- i wanted to have something that i could use to teach not only my children, but maybe other children. - i leapt at the chance to crucify myself, but really what i'm hanging on that cross is the last 33 years to my diminishment. - the reason why i make things is so that i can see somebody else smile. - times like that, people come together. and that's when we started getting real. [ambient music] - [male announcer]: support for reel south is provided by:

additional funding for this program is provided by: - if we don't know our history, no one else is gonna teach it to us. it's our responsibility to teach our children, and it's our responsibility to pass it along. [gentle soul music] ♪ [sewing machine sound] when you are a quilter, it's something that happens in your brain, everywhere you go you see a quilt. you can go in a store and look at the floor and that pattern- makes you think of a quilt design. ♪

there's a particular person, or there's a particular event that happens, i wanna capture it in a quilt. ♪ - when i was in college and i was changing my major to advertising, i was having a full-on meltdown about the impending conversation with my mom, and she gave me nothing but her full support. - i thought, i can't object because i know nothing about advertising. so the first thing i did was start to research advertising and to see what contributions african americans have made in the field of advertising and i stumbled upon a lady that many people don't know by the name of nancy green. [light upbeat music] she was actually a real person. she was a former slave who became one of the first black paid corporate model.

[light upbeat music] i ended up making a aunt jemima quilt because i didn't know about nancy green, i knew about aunt jemima, and i know a lot of people know aunt jemima, so i wanted to tell her story for her and for her family. - i began sewing in the seventh grade. back then, we took a class called fha, future homemakers of america, which was a home economics class, and i had been sewing a little bit, as my mother liked to sew, but in home economics that's where i really learned the mechanics of sewing, the details of sewing, the world just opened up for me, it was just my thing. [light jazz music] i made my own clothes, short sets, dresses,

i made some bridesmaid dresses for some friends and i even made my own prom dress. after i got married and we had our children, with my son i started making short sets for him. let me see your t-shirt, let me see your t-shirt. wow, who made that nice t-shirt? - you. - but i really wanted to make dresses again so when we had our daughter, i started making, back then it was called daisy kingdom. it was these fancy little dresses with petticoats, and puff sleeves, and lace, and i just dressed her to the nines. finally, she asked me not to make the puffy sleeves anymore because it itched her arm, then she didn't like the collar because it was too puffy, then she didn't like the petticoat, and then she later just asked if she could wear jeans. [laughing]

broke my heart, but i realized that it was stressing her out so i stopped making the fancy dresses, but i knew i had to find another avenue for my creativity and so that is what led me to quilting. - [kayla] those dresses were itchy. [laughing] [upbeat light music] - when i first started i liked creating something from start to finish, taking fabric, putting it together in different colors, creating something that someone could actually use, and then a new idea presented itself. we always had black history at home, it was just part of learning. when my daughter was in fourth grade, she came home and she said, she was a little upset because she said, "my teacher's not gonna teach black history, i asked him and he said he didn't have any books,

so mommy can i give him some of your books?" and i said, "sure." a couple of days i didn't hear anything and then she came home and she said that he said that he didn't have time. so of course i was upset, it rubbed me the wrong way, but i decided i wasn't gonna make a scene and embarrass anyone by going up to the school so i just kinda took a deep breath and decided i was gonna handle it differently and that was to end up making a quilt. [light piano music] [light piano music continues] [sewing machine thumping] i wanted to have something that i could use to teach not only my children, but maybe other children about black history. [light piano music]

it took over a year to make. i had 64 people on the quilt, it was eight categories. we have great accomplishments in sports, we have accomplishments in the military, we have civil rights, science, politics, performing arts, literature, and there was an, other category, because we had so many. [light piano music] i knew that the presentation had to be interesting so i gave the teacher a list of all the people on the quilt and suggested that she make assignments or let the children select a name and do a report as well. when i did the presentation we had flashcards and i'd ask the children who did their report on so-and-so and asked them to tell me what they learned, so it made it a lot of fun.

