inexhaustible cheerleader for my memoir, mayhem and may very. and i'm grateful to him for that. but that is not why we are gathered here tonight. jeff has a soulmate relationship, if you will, with the southern appalachian region in general. and with asheville in particular. he forged this relationship through his extraordinary effort, dedicated to preserving our region's unique biodiversity , heritage and sense of community. i think his best-selling book, the subtitle rather to his book, the united states of appalachia is that at all. southern mountaineers brought independence, culture and

enlightenment to america. but that is not why we are gathered here today. we are gathered here today to hear jeff's own story about his own struggle to reclaim his family's southern illinois heritage, a heritage plundered and virtually erased by a big coal. his new book, "reckoning at eagle creek" the secret legacy of coal in the heartland is that once an intensely personal tale of loss and redemption as well as an utterly convincing condemnation of the coal industry of salt on the land, the people and the history of the entire buyer regions within

our country and across the globe. we are truly blessed tonight to be in the presence of a master storyteller, a street fighter for social justice, the brilliant and witty critic with a heart too big to fail you ladies and gentlemen, please welcome award-winning author and social historian, jeff biggers. [applause] >> what brand didn't tell you is that brian just about ruined my career. because a few years ago, i sat down with this mountain of research, a decade of research i was going to do to bring back southern illinois court in american experience. and i sat down to write my book and he sent me his manuscript to read. and it was this manuscript called "mayhem in mayberry." and of course i put it aside because you're not supposed to

read books while you're riding bikes, but i had to take it be because brain had written a book and i couldn't put it down. i set about academic thought this is so funny. and there's these amazing stories of what went on in western north carolina, what went on, something that even thomas wolfe could have never written about nashville. i don't offbrand has never been invited back to asheville, but the stories are amazing. in a truly derailed me for a long time when i read it and it stayed with you today as i drive here to nashville today of the "mayhem in mayberry," these incredible misadventures, but not only the misadventures, but to look at the underbelly of crime and punishment in appalachia, this could american experience and ultimately part of the great american experience to understand who we truly are. i want to have a message first though because every reading is sponsored in my reading tonight is not sponsored by peabody energy, it's not sponsored by clean coal. we try to do a debate today at

npr and they didn't even want to face off with me anymore. my reading tonight is sponsored by the independent booksellers association because when we were doing the bailouts and putting up those billion dollar checks and the mail we were wondering about wall street is wondering about the banks were wondering about this corporation, the corporation, i just had this moment with my son. i said, what about the independent booksellers? [laughter] i just kept waiting for timothy geithner, one of my heroes and president obama, it's like when are they going to announce were going at the out the independent booksellers of america. [cheers and applause] because i thought, wall street, you know i don't have too much money in stocks, you know, in fact i don't have any money in stocks. i don't have a whole lot of money in real estate, but i do have a lot invested in our independent booksellers because this is a landmark of communities. this is what drives our communities. i believe that bookstores matter but this is the arena that we exchange ideas and gives us food

for thought. and this is where the love is. you know, we can go online to buy her books at these outrageous discounts and drive our economy down, but it's like a really bad barroom love affair, you know? these discounts may love you tonight, but you hate yourself in the morning. [laughter] and you got to realize, where should you buy your book? but from the place in the community that's the bedrock of your community and that's the place like malaprop's. i mean, this is where the love is on on this is why love to come here. this is why a turbine across the mountains of appalachia to come down here from kentucky and to read tonight because i love malaprop's and i love these independent booksellers and i want you all tonight to commit to always find your books, just like we should buy your food by your energy invite our whole experience should come local and that begins with my book. please give it they can to malaprop's bookstore.

[applause] and i have another problem, though. i'm full of problems. is that i don't want to use a microphone tonight. and the c-span tv guide, and getting them trembling in their boots. i'm going to turn off other microphone penalties laid because this wire here doesn't just go into this podium. it just doesn't want to that socket. this work is all the way back to progress energy. it goes back to the powerplant powerplant and we live in asheville, north carolina. this is the third coast right here and we don't live in the coal fields here that's remote area. we have nothing to do with coal and get this wire goes all the way back into that pledge to progress energy. it comes to the trains come shipped and the strains that cause the same highway and went over the bridge and crossed into tennessee. it comes all the way round and falls into blue ridge along that creek at highway and back into black mountain virginia. and yesterday, in the same area

of southwestern virginia and two eastern kentucky, they dropped 3 million pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel explosives to blow up our mountain. blow up our mountains, 500 mountains destroyed 1.2 million acres destroyed to reach in and in a very effective way with heavy equip and operators, to pull the coal and floated up to the train and destroy the communities in the watershed, to poison the community and the watershed. that and black mountain virginia, where you get your coal, a few years ago a young boy was sleeping in his house, the davidson family, and explosions went off in a night like tonight. and every time i flicked my life which i think what happened on black mountain and came down on my presents from southern illinois and the flat rock plant last into the home and crashed a 3-year-old and killed him.

