Fast continues at West Virginia capitol; civil disobedience planned

[Petrushka]

Today is Day 17 of what 85-year-old activist Roland Micklem calls an “open-ended fast” for the environment at the State Capitol building in Charleston, W.Va.

Micklem and veteran environmental campaigner Mike Roselle are fasting outside the office of Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to draw attention to the environmental damage and health effects caused by practices like mountaintop-removal mining. And they say their next step might be civil disobedience.

Reached by phone this morning, Micklem and Roselle said they were feeling strong after more than two weeks of nothing but water, juice and coffee. (They’d been accompanied for the first two weeks of the fast by Pittsburgh-based activist Vince Eirene.)

Micklem, who has fasted for the environment before, said he felt “much better than I expected to be feeling” after 17 days. The army veteran and retired science teacher is a Virginia native who now lives in New York. Roselle is a