soon after the first year the quilt sort of had its own calendar, people started finding out about it and i was asked to come to different schools, libraries, churches, and other festivals to share the quilt with students. we don't showcase enough of what african americans have done to contribute to this country. i think about the gas mask, who invented that, garrett morgan. think about the traffic light, daniel hale williams, the first open heart surgery. kids don't know this, you know they don't know because they haven't been taught so i think as not just african american educators, but as educators in whole, we need to expose them to all the wonderful things that african americans have done for the u.s. to make our lives easier and better. [lively music]

- the project that i'm working on now is sourced from t-shirts. it's a t-shirt quilt that i'm creating for boggs academy. boggs academy is the high school that i attended in keysville, georgia, it's the first black boarding school. the school since closed in the early '80s so this quilt is going to be a raffle to raise money for scholarships. [lively music] when people look at my work i want them to learn something. quilting is a way to sneak in the teaching. if we don't know our history, no one will tell our story. i accepted that responsibility for my children, for the ones i gave birth to, and the ones who just became my children

by nature of me just loving them. - [kayla] for years you said you weren't creative. you constantly stopped yourself from saying you were creative. i wanna tell you that you, mommy, you are creative. - [laughing] thank you. - [kayla] and that's cut. [birds chirping] [gate dragging shut] [jared humming] [scooter engine purring] [jared humming]

[scooter engine purring] ♪ bum-bum-ba-da-do ♪ ♪ bum-bum-da-da-do ♪ ♪ do-do-do, woo ♪ ♪ da-do-do-do-do ♪ ♪ da-do-do-do-do ♪ ♪ da-do-do-do-do ♪ [scooter motor humming] [birds chirping] [birds chirping continues] - on my personal altar i have four silver cups, for the four elemental directions,

the four arc angels, the four whatevers, that i do offerings in. and then you got like a little rose quartz spell that you're wearing around- [velcro scrunching] with you, a look for the club. this is my personal wand, the first wand that i made. it's a crepe myrtle branch with the end blackened so i can write with it, with a witch finger on the end of it to boost it just a little bit. this house alter is just to create the general energetic space of the entire house to fuel the wards that we have on the house. i used to have a lot of invisibility magic on the house. people used to not really be able to find it on mapsearch, it would always take them to this other location, which of course i wanna think it was all the invisibility magic that we put on the house. but yeah, a house alter just sort of fuels and supports,

creating the general feel for the house and keeping the house safe and the workings that all of us here are accomplishing together. growing up i always wanted to be a witch. i was wildly and sensually attracted to this idea of ritual, this trappings of mystery, the occult, the esoteric, everything's hidden, everything's veiled, everything's obfuscated, but i couldn't because i was baptist and being a witch was outta the question. and so if being a witch was outta the question, then the next best thing was catholic. [vehicle engines purring by] [vehicle engines purring by continues]

i always used to get super stressed out doing my makeup and there was always a point doing my makeup where i was like, well, they're not coming here for my makeup skill. i ended up writing sort of love letters to my family, we haven't had an honest and earnest conversation since i was 19, it's always been this weird, this weird space where i'm gay and we don't talk about it, we just, we just get along. powers of the east guardians of air, i have woken early each morning to catch your first stirrings. i have perched atop- lavonia elberton is born

of a road trip game, and we're driving along and passing an exit sign for the towns of lavonia and elberton in georgia on 85 north. and i said, "lavonia elberton, for example, her family owned all the land, it was a fruit orchard, and then the highway came through and bought all the land, and cut down all the trees, and now she lives in an airstream trailer surrounded by all these gourd birdhouses so that the birds still have a place to live. she works at the truck stop as a waitress, but reads everyone's tarot cards. she's this long line of witches, but also this intersection of poor rural south. and i had this moment where i described who she is and i was like, "holy [censored], i wanna be lavonia elberton." [crickets chirping]