and that criminal activity is not abolished, but it's regulated, today by her administration. and that criminal activity is loaded onto the train and it's not here to progress energy. it's brought here to asheville and runs right into this microphone. and i'm part of the problem. north carolina is the largest consumer of mountaintop removal coal in the nation. even though you don't have coal fields. and we're part of the problem. and that's what i'm going to talk about tonight, it's how we all live in the coal fields, especially when they begin to think about climate change. so you guys are all looking very serious. [laughter] i stood with my mother and

father and my uncle richard at the rim of a letter expanse of rats and rocks her. we had to protect their eyes, a dark wind swept along the ridge how livability of fear he had their huge trucks that stormed and all directions, blocks of sandstone like mammoth tombstones on a battleground of slate and clay. it looked like an earthquake had devastated the area. how great was our valley at eagle creek, wasn't the name of some novel i read? how great was our valley with my mom and i last walked the cells together? there was a corned and the tassels jutting out like ancient science posts. and there was the bar where mama was taught uncle billy once when they were playing. all the stories began to come out and we went on to the front porch that was way down to tables that chicken legs in gizzards and catfish and okra and garden vegetables and beans and cornbread and gruber pie and i can't talk about the

moonshine. before seemed to turn on those days. it was protected by centuries, just like my granddaddy taught me. there's a hickory, their seo, there's the maple, there's the gum. some listen up, there is to be, there's the dogwood, there's the wild grape vines that rippled up and are thick and other ramparts at eagle creek, with intricate danger. because in the back would it's always dangerous. that's a different path. our family homestead was known since 1869 is the little farm. of course they been founded on before dinner people had committed in 1805 from north carolina. that's why i'm so tapped to malaprops. our family home, this wonderful like having my mother grew up and sat on the eastern shadows of the one part talent in illinois was the upheaval of the 4000000-year-old folks are bridges that were older than so many americans. as a clear day as a child will

never forget i pretended to be an eagle at eagle creek and i took flight down that hill and i was running and i was before the forest and i started to take flight and i soared beyond the ohio river in kentucky, which only laid 20 minutes away. we lived in illinois, but we live 300 miles from chicago. we were there on the kentucky border. and i stood there with my mother in a richard. i can't believe this, my mother said. it's beyond description, my uncle said. it's just wasted. i have a richard cummings et al. peaceful man in the 70's. he still all legs and he's blind in one eye and a soft kentucky accent spends his word with this ancient dialect. to which we brought over from the borderland. but my mom, she was his older sister and she spoke just quieter. she spoke with this kind of wave that tonight where she came

from, but what she said confidently in the passenger seat of a 16-year-old girl. and her father drove her across to county lines as a young teenager and laughter at their redbrick wonder of southern illinois university, with just enough time to get back to his place in the coal mines. he would put on his church blazer on top of this overall since he was proud that his daughter got out of the fields. and we could see the route of distraction, the first explosion took place in the summer of 1998. and for years, we wondered what would happen. our family some sibling democrats like an overburdened hickory, but not anymore. the explosions began to gnaw away at the edges of our family held, 100 -- 1600 pounds of explosives sitting in each hole like a land mine set to ripple across the valley with enough thunder to bring down the walls of jericho.

and it shook the homestead. sure the homestead with every glass. the homestead which we have had eight generations of our family is living in. we just put on the newport early on family and our permits were removed and they were not a fight and suddenly it was a legally authorized tactic to terrorize people in our hall or in major shut off the cuff port, the frames unhinged. every few days to make moves in closer and closer carbon a rusty horseshoe 200 feet down. you see, we were on the wrong side of the illinois wilderness border. the illinois wilderness act that was declared in 1990, the same year europe wilderness was declared. southern illinois had this major diversity, for the bridge between the cumberland and the oligarchs, 1100 species, but we were on the wrong side. because the loophole of the regulation said our caller has resource attributes.

the side seams of coal claim names, harris, springfield, jacoby and common names that nothing to me, but they could change the register of a coal baron's voice with glee. you see, what happened at eagle creek is that kinship in american history, that american struggle and american resiliency, and american resistance in the great american pastoral was replaced by side seams of coal. and it was all gone. it was all gone. they strip mined the whole holler. and i stood there with my uncle and my mother in the coal company representative came up to us. and he began to talk as if you do as well. he spoken this way of kind of nasal way of speaking that

reminded me of a charles dickens novel from southern illinois. and he was an unscrupulous plan mentoring to sell land in a keynote up to us and said i know how you feel. have you ever lost anything you left? [laughter] well, life can be forgotten. you see, what were going to do is create eagle greens. were going to put a really extra 80 feet of topsoil and another veil of sawyer and make a golf course here. and if you like to golf, we like nature as much as you do. were going to put these little goose pond out there and make sure the coyotes can't get to them. ..

one and what did my uncle mean you have to raise the dead. what did they mean about evil agreed that they could make a golf course out of the most diverse forest in the nation? and i looked over and there was a young man my age because i yawn. [laughter] and it was 1997 and this young man was golfing using a four iron. i can't understand why he wasn't using at the fair way. he was round these representatives of southern air

look to the scope illinois and you see, sevier obama you can read and every industry with something we are calling clean peta you can help us bring it back. of course the industry hasn't peaked but we are not free to talk about that -- and we live in complete prosperity. [laughter] but with queen coal we are going to bring back the coal industry and this young man i admire, he was there trying to get his for either of a fair way and i kept wondering what is he giving? and he said i support clean coal. and i just looked at him and said you are golfing where my family has lived for 200 years and you don't know what your goals and on top of the foreign grassland. when he made the state of the union address three nights ago and talked again and i admire our president, he talked about clean coal he didn't realize

during that presentation we burned 115,000 tons of coal that 250,000 tons of carbon emissions released into the air, the hundreds of pounds of mercury scattered into the skies and waterways into the minds of my children. that is three americans died prematurely from heart attacks and lung disease according to the lung association. 24,000 americans every year because of the coal-fired plants. a coal miner died during the transmission of the state of the union because every day three coal miners live from black lung disease. hundreds of thousands of coal miners struggled with a black lung like my grandfather. and we glibly talked about clean coal. i just stood there and i couldn't believe it. i hate goals. i tried to play once in a separated my shoulder so i had this incredible resentment about and i didn't know to do and i knew i kept looking into the

