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Foreword Silas House and Jason Howard are both sons of Appalachia, their family lives intertwined with coal mining. Something’s Rising bears witness to the people they love and the lives they have lived—and still live, with great courage, right here in Appalachia. House and Howard present a straightforward, knowledgeable , and cogent explanation of exactly how mountaintop removal came to be, and exactly what it is: “an entire mountain is blown up for a relatively thin seam of coal,” followed by giant machines that push dirt, rocks, and trees into the valleys below, destroying streams, wildlife, and the lives of any people in the way. They trace the legislation that has allowed this to happen as well as the history of social protest in the region and the problem of insufficient media coverage both nationally and locally. They present the radical idea that censorship has to do not only with the too-familiar hillbilly stereotyping and the deep pockets and utter ruthlessness of big coal, but also with “class . . . and a spreading national prejudice against rural areas and the people who live there.” It has to do with Appalachians’ own ingrained apathy and powerlessness as well as our unwillingness to “rock the boat”—or to be perceived as “unpatriotic.” So it is hard, what these boys are doing here, publishing this book, which comes after years of tireless activism for both of them—writing and speaking out everywhere, running tours into mountaintop removal areas, joining and leading public demonstrations , forming and performing widely with their band Public Outcry. Natural storytellers every one, the people profiled and interviewed in this book are all taking a personal risk when they stand up and speak out in these pages—as they are doing every day in their lives. Their stories put a human face on this urgent issue; xii their stories add a human voice to the dire statistics. Their stories make it real. Jean Ritchie tells about her own idyllic childhood, in a time before mountaintop removal mining: “Sometimes, I think of when I was a little girl there, in that place. The mountains circling around us like we were down in a little bowl. My happiest memories are of the times I was walking out in those mountains. . . . I had a special rock that jutted out, just big enough for a seat. I’d take me an apple and set there and I’d talk out loud, to the trees and flowers.” Contrast this with Judy Bonds’s story about taking her grandson to play in the creek, where he found “this white gooey stuff in the bottom . . . polyacrylamide. It’s absorbed through the skin . . . it causes burns on the inside of your body, it causes cancer. They all use polyacrylamide at the preparation plants.” Judy also tells us that “the kids here are sleeping fully clothed at night, plotting out escape routes, just waiting for the next Buffalo Creek.” Something’s Rising is a moving document of human hope, love, and determination. Let’s hope that “courage is contagious,” as House and Howard believe. And let’s do everything we can to help them get the word out. Lee Smith FOREWORD ...

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