p.s., i have the answer, you will miss the last breath, there will be a point when you realize it must have happened, but you did not catch it. the body will be heavy, it will surprise you how limp, all this motion, all this articulation becomes. in the name of our blessed and anointed savior, lavonia elberton, go in peace and unto the grace of yourself, amen, and then i'll turn and walk and it can black out. [footsteps clunking on floor] [book clunking on table] i leapt at the chance to crucify myself, not nails through myself, but as the next articulation of the church of lavonia elberton. but really what i'm hanging on that cross is the last 33 years, is my history of spiritual trauma

founded in fear that leads to my diminishment, or shame, or doubt. [singing] ♪ the lamb ♪ ♪ the lamb ♪ ♪ of god ♪ [instrument tinkling] ♪ i come ♪ ♪ i come ♪ [instrument tinkling] [crickets chirping] there came a point where it was either you can kill yourself, or you can be gay and surrender everything you've known and accept it to be true, so i'm still here, so obviously i chose this latter space. i never came out. i was forced out, like everyone knew i was gay, there was no secret that i was a homosexual.

i was just so sheltered that i had no idea there were other people like me in the world. i came home one night and my room was thrashed, all my stuff had been like gone through and i heard my dad coming down the stairs and we had a short polite conversation and so sat down, "we love you and are proud of you," and told me i could stay there that night, but then i had to be gone in the morning. and i told him not to worry that i would be gone that night and i would take care of it. and my dad and i talked a couple of times while he searched the scripture to determine whether he was permitted to remain in communion with me since i was now living in sin and ultimately decided that he wasn't permitted.

i came to those conversations demanding full recognition as a person, "you'll love me and whoever i love and we'll be welcome in the home, or not welcome at all." so these two extremes did not meet and we didn't talk for the next six years. there's a clear shift between being nervous before a performance and being just ready and anxious for it to start, and so i'm just ready to do the damn thing. [door shutting] [birds chirping] [birds chirping continues] [crickets chirping]

[thundering sounds] i am sorry that my existence became a betrayal of your work, that i, i broke that contract signed with a cesarean scholar. what does it feel like to decide that one of your children is gonna burn in hell forever? [crickets chirping] are you still proud?

did your faith shake? [thundering noise] [jared humming] [winch clicking] [jared humming] [winch clunking on floor] [jared humming] you are a little soul, and you are just carrying around a corpse. [jared humming] [winch clicking] [jared humming continues]

and i love you. father, forgive them for they know not what they do. it is finished! [thundering noise] [audience clapping] [background rustling] [birds chirping]

♪ just as i am without one plea ♪ oh, [jared laughing]. ♪ but that thy blood was shed for me ♪ ♪ and that thou bid'st me come to thee ♪ ♪ oh lamb of god, i come ♪ ♪ i come ♪ ♪ just as i am and waiting on ♪ ♪ to rid my soul ♪ ♪ of one dark blood ♪ ♪ to thee whose blood ♪ ♪ can cleanse each spot ♪

♪ oh lamb of god, i come ♪ ♪ i come ♪ [jared sniffing] [ambient music] - [shelly] throughout my whole life i was taught that, that i could do what i wanted, but you know it was like i knew i had to get from point a to point b, but i didn't know how to get there. like i know i shouldn't let my disability limit me, but how? my art is just a way to get me to step out of my comfort zone in a way, that's when i discovered that that's what i wanted to do with my life, i wanted to be an artist. - [wendy] i love to build robots. i've been building robots ever since i was a fifth grader, that's when i first started programming. i rarely have days where i don't think about like a motor, or like a sprocket system,

i just think about robots all the time. [vehicle engines roaring] [contemplative music] the reason why i make things is so that i can see somebody else smile. when i made the dice rolling machine, i felt like i was doing my purpose. [dice thumping] - i lost horribly and then i started practicing with her a few times and then after like one or two times i was winning, she was like, "wait a minute." - i was fine the first two times that we played and she beat me, but after that i was just, "no, no, i have to win now, this is so"- [both laughing] - the tables have turned. i just love spending time with wendy 'cause- [whitney exclaiming] every time that i'm with her i just feel like i'm in a very judge-free zone. we'll be talking on the phone and she's like, "i know exactly what you're thinking about."