dams saying how can i raise the dead and this man walked up to me he was an incredible man sort of looked like joe except he had black hair and a long ponytail but would just like you, joe. [laughter] he came up to me and said [inaudible] and i thought that's not part of our lexicon. that means woman in shawnee. he said they took hours, too, you know. we have been tending not the shawnee but indigenous people for 10,000 years in this valley that this is one of the richest prehistoric sites because of the great salt wiltz of the empire and in fact eagle creek is one of the crossroads of the great american experience for 10,000 years that all of those bones and arrowheads and what not that you've collected as children had a meaning and that meaning is the stones of fire we talk about

were sitting under the feet of somebody. thomas jefferson no, don't touch, thomas jefferson. thomas jefferson went to england and he was inspired by the great industrial revolution, the coal-fired plant that was fueling everything in he came back and realized we had to accelerate the coal industry but there was one problem the stones of the fire were sitting under a lot of markets. what do you think he sent lewis and clark what to look for coal reserves to make an inventory of the resources and before they even left in southern illinois this is of the richest outcroppings i've ever found in 1803 but there was one problem they were under the seat of the indigenous people and we began the process. thomas jefferson no, don't talk about thomas jefferson. i love thomas jefferson. thomas jefferson began the process with william harrison to remove the indians and get them drunk and the ohio river valley

to get the salt and the coal and it began the process of the indian removal act. and negative all me actually head out into contemporary times in north carolina and this man who had come out to talk to me said my family in the 1950's had 10 acres, not just here but nearby they came one night and they pressed around and they offered my parents and they threaten the eminem domain and it had nothing to do with private property and finally my parents throwing the towel and they removed us. he said you understand for indigenous people to remove the coal from the earth is to remove the liver of the mother and that is why we are dying and still today they are removing people in black massa arizona. there is peabody coal in montana as you know when wyoming. i couldn't believe it. the last shawnee and we had

never known that even though we had the meeting to them. and he said it gets even worse, just get ready. and so i stood there i kept looking at this man who changed before i enter a six iron and i said what are you doing and he said clean coal. you've got to invest in clean coal. last year we gave $1.4 billion to the coal industry to subsidize carvin captor and storage in this ridiculous that somehow we can capture the carbon emissions and put them back in the earth and i skipped every science course it never took one in college but i know enough to know that not one scientist can stand here in front of me today and say carbon kept in storage is feasible within the next ten or 15 years that it's economically cost-effective that we know what is going to happen when you put that stuff in that we even have the room to put the carbon in but i do know in economics and

production that it's going to take 30 to 40% are coal production to generate the energy to capture the carbon and try to put it in and i do know that $1.4 billion as a down payment of your tax dollars to mr. prt and the others in the nation to the experimental plan of clean coal. this man walked up to be next and he was a tall lanky man carrying his gun, just a good gun toting evangelical backwoodsman, mauney people. and he said they took your chart. he said those people have souls, you know i sadr you talking about the baptist church? no, they moved the church, we are talking about the other people that nobody wants to talk about that only us hunters know about, only the baptist community knows about because

did you know your ancestors were part of the band baptist into slavery to manatee, the center is out of north carolina and we came out of north carolina and took on the british crown and were thrown into jail and we took across the hills as missionaries we went into the hills and we realized slavery was creeping into the coal mines after he had run off the it brought in little sleepy and already thomas jefferson no, don't talk about thomas jefferson. thomas jefferson was pouring sleeves into the minds of virginia dropping like flies. they had straps around their chest and a work using the bulldozers and began to work underground and the accidents were terrific and the great philosopher who came to dine with jefferson tried to tell them how on earth can you have waxed slavery in these mind stopping like flies in the jefferson said this will fuel the industrial revolution and we

moved thousands of slaves and began to bring slaves and to southern illinois because of the great coal reserves next to the salt and a completely deforested the ring at the burned rubble and boiled result is the word i'm looking for a and they destroyed forests and started putting in the call to burn the sold and didn't realize the incredible outcroppings and black slave labor in the land of lincoln and obama that doug our coal and no historical document talked about the black slave and the barges did go to new orleans and of course the french brought in 500 black slaves as early as 17 o2 of course the french discovered cole in england, excuse me, illinois and more good giving it up. but in 1818, a year before you great mountain people would have the first abolitionist newspaper, use others, slavery's others have the first abolitionist newspaper more antislavery societies than

western north carolina and eastern tennessee than anywhere else in the country in 1818 am i stake emancipation at illinois passed the state constitution ratified by the congress and it had won the pole. we have no sleeves and illinois of course with the exception of the industry because it provides tax revenues and we had a loophole like local lumber 18 that they were allowed to have slaves for a while and down by the wells in the coal mines. and we fought that. the slave owners were running their minds. we had thousands of slaves dropping like flies and we thought that and this rugged old man with a fisa gun culture and i am thinking how is it the only people descending against big coal are people who don't publicly agree with me and by realizing the politics is nothing to do with party politics but it's the liberal democrats who have equally the right-wing republicans and how could that be and he said on

your property we are sleeve grave and we all knew it and now they've been strip mined because we don't want to remember the history we want to strip the history that it's not as a process of taking the route of the trees it is a process of ripping out the roots of the culture and the historical memory and i recall that memory one of the first times i ever thought about coal was in 1988 there was standing for the great fall of the berlin wall and i was in prague as a journalist and i was in prague overlooking the hills and i said this is one of the most beautiful cities on earth and its black. it's completely polluted by the fire plans, it just remained in the haze and the great writer told us that is your role as a writer, the struggle between memory and oblivion.

