No More High Places

Creative fiction based on fact. Write your congressmen–but not on Floyd County’s behalf. 

You might as well learn it from me right here and now, because this is big news, and it will change everything.

You probably haven’t even heard of balonium. But you will. It is a rare metal used for the manufacture of a kind of memory chip essential to the production of iPhones and the very top-selling computer games and certain of the recent generation of guided missiles. And here’s the thing: Floyd County, it so happens by sheer bad luck, is sitting on a mother load of this stuff.

Balonium has been discovered throughout Floyd County and parts of adjacent Carroll and Franklin Counties. It is deposited in a three to six inch layer that in most places lies precisely at 2500 feet above sea level (while the general plateau elevation here is at 2700 feet.) So the plan, as I understand it, is to take away everything–and I mean everything–above 2500 feet to extract the mineral deemed necessary to the well-being of our national economy, and in the interest of national security, of course. The short of it is, our ridges will be decapitated.

Read the rest over on Nameless Creek And from where ever you live as you read this, substitute the names of YOUR familiar ridges and mountaintops, your favorite creeks, streams and rivers. If we don’t imagine this disaster happening in OUR back yards, we won’t comprehend the true costs of “cheap coal”. Please pass the link to this piece to someone who will pass it on to someone else. It’s time bloggers used our collective voices to be heard, to make a difference.

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fred
fred

Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. Oh, gosh, Fred . . . the idea — tne name “balonium,” even — sounds like a joke in very bad taste.

    I’ll write my (and your) U.S. Senators now.

  2. What a heart breaking thing to hear! I’m still in shock over what’s happening in W VA, with the mountain top removal minning.

    Yes, write to your Senator and Representatives, state and US and your State Gov. And that can be done via US mail, email and phone calls. Use at least one of these methods, the best is to use all of these methods.

    I know a lot about this. Once won’t do it! Repeat it every week or so. Make it short and to the point. Your Senator or Rep won’t read them, BUT, they do have people who do read them and they do a count. The Senators and Reps get the resulting tally, how many against and for each issue.

    Believe me when they get flooded with contacts against an issue it gets their attention, they see it as votes. And ask everyone you know to do the same thing.

    http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm – 168k –

    http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.shtml – 69k –

  3. Balonium… you had me for a minute. But more importantly, you instilled that moment of panic, followed by a heavy blanket of helplessness. Thanks for driving awareness.
    Carl

  4. Please folks, read the disclaimer over on the full piece at the linked page. I moved the DISCLAIMER TO THE VERY BEGINNING and people are still missing it, hearing the horror of the issue, and rushing to do something.

    That is, after all, the intended purpose of this FICTIONAL piece, but thank God, as I said, by fortunate accident of geological history, we have no coal (and of course balonium only exists in my imagination) in Floyd County.

    If you are someone who uses coal-generated electricity, do write your congressmen and representatives and governors–on behalf of those doomed to have the REAL mountains dumped into their REAL creeks. — Fred

  5. Please folks, read the disclaimer over on the full piece at the linked page. I moved the DISCLAIMER TO THE VERY BEGINNING and people are still missing it, hearing the horror of the issue, and rushing to do something.

    That is, after all, the intended purpose of this FICTIONAL piece, but thank God, as I said, by fortunate accident of geological history, we have no coal (and of course balonium only exists in my imagination) in Floyd County.

    If you are someone who uses coal-generated electricity, do write your congressmen and representatives and governors–on behalf of those doomed to have their REAL mountains dumped into their REAL creeks in thei REAL back yards. — Fred

  6. Sorry, Fred. Thanks for removing my letter to our mutual senators. I didn’t see the disclaimer at the end. I hope this will teach me to be a slower reader.

  7. I thought I smelled a load of “baloney” coming this way. Great way to raise us out of our seats and into the streets. I am sad to see our constant coal mining. The mountains will be gone in 50 years or less if we don’t change our ways. Thanks for the wake up call!

  9. Oh Dear Lord, I hate to hear of something new they are discovering; that will increase the desire for even more needless technology, while destroying our natural resources and natural beauty. I know about mountain top removal. Now this! It really is an act of baloney. Thanks for the wake-up call. I will post something on my site as well.

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