Our Reps' Responsibility for Coal Pollution

This is coal sludge: Want a sip, with a twist of lemon, maybe?

Have you noticed the deafening quiet coming from the offices of our congressional representatives--Morgan Griffith, Bob Goodlatte, Robert Hurt--in the wake of coal pollution of the waterways in West Virginia and North Carolina?

These far right Republicans--supported by fossil fuel money to a huge extent--have a significant stake in protecting the polluters and turning a blind eye to inconvenience, sickness and possibly even death of people in the path of the coal barons' abuse of our environment.

Griffith won the 9th District seat from Rick Boucher, the best rep that sorry district ever had, because he accused Boucher of abandoning what he calls the "coal heritage" of the region. That's a lot like abandoning "slavery heritage" would have been in 1860 or "Nazi heritage" in, say, 1946.

Coal heritage is one of death, feudalism, indentured servitude, sickness, astonishing rape of the land and worker abuse. It is not an issue I'd choose to run on. Griffith, et al, embrace it because their definition of "green" and mine tend to differ. Green to them is Koch brothers oil money and moolah from the coal barons. To me, it's a clean environment.

It is time to start giving these knuckle-dragging, paid-for reps their due: they have a responsibility in this pollution and they need to pay for it at the polls.