your role as a writer is to recover that history otherwise we live in a state of these eliminated history like the soviet union in prague in the czech republic. slaves ran our coal industry. clean coal, slavery don't worry you can send your kids down here your sleeves to the mines. we have a 60% mortality rate. that is better than the industry. actual advertisments advertising for slaves had dropped like flies we would take good care of them at least for the year. this is the basis of the dirtiest industry we have, a dirty year, far dirtier than tobacco and that is what we have to have a reckoning with as we play golf and globally talk about clean coal to read so i

didn't know what to think and a coal miner came up to me and i was a little bit worried because we were all worried they are worried about their jobs and of course i thought i'm not worried about coal miners, how come there is no monuments in my town in southern illinois. how come there's no monuments of my grandfather, a huge man, big man, as big as i am and of course my mom said you were just like your granddad except he had mosul. [laughter] my granddad went into the mine and i was 4-foot 8 inches. we called it the scratch pack coming up this man eight hours a day stooped over, cricket one day he said the explosive in 1950 and it didn't go off and he went back to chicken the explosives went off and the coal encased him and he had once run off to the colorado rockies for the capture. he was a deeply religious man and of actor didn't come and he realized when the explosive went off he said i realize the rapture wouldn't come from the trumpets of gabriel but from the

explosion of the coal mine and he realized he had barely survived and he was lucky because three months after his accident just north where we lost 119 coal miners and the new orient mind about 10 miles where senator obama as a young man and 1997 was culkin in the saudi arabia call to discuss the 78 explosion that killed 107 miners and just a few months before they had written to the governor saying please the dust buildup is so that what is going to happen in kentucky and west virginia is going to happen here. please, help us. and the governor did nothing. the company did nothing 119 miners blight in the accident including three of the four people who had written the governor asking for help. but 105 americans died, 105,000 americans, excuse me, 105,000.

but over 200,000 still alive from black lung. coal miners by every decade from black lung disease. in 2010, isn't that outrageous? and since i started to work in the field in west virginia in 1983 we lost over 60% of the planet because of heavy mechanization because mountaintop removal and so it is the coal miners that are losing their jobs seeing their housing completely abandoned the property rates coming down living in border towns, living in some of the highest levels of poverty and unemployment in the nation. it is the coal miners have suffered. and my granddad told me something very important that i learned in appalachia. it is the abuse of the people always goes hand in hand with the abuse of the land. they strip mine us and then our

land. but there is no such thing as an environmental act because human beings live in the environment but we are all a part of this experience here. this old man came up to me and offered me a little moonshine. it's on sale for $9.99. he said when you need to make moonshine is clean water and hard put to fire up. eagle creek used to be famous. he said don't tell that to anybody. gun-toting hillbillies drinking and feuding. that is what we were told aníbal creek, considered the most dangerous place in america. worse than the northern plains and the shoddy and. the place your risk your life. you can't go in there to read and the people who couldn't go to eagle creek was the plan. they tried to come on time and there were completely routed out

and would hang up with the pointy hats the was the backwoodsman that took on this land. but moon shine was an indicator of the environmental cleanliness of the water in the forest not simply to drink. but when the first mining surveyor came into eagle creek in the 1850's to was the son of robert allin who created harmony in indiana, one of the greatest jobs we had in the midwest. he came to eagle creek and said this is the largest of cropping of coal we have in the nation. this area is the richest coal in the nation. it's also the richest area of mineral and water sources and this could turn into the next spring like in the west virginia and virginia. this area is very particular. and all the right thing about eagle creek were about the

springs and the fishing and the waters and the hills. and the last report showed there had been so many discharges from the negative that every stream, every creak has no longer a quiet life and all the streams have dried up and if you want to hike along the wilderness act from eagle mountain over to the garden of the gods they thought it worked in colorado so they created the garden of the gods of southern illinois it is a beautiful part of the national forest but you have to pack in your own water now. because the companies have killed the hidden mortars and there is no more moonshine and no more people. the abuse of the land has gone hand-in-hand and we have lost thousands upon thousands of acres of land but also bought only a few heil farm land productive land that has never been put back into any kind of economic productivity.

but an appellate judge, less than 3% of all homeland destroyed by mountaintop removal is ever returned to any kind of economic productivity. that there is no argument for recrimination because it never worked and all of the studies show that. and in eagle creek the diverse forest now is unmanaged grass i didn't know what to think and i kept looking at this young man golfing three and i wanted to say there is a 200 years story, cautionary tale but it's a story it is what i call the anatomy of denial. i wanted to say do you realize in 1831 we knew about black lung, the scientific studies told the impact on belongs but we did nothing until 1968. i said young man do you know in 1861 we knew about sulfur dioxide emissions that created acid rain that all of the yankees in the north were worried about and so if we

finally passed the clean air act in 19901861, 99, 1830, 1968i said there is an even greater peril now of the anatomy of denial, the denial of the death to say that queen is cold and jeep that it's one of the greatest and most egregious miss statements i have ever heard in my life. how dare you glibly talked about clean coal or that it's cheap. and now i have children like you do, mr. president. and i'm worried about their future like you are with carbon emissions because it is an indisputable fact of our global warming. it's an indisputable fact of climate destabilization and indisputable fact we know anywhere from 35 to 40 present of the coal-fired emissions are going up and affecting this and that we can stop it. i wanted to taken for a walk and they put on before i am and

wouldn't even work he wanted to use the blood on the fair way. [laughter] and i walked him hand in hand because i admire him deeply and i understand he thinks and he believes so much of our politics is built of not only 100 million-dollar campaign by the big coal this year but incredibly misinformed must all shut up the industry because we are all proud of coal miners. i am. but part of my pride is the sense that we have to have a sense of foresight for sustainability. and so i walked with our president across southern illinois and i wanted to show him something. i said for did carvin kafta of storage. it's never going to happen is we don't need to go there. that is just a pork program for jobs and we all know i took him over to southern illinois's largest coal-fired power plant being built today. but we don't call with a coal fighter plant, which collect prairie energy campus. it's being constructed by

[inaudible] they took $1.8 billion in iraq and they're looking for something to do so they came to southern illinois, another war zone. it's being built in a place called lively growth this very famous because lightly growth in 1811 was part of the great shape when the new madrid earthquake shook and went all across the region. it was so bad in lively grow as the two waterways which feed into the fire plant and coal mine gradually altered. don't they know history? don't they know that the u.s. says in the next 50 years the will be another earthquake? can the park that thing somewhere else? don't they know that just down the road is a town called carbondale? there's a technical and you can go to that is called mount coal. of course it is going to be queen coal.