- i can rant to her about things, things that bother me, or things that i wanna get outta my head, and she understands what i mean. the big one is- it's like a battery that's getting recharged almost. [dice thumping] - we're synchronized. [dice clunking on table] [light digitized music] [vehicle engines roaring by] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language continues] [toothbrush scraping on teeth] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language] - no. in elementary school that was kinda like the time

when things started getting ugly and quiet. my dad, he was a businessman, you know- [hair tool humming] and so bad people found out about that and he thought this just wasn't a safe place for him anymore so he moved. [blender whirring] the only ones that were left were my mom and my siblings, it's just kind of been us. [belt thumping on chair] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language continues] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language continues] [shelly's mother smacking lips] [shelly laughing]

[shelly's mother speaking in foreign language continues] [shelly laughing] [both speaking in foreign language] - no, thank you. [background talking] [upbeat digitized music] - bye. [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language] [bus system beeping] i had to grow up really quickly. my dad was very, [speaking in foreign language]. there was a lot of times where my dad was physically abusing, not just me, but my sister and my mom. when that happened to me, i saw it as a challenge, so we teamed up and we decided to send him away. [driver speaking in foreign language] - female hispanic is one of the lowest minority group

in the field of engineering and science. i first met wendy as a middle school student. she had so many projects going on at one time i created an entire corner dedicated to her where she can leave her projects. it came to the point where she found an empty room on the campus and she created her own workspace- [tools thumping on table] something that i've never seen any student do before. she actually outgrew this place. [background talking] - [wendy] engineering is all about solving problems. my goal in life is to make some kind of impact. there's people who are suffering and i need to do my part to help other people. [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language] [shelly speaking in foreign language] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language] [shelly speaking in foreign language] - the other day for school we were invited to a portfolio day.

when i was getting critiqued by one of the professors, he was telling me that my art is very nice, but it's also very happy and i should talk about my disability through my art. and i remember he was like, "draw your hands, draw your hands." i was like, "okay," [shelly laughing]. i'm trying to make the, the colors of the chair less saturated and then i'm gonna try to make myself and my body more vibrant with the colors because i just want to show that it is a part of me, but it doesn't mean that it defines me, you know, so, yeah. [no audio] [train cars clunking on track] [vehicle motor humming]

- i'm ready to make shelly into a cyborg. [wendy laughing] essentially this is a prosthetic enhancement that is not gonna be attached to her, it's gonna be attached to the wheelchair and she's most familiar with joysticks, so i want her to control it with joysticks. [chair scrapping on floor] this is her armrest and then it's gonna slide out. this was from prototype number two, this is like i didn't have any money so i just got literally anything. the back, it's not even screws, i used wire. she told me that the number one joystick felt kind uncomfortable because it was kinda far away. if you would have to kinda reach like that. [upbeat digitized music] linear slides, i need some aluminum rod, 1/4 aluminum rod, 1/16 aluminum rod,

plastic tubing for the coil, solder. i'm really excited about this project. the thing that keeps me moving is just she's gonna be able to hold that paint, she's gonna be able to hold that paint! [upbeat digitized music] [cash register beeping] engineering is all about innovation. you're supposed to think of new ways of doing things. [grinder whirring] but what matters to me is getting it done for shelly. what i care about is if this is functional and she can use it next year. [saw motor whirring] - [shelly] i'm just real excited because one day i'll just be able to grab that bottle of paint over there and i feel like it's gonna be more independence for me. [barber clipper motor whirring] - i feel like we speak about shelly's future as if it's years away and i'm pushing her to leave. i just think it's gonna help her grow

