of us – they have to follow a program ... [But] they need to have courage, stand up for their beliefs ... This needs to be taught. There should be a course, "Be Kind to Your Earth," And the things you can do to help curb pollution and on recycling. Our kids need to be taught – they need to know what kind of world we’re living in. [Something to counter things like] the coal companies giving each child at Christmas some [small gift].

BR: Where do you see yourself in ten years.

JB: I’ll fight – I’ll fight for people right to the last. I’m stubborn. My mother’s family was Scotch-Irish that settled this area. My father’s family was Native American, the majority of them. My mother’s side of the family was [made up of] very stubborn people. My father’s people were very humble, very honest, hard-working people. I see myself fighting injustice, and it goes beyond the coal industry. There are industries all over America just waiting for the Clean Water Act to be gutted, so they can move in and finish it. People in other states – they need to realize that if we fall, so falls the nation. I hope they can wake up and realize it before it’s too late.