2015% cleaner. it's only going to release 12 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year and will be written off by our friends with peabody with the tax payer dollars. every year you subsidize for health care costs the national association of science says at least $82 billion a year of subsidies for the coal industry from your back pocket to pay for health care costs, environmental costs, 1300 abandoned mines not to mention the lions and west virginia and throughout the country that we pay for to clean up there is a toxic runoff. but the black lung program was supposed to be paid for by the industry when they defaulted and we pick up the billions of dollars, too. it goes on and on. , with me. i want to take you somewhere away from golf.

and i took him back to appalachian. and i almost broke into my united states of appalachian but i stopped. [laughter] i said to do know the first declaration of independence came from al khaleej and a gift first antislavery movement? did you know the labor movement cannot appalachian and the civil rights trips to "new york times" cannot of appalachian, the nobel laureates, the first woman to win cannot at the logic of the first literature for the atlantic monthly can, but i didn't want to talk about that. [laughter] i said appalachian has been in the forefront and i want to take you somewhere else now called cold river mountain. i said this is where i am going to end my book. come up to this historic range and cold river mountains. i've been there so many times it isn't funny. as a gun and i stumbled in their

1983 and they told me go home to southern illinois. there's a great woman buried there, her name is heather jones. in southern illinois for a reason. and i didn't want to talk about southern illinois cold river mountain. 10,000 years of habitation. now this big coal company from richmond, virginia had its eyes on this last range. the already devastated so much of the area but there is a largest coal plant in the hemisphere nearly $8 billion of toxic waste sitting in a pond in the earth and the dan up in the hills and down slope in the little valley or villages and elementary school that if the earth and the dam broke like what happened with buffalo creek or montanan county kentucky in the year 2000 or what happened to the neighbors of the pond, about 1,000 people in the valley would have four minutes to flee

the 72-foot tidal wave of the coal sludge and they are blasting within a few hundred feet of this honeycomb sludge to get the last mountain. and i said i don't want to talk about that stuff. i'm tired of talking about the dark legacy of coal to read my book is the triumph, the resiliency of these amazing people who worked with the native americans, against the slave owners and the coal miners to save the land and the people who marched and we have the first union in 1870. my grandfather had an eight hour work day and he earned it because of the union. then he broke the union and he had his own progressive union called the progress of minor. that is a long story. i said i wanted to do to the cold river mountains where the coal miners and the communities and outside people have come together and realize the mountain is unique with the wind and then it can get the almost level fifer level six it can

generate almost $1.8 million of tax revenues every year, enough energy for 150,000 homes. more jobs over a 20 year period in the 6,000 acres strip mined the would devastate the community and it will be sustainable for life that the de coal of the cold river mountains only way to last 14 more years we can count the scenes. i said this is the future. the, mr. president, that is the saudi arabia of wind and we are the saudi arabia of solar and we must stop talking of the saudi arabia of coal because the only place we want to keep carbon is in the ground and keep cool in the ground and that is a great way to sequester carbon. [laughter] [applause] but i can't rest tonight and i will finish with this. this microphone we use around

here goes down by your feet and you're dirty boots and all the way by c-span and plugs into the sock it and all the way back to the progress energy to the trains that come across the board as mountains, the same mountains to come down to defeat the british and all the way back into virginia and this microphone and this light and this camera goes to coal river mountain andes or electricity, our electricity, our dependence on coal is what is now today they are blasting coal fervor mountain and there is no coal river project because they have given a permit to go forward. mountaintop removal provides less than 9% of national production get the green light. and this is the choice. this is the reckoning of eagle creek for me was either we

understand our history and learn from that and declare it is time as "the chicago tribune" said in 1819 coal is a wonderful thing and the era of coal is coming to an end and we must move to something queen. it's time that we commit to a coal free future. we get 45% for electricity from coal. but until we commit to a coal-for the future and said the road map and work towards it, the 2020, 23, whatever, i don't care as long as secretary chu ziz we need a thinking, it is a combination of wind and geothermal and thermal and all sorts of ideas and energy efficiency and with a resolution that we need breakthroughs in thinking. we need a reckoning at eagle creek to realize the history tells us we must move on and we must honor our heritage and we must come home.

.. have lost interest. they shifted their at a massive pile of rocks and mud to decide if one spoke, not far from where my grandmother's and great-grandmothers attended their gardens and candida food to last the winter months of hunger. ngc derr, amidst the rubble was a patch of one. it was going out of the rubble

into signs of a strip mine. and there was a mixture of all and my mother cooked my father's iron anyway. i had to come to chugoku to learn this. thank you. [applause] and this is the first times i've ever said by a microphone because camino, i'm like the one to go through the crowd to shake you down for this money. but these cats at c-span has me chained up to the floor. but i will take a few questions. i'm happy to answer any questions. what's important to me is that you go home tonight and i know you will come in the can egregious, or complete attics of facebook in the computer. i want you to go home, but agita type something and called i love

mountains.org. i love mountains.org. and it set up by the appalachian voices, this wonderful organization in north carolina and north carolina and in the alliance for appalachia, the group of other groups working in the coal fields. and it tells us the real impact of coal mining, but the human environmental cost of their communities and how you are connected through the goofy little thingy where you put in your zip code, you know, chicago 606 and it tells you where your energy comes from, was a call arrives in how we all connect to it. to those not in top removal, but coalminer general picture of mountaintop removal is symbolic of the rest of what's going on the rest of the nation. we care much about black race to arizona where i come from as much as we care about your appalachia. any questions?