a lot more as a person, as an individual, as an artist. [hair dryer blowing] - i don't think i want to stay in el paso, but as soon as i finish college i wanna come back and maybe i'll be setting up my own gallery for my art. - this is blue topaz. [engines roaring] - [wendy] hey. - hey man, what up? - what up? - [wendy] how was physics? - [shelly] death. - dude, honestly, same. - [shelly] hey, yo, can i call you in like an hour? - yeah, sure, you busy? - or like... - yeah. - tomorrow maybe. - [wendy] it's all good dude. - [shelly] cool beans, bye. - bye. [phone beeping] we don't talk as much anymore, but that's just because she has stuff to do, and i have stuff to do, and it just happens, you know,

but i'm still gonna continue and build and she's still gonna continue and draw. so the motor moves this axle, right, and this axle is connected to this chain and sprocket, which will then move another piece of the arm that i haven't printed yet and then this one will have another thing. so this one will move like this and then it'll have another one that moves like this, like this. [part clunking on table] i have the base done and the makerspace is printing out the other pieces that i need. i'll put the cover over the bottom, right, and then there'll be a lazy susan on it so it'll swivel on her wheelchair so she can pull it out whenever she wants and if she wants to get out of her chair, for example, she can just push it back in. [tense foreboding music] i should be prepared for science fair. [tense foreboding music] [background talking]

[tense foreboding music] - [moderator] morning, first let me congratulate you. you are the best of the best of each one of your divisions. today we're gonna figure out who's the best of the best our city. [tense foreboding music] - [shelly] i'm really nervous right now, it's very competitive. there's a lot of really good artists that have been in art for many years. - [moderator] here's how it's gonna work, you're gonna be judged by two judges at one time, you will only give your presentation once. once you've been judged, those two judges will then score their sheets independently, they will not talk to each other about how they're gonna do the scoring. once you've been judged twice, do not leave. the only way that you can leave is when we ensure that we have both the judges sheets from your presentation.

all right, now we're ready. [tense foreboding music] [background talking] [tense foreboding music] [background talking] [door squeaking open] - [person] come on in. [background talking] - she'll have to figure it out when [indistinct] and then she also has [indistinct]. - amazing. [indistinct] - [speaker] first place we [indistinct] a win, in the category of robotics- [audience clapping] and intelligent machines, wendy sandoval. [audience clapping] [audience cheering]

[shelly's mother speaking in foreign language] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language continues] [shelly's mother speaking in foreign language continues] [audience clapping] - it's over. so we have 45 students advancing to state. - [indistinct] lopez, from [indistinct]. [audience clapping] [indistinct] [audience clapping] - [moderator] i appreciate your patience and we will see you all, [indistinct]. all right, thank you, thank you. [audience clapping] [background talking] - [shelly] well, my first three surgeries,

i was very little so i don't really remember any of 'em, but my fourth surgery was definitely my hardest. i just got to see the toll that it took on my mom. she was just very strong and she pushed through everything. i try to imitate that and be strong for her. [birds chirping] [footsteps crunching on ground] - [interviewer] tell us about your hat. - my hat? make america great again, in russian [chuckles]. [jim laughing] [light guitar music] black mountain, kentucky's highest mountain, being strip-mined as we speak.

how on earth a state can let something like that happen is beyond me. however, black mountain has coal and as long as there's coal we're gonna pay for that. - [reporter] this is strip-mining 24-hours a day some of the biggest machines ever built tear the mountain sides apart, half of america's coal is mined like this. - [reporter 2] surface mining carries a huge cost, nothing less than the mountains themselves, the icons of this beautiful state. - [laughing] they do piss me off. well, thank you and thank you very much. as always we thank the mountain eagle for letting us share, speak your peaces with you, each week here on "riding around listening to the radio" with yours truly, unruly wiley quixote, of a wednesday on wmmt, the very best radio station

in the whole wide w-h-i-r-l-e-d, i would remind you i do not make this stuff up. - he was a wonderful man and i think it was his hope that everybody would enjoy this mountain, that's what he always said, "it's for everybody, and no mining, no fracking, [marlene laughing], and no mountaintop removal." - he knew everybody, everybody knew him. - he was interested in everybody and sometimes not only the straight and narrow people. - his love for the culture, and the people, and these mountains, was just stronger, stronger than- [accordion music] any appalachian i that i can think of in history. i mean there are a lot of great writers that have come out here, a lot of great musicians, and there are a lot of people

who've been put on higher pedestals than jim webb, but i don't think anybody, when it comes to appalachian culture, and being the cheerleader, and the proponent of what it means to be appalachian, i don't think anybody needs to be put on a higher pedestal than jim webb, i think he needs to be at the top of the top of the top. [light upbeat music] [light upbeat music continues] [vehicle engine humming] [vehicle door squeaking open] - all right, hello dogs. this is my toolbox. that rock looks like kentucky. [footsteps thumping on ground] [dog panting] i keep a trash can, but, i mean a recycling thing,

i recycle everything i possibly can. i had an uncle killed in the mines, i've had friends killed in the mines, killed in the mines. it's the most dangerous job in the world and people talk about how much they get paid, that's ridiculous, they don't get paid enough. it was one thing to deep mine and, you know, it has its problems too, it ruins people's water and undermines houses and things like that, but strip-mining was just the greatest sin that ever happened to the earth. [light guitar music] in 1965, i worked for [indistinct] sturgill coal company, the first big strippers here in eastern kentucky and i helped literally blow some tops off of some mountains. [dynamite booming] we're out there cutting some trees and got our tools

and this young guy comes up, about my age, maybe a little younger, and he says, "my grandmother doesn't want you cutting her trees." i start to say something back, "well, you know the company sent, i mean, they've sent us up here to do this, what do you mean?" and that was the widow combs' property. [light music] that year at thanksgiving, she was arrested by the kentucky state police for stopping them from strip-mining her land and as i've always heard it was land that she was leaving to her grandson. it's just mind boggling, but i was one of the first three people run off of the widow combs' land [chuckling]. - [reporter] for 20 years mining has destroyed this country on the borders of tennessee and kentucky, but in the mountains the people have begun to fight.

- every time i'd complain about the blasting, the superintendent said to me one day, he said, "do you realize that you're bitin' the hand that feeds ya?" and i said, "yeah, but i also realize it's the hand that's killing me." - there were a lot of people protesting, their farmland was being ruined their, everything, and that is when i feel like i found my voice, my writer's voice, my literary voice, i started writing about strip-mining. [reel snapping] - in '77 there was this huge flood that just about wiped out williamson. i think this sense of large forces at work, mainly in surface mining,

that were denuding the hillsides of their vegetation that was holding back the rain from all just rushing down into the streams. so in other words, the strip-mining was behind, at least a part of the problems of that flood. - you know, thousands of people, homeless, people staying in their cars, no food, no nothing- [pickup motor humming] and so a group of us got together and tried to figure it out. at times like that people come together, and i mean all of us pitching in, and that's when we started getting real political. - and he and bob baber, and some other poets and writers and activists in the area, got together and made some noise about the reason behind the flood, the strip-mining and all the runoff in the mines,

and things like that. - we finally started getting some response. in amongst things we started a petition drive to abolish strip-mining. [paper machine whirring] [light music] [water gushing] [machine motor humming] [water gushing] [machine motor humming] [newspaper stack clunking on ledge] [background talking] - my best parking job ever! [door clunking shut] [customers laughing] - jim began to write editorials in the newspaper and of course he was a professor at the local community college and he didn't want to risk his job as making these kind of challenges