[inaudible] i don't know if you remember a few years ago project energy wanted to put a coal burning power plant and would been. city council already signed off on that. and we went down and we complained and we held signs and the little town of wood stem, and i saw the man who made the period hinman fmap for the button and i saw him in its mean something snow mr. larson was not going to win. i said i don't know about that. we won. and you could have -- [inaudible]

[inaudible] after i believe five years, five-year anniversary of hurricane charley, jeb bush had been the governor. of course his brother was warning for president. i thought surely we will get something. we've got nothing. but they had a party and jeb bush came back and the republicans came back to the sea and they were all having a big hearty, but no one has to mention the word charlie. no one was to mention the word hurricane. it was called extreme makeover. so, that's what happens. it was extreme makeover. no hurricane. >> suddenly words matter. thank you. but this is a good example of stopping coal fire plants. we were having a cold milk and

there was an amazing movement to stop a coal fire plants another 150 coal fire plants have been canceled now because the community say no more. they're no longer cost of the event kentucky now we're trying to stop this myth number one. and we can now show you penny for penny it's somewhat affected to build a coal-fired plant or the external costs, but also the cost now that we can get to the breakthrough of alternative energy. and so this is definitely good inspiration. >> keep it going. >> keep it going and stop it as well. any other questions? yep. >> i always am so puzzled when i hear president obama mention clean coal as he did throughout his campaign because i always -- it's clear that he is a man who is bright enough to see the way in which those words cover the reality. i always want to believe that it is a kind of sock to the

industry so that he can push forward as he also says towards green jobs and a different kind of future. is it subterfuge or is that keeping? which is that? >> you know, you've met him. i believe president obama. and so is to have been my senator. i believe he truly feels like he's doing good to keep the coal industry going. i mean, just a few days ago he showed up at a republican meaning and he took the west virginia congressman, the republicans had on and said we have two have a transition. and i thought go man go. and he's like, we can think of the coal industry like we did in the 1820's. zero man, go. because were going to call for the next 100 years. we have to think about clean coal. and he was this close hear it and i thought deep in our heart, i do believe he knows coal is

rudy and devastating. and of course the dea has done great job selecting a carbon regulation. but it is so entrenched. amy were facing one of the largest lobbies in the country, hundreds of millions of dollars both for big call and utilities combined endocrine coal act. and in illinois, we really have this misperception that we're going to get jobs out of it. you know dick durbin, are great liberal senator, some i truly support and consider a dear person, dick durbin said clean coal is the fight of his life here and i just can understand it. i just thought, you know, there's a great person from the soviet union said coming up, the roadside dogs bark or the caravan moves on. and i just thought, this coal is the roadside dogs in the green caravan is moving on. we know this is the future, but this kind of talk about coal on the weather's just a bruise or not blindsides any kind of progress it has were putting

billions of dollars in tuition ultimately it's not stopping either.yeah? >> i spent a good deal of time a long time ago on the issue of nuclear power we were working out in the west where there was uranium reserves on the navajo reservation, which a lot of coal as well. and now, there are people who are sane well, nuclear power in people i respect sandefur not going to block mountains, we're going to have nuclear power. and so i think that then we tried to not think about that alternative and now nuclear power seems to be on many peoples minds, the greener option until we get windmills on the landscape. and i'd rather actually has nine waste or nuclear power waste or

it somewhere in nevada than have all the mountain tops and west virginia blow not if that is the choice, but i'm not sure it is. >> if any of the stress because we know mountaintop removal divides less than 9% of our coal production. i mean, it's tiny. with millions of tons of coal sitting on the ducks now. for the first time in 20 years restocked protocol in the summer. with coal coming out of our ears. in the old days in eagle creek with so much coal by brother would give coal to the pigs. he said the pager charcoal pig work. [laughter] and of course yesterday we open up in newspapers and we realize we've written a check for $54 billion to the nuclear industry and it's mind blowing. and i'm thinking coming in now, i'm going to argue economics. that's not what the role of wisdom water in the water we consume. how on earth can we look at nuclear power is one record you spent years looking to build a construction plan to spend millions upon millions upon billions upon billions that is no wonder cost effective at the brief he is laughing a renewable. you know, once again it comes

down out to an issue of money. you know, we have had so many breakthroughs come even secretary salazar said if we begin to do offshore wind we could replace 33% of our coal fire plants for 10 years, you know, and it's new delhi india has just declared they're going coal free, i mean, come on. what about asheville? can she be a coal free city? if los angeles is reportedly coal free by 2020, why can't asheville say we're going to be coal free. you know we'd nuclear free zones in the 1980's in the air of the evil empire and ronald reagan. why can we start creating coal free cities and say hey if seattle can be coal free, why can't we be coal free. i think the idea is not a mindset. it's more of his legacy that were always going to be dependent on coal to matter what we have to get beyond the legacy and learngreat precautionary de.

two other questions? [inaudible] >> the strip mining in illinois. but i do know that one of the great tragedies of mountaintop removal is associated for mainstream america. you know i had the opportunity to witness it on k. for mountain to see that they're an escape there. and i came home for not to know is so fired up and i called my family in indiana where i'm from and said this map of appalachia, it's not just environmental issue, it's a humanitarian crisis. i was fired up about it and, you know, the message and quite at home. and to realize you really have to see this, to really grasp it. and were so fortunate here to have an organization like southlake and larry gibson and k. for it, to be able to have those opportunities to witness it. and my question is, back in illinois, what is the state of the sensibility there. i mean, can people see what's

happening? >> yeah, coarser stripmining this pretty much gone now, you know, we are very high sulfur coal. you know, kerry cabo who wrote a very classic nights in the cumberland, you know, when i was a kid in the 60's. and talked about the race of appalachia got its in illinois. in a begin in illinois in the 1850's. they raced up the hills and they eventually ruled in the steam powered engines and empower shovels. they dug up the panama canal. the chart to which a little town called terra and eventually it erupted into a massacre of 1921, between strikers. and then from the steam powered engines, they brought in the dry glance. it's about the tallest building was gone in southern illinois. twenty-one stories tall and they can scoop out to meteor craters at the same time. gosh. and then just walk out of the neighborhood. the problem was we had aisle for

coal in a 1990 collapse clinic of the clean air act and not find the race of appalachia are really went on steroids. we began full-time mountaintop removal began and west virginia 1970, just on the road where carter woodson got his ideas about black history month. but the problem now is that incredible destruction is coming by. where you're from and an indian is slated to have the largest stripmining in america now. that peabody has just signed a contract in southern indiana will have the largest stripmining, bigger than anything that has ever had appalachia. and i think people will begin to see it. and i think you're right, that you can't imagine the scope of -- you know, throughout sadistic. five in amounts are compared 1.2 million ache or assessment strip mined. it doesn't make sense to eventually what area the size of delaware has been removed from the map or do you know, came from appalachia even exist good

you know, he begins to make an impact on you. if you fly over in an airplane of the destruction of not just one might, but then another one and another one. i think it really hit you and i think that's the power of our film documentary senate the power of overtime to do. we create a project called the coal free future product that you can see a coal free future.org. and it's a group of artists who come together across the country writers, musicians, actors, film a curse him who believes we have to somehow take this story from the frontlines of the coal fields to the stage now because we've been so caught up in statistics and regulatory speaks, that we're forgetting the human beings either, but the largest fortune of love american citizens is taking this right now in the coal field. so here in nashville, for example, friday night at the asheville community theater, i hope you all attend the kickoff premiere of welcome to the saudi arabia of coal. it's a play that looks at the impact of mountaintop removal, about a young couple that has to come to grips. he's a coal moniker with the

removal operation will be premiering that with two amazing art errors from off broadway in new york this friday at asheville community theater at 8:00 p.m. and then were taken to play 20 states across the country, precisely for this idea that if you can't come to the coalfield, will bring the coalfield stories to you. because of the end, armando is angst to this wired and thanks to chronic destabilization, we all live in the coalfield. >> one thing that has not been ntioned yet is the role of conservation. and now, we can talk about all kinds of alternative fuels, but you know, doesn't conservation have some kind of role as far as -- i mean, we need to be uncomfortable occasionally, don't we? >> tonight coming in though, is the sole idea of changing a

lightbulb spirit we sort of shake it off and say how stupid is that, putting your thermostat down. but the truth is there's a key that the silver bullet is often architecture, we started building or buildings in a different way that grew weatherization pro grants and energy efficiency is estimated by google and their scientists and their whole clean energy team that we can her anywhere from 25% to 30% of our energy back in conjunction immediately. we can wipe out the demand for mountaintop removal in a heartbeat. so yes, i think conservation is an often underrated thing. or importantly, energy efficiency programs is where green jobs are going to be coming from because we need electricians, we need plumbers, when a former coal miners who know how to work with machinery. we need construction workers to go when and whether rights are housed and that's a very, very important thing. and that's what we're wondering because where art degree jobs. you know, van jones was kicked out of the white house. and so where's the great green jobs are now? west virginia got $6 million in

clean energy stimulus fund. you know, that's just a drop in the bucket compared to the billions of dollars of coal subsidies. and so, let's put our money where mouth is instead this whole clean energy revolution. but it needs money, it needs investment. >> i just want to make one statement. our state legislature, not many non-names, but [inaudible] just been windmills on bar tops. when you look at the geological map, the most important area for wind i like and who in different areas like that. we don't have enough time. no wind. so, we need to go right and we need to keep after it. >> and we will. i'll finish with this last story and then i think malaprop's has

a policy they been achieved only 10 bucks per person. [laughter] i'm sorry and you can come back and get another 10. tonight were only going to allow you to take 10 bucks away and i'm really sorry about that. i've been trying to talk about malaprop's, but it's just their policy. when president obama can interest and into the maturation, we were all excited and i watched with my children. and a few weeks later we were in the street of washington, fresen are behind thoughts at the capitol power plant. this part that spewing mercury, this coal fire plant that provides the heat for members of congress. and of course our white house is lit up with coal fire plants that takes coal for mountaintop removal. but the americans came and said they were willing to have civil disobedience to stop this coal fire plants, but our congress are least needed to set an example for the nation. and before we even did the protest, house speaker pelosi and the senate majority leader

reid announced he would transition to natural gas. which is still a fossil fuel, a dirty fossil fuel. but at least it's a step in the right direction, toward a just transition. and that's what we believe. is that we don't want to be behind abandoning call fill people. southern illinois desperately need silence to be nominated to outside interests. in 1905, we completely have been dated to the whims of the market in chicago and elsewhere. we need a sustainable economy and we did just transition, a g.i. bill for coal miners. we need massive investment or clean energy. what happened to tackle powerplant hoping that it is possible if we finally take to the streets or ticket or congressmen or to our committee. thank you so much for your time. i really appreciate it. thank you, malaprop's. [applause]