to the existing powers that be, right, it was mainly the coal industry. he's writing these angry editorials and instead of putting his own name there, he uses a pen name, which he decided would be wiley quixote. - and i started writing a column, a satirical political column, called "riding around listening to the radio with wiley quixote." - he was also very interested in wordplay at that time as well. the governor was named, arch moore, and he would change his name to some kind of bazaar, i can't remember exactly. - and i called him arch enema. - all of the people who read it knew exactly who he was talking about and you know like in all parody, it's all kind of in the know. if you're in the know you get it, if you're not then you're like, what in the world is this guy writin' about? we were at a bar somewhere and he had had two or three and he said, "herbie, i wanna tell you something."

i said, "yeah?" he said, "i'm wiley quixote," [laughing]. i said, "i know, jim." he said, "you did," [laughing]? he thought he was being so clever. [light guitar music] [vehicle engine humming] - well, if you wanna move your seat back, nick, you can. it's easy to do and it'll just cramp the people in the back seat, but who cares about them anyway? - [nick] when did you buy this place, jim? - 1996. over here is the walled in pond, and this is the wegivea dam. [laughing] welcome to the 17th annual pine mountain tacky lawn ornament, pink flamingo soiree at, wiley's last resort, welding chapel and health spa. - i think jim was about making a few statements while he was on the planet.

that if he said, "last resort," he meant, all right, let's go for it [laughing]. wait, this is we got one last era to do some stuff up here that nobody's attempted before and let's try her out [laughing]. - the resort is like no place on earth [chuckling]. it is clever, and humorous, and artistic. [water splashing] but it's also held together with coat hangers and duct tape, it's just this walt disney world kind of place for hillbilly artists. [upbeat blue grass music] [upbeat blue grass music continues] - we're here to honor you as the bestest friend ever, and the bestest- - yeah. - resort known to man. this is the only place that we know

us common people can come and act [indistinct]. - i'm a proud american, proud appalachian, stop mountaintop removal kinda guy. yes, bye-bye, black mountain, bye-bye. bye-bye, black mountain, bye-bye. you sorry, greed heads. [crowd cheering] you sorry greed heads! you sorry, sorry, greed heads, decapitate the space. i have dear friends who work in the industry and i understand that, and that's why are we are friends of miners and mountains. [crowd cheering] friends of miners and mountains. [crowd cheering] friends of miners- [crowd cheering] and mountains! [crowd cheering]

[bagpipe music] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ religious leaders and friends of creation speak out. consider how many people deny global climate change and refuse to see our hand in harming earth. almighty god give us strength to use our voices

and actively recruit others to save the earth. [bagpipe music] [crickets] [tv news jingle] - [reporter] breaking news, an agreement was reached between the commonwealth of kentucky and several coal operators with interest in black mountain. the state agreed to pay 4.2 million to exclude mining above 3,200 feet on black mountain, kentucky's highest point. - there's black mountain, highest mountain in the state. it is not going to be decapitated apparently, but it sure is having the hell stripped out of it 'cause apparently the taxpayers are paying, we, are paying millions of dollars so that they don't get the top. it's really crazy a state that would let its highest mountain be strip-mined.

that just tells you how the government's in the pocket of the coal industry and what a terrible thing. [light guitar music] ♪ [water splashing] ♪ ♪ *** **** it! mountaintop removal, mountaintop bombing, mountaintop devastation, mountaintop destruction, mountaintop dynamite, mountaintop decapitation, mountaintop desecration, mountaintop wretch et cetera,

mountaintops, as close to heaven as you can get on this east kentucky earth, this west, by god, virginia earth, this wise virginia earth, we're abomination, so why don't god complain when he/she/its trying to sleep? why don't god send down a lightning bolt, call the cops, tell 'em to hold it down, down there, cut that crap out! let an old man, old woman, the kids sleep. ♪ [jim chuckling] [jim snorting] all right. [light guitar music] ♪

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