>> professor laura browder on the cover of "when janey comes marching home," who is not quite >> that is sergeant joslyn sparano peerages a marine who went over to iraq leaving her 1-year-old daughter behind and she told me that she had a bout of anxiety outgoing peers she wanted to stay with her daughter at home. but as soon as she got on the bus to go to cherry point and fly out, she said the monumentality left me in the marine mentality had he and i was ready to go to war. and she really wants to redeploy tiered and her mother is not crazy about that idea, seeing your daughter has only one childhood here but as she told me, you can always be a mommy,

but you won't always get the opportunities of the marine. >> in your subtitle, portraits of women combat veterans, combat veterans? are women allowed in combat? >> are born in the military knows women are in combat and few civilians know that. of course, we've got the ban on combat, but that's pretty meaningless in a war where there are very few clear distinctions between front-line vendors support. >> and so, what is the sergeants job quiets >> she actually worked with others. she's on the line as they came in and out. not every woman that i interviewed had a job that are directly into combat. but i did interview a marine who had a drug sniffing guard, which became an explosive sniffing dog when she went to iraq and that was clearly a very dangerous position. i interviewed women who were

convoy gunners, who were out doing house to house searches. and two were driving home is very dangerous roads and sometimes getting blown up i iuds were hit by mortars. >> how did you find these women? >> it was a real process. i kind of fumbled at first because as you know, the military is sort of a parallel universe. and if you don't come from a military background, it could be difficult to navigate. i began by casting a wide net and just trying to find a couple of women to talk to me. and once i did that, i was able to get letters of support from the marines and the army and to go onto bases an interview. >> now, they choose the women that you talk to or were you allowed to talk to any? >> when i interviewed on base, the public affairs officers chose, but when i was interviewing otherwise, i could choose. >> and do you find any common

themes among all the women? >> one thing that really surprised me was i had gone into the project, assuming that women in the military would see themselves as marginal because i think civilians see them as marginal. and what i found was i was absolutely not the case. they saw themselves as soldiers or marines or sailors first and women second. and they had an amazing degree of loyalty to their fellow troops, even if they didn't believe in the war. >> at the fellow troops have a degree of loyalty to come? >> absolutely. there were many women i spoke to do with the members of the universe offer than the ones they had with their children. and when they had to leave their unit to go home for say a child surgery, they were really torn and felt very guilty. and of course, their families didn't understand this at all. >> who was captain catherine strack?

>> she was interesting. she was a veteran of the first gulf war. in the book, we made the decision to photograph the woman who is retired from the military and their civilian clothes and everyone else's in uniform. she had been captain, got into the military through rotc and she was involved in the first gulf war and she's hot about how surreal it was for her. you know, the band was playing and they were marching in seeing horrible sites, you know, cars were burned up with people still inside them, very germanic for her. and she lived under very well convictions in iraq. she said when her tour was up, she went to kuwait. she saw the first porcelain toilet she'd seen in five months and she said i can't live this way. and she ended up getting out of the military and now she works on a military base as a civilian. >> and she was a captain. >> she was a captain. >> how i wish he had?

>> she was and i want to say between five and 10 years. >> staff sergeant shonda jackson. >> she was very interesting. shonda was a great illustration for me of the way that women who personally did not believe in the mission, but carried it out anyway because of their loyalty to their fellow soldiers. and of course the uniform code of conduct prohibited me from asking them any questions about how they felt about the war because in the military, you're not allowed to criticize the commander-in-chief. but i found that women had to wake of letting them now anyway. and the code was, supporting the troops. is it possible to support the troops without supporting the war? and those who so critical of the war would say that it was than those who didn't would say that, you know, that was impossible, you have to support the war effort as well as the troops. >> what was your goal in writing

"when janey comes marching home" and photographing his children? >> is grew out of a previous book i wrote which was her best shot was it a cultural history of women and guns in america. throughout that tori, when the thread of women in combat and the way that whether or not women were allowed to fight tied closely into whether or not they could be considered full citizens. you know, back in the revolutionary war era, good politicians at jamesburg seen the difference between the citizen and the slave is the ability to bear arms in defense of your country. and that thread ran all the way up to fill up sharply when the equal rights amendment was narrowly defeated in the early 1980's, making the point that if it was passed, then women would be forced into combat and that was too much for the american public to stomach in the era was defeated. well, should we are now in a conflict for over 220,000 women have served in a combat zone.

and clearly this is a watershed mona for coulter. and i wanted to hear what the women who were on the front line had to say about their experiences. >> do they think the rules should be just clearly changed? >> most of them, absolutely. there were a few who differentiated themselves from the war fighters, who were out on the front lines, the most of them knew that they were in combat and accepted it and thought that they should be able to do what they wanted because they consider themselves equal to the men. there was no question for them. >> do you believe the world have been changed? >> yes, absolutely. i think the rules already have changed, but we don't know what, right? officially i think they should be. >> what do you teach and where? >> welcome a radio station up his tent at virginia commonwealth university work that created writing and richmond and ends accepting a job at the university of

richmond in the fall teaching american studies. >> "when janey comes marching home" is the book, laura browder is the author. sochaux flakiness the photographer. >> coming up next, booktv presents "after words" command our bond discussion with the author of the new book. this week i'm in chilcott investigator haryy markopolos author of "no one would listen" talks about uncovering the ponzi scheme run by bernard made up him a full 10 years before it became widely known in his unsuccessful efforts to get the sec and the media to act on its information. he discusses his book with gusto's nicole gelinas, contribute haverty, saving capitalism for wall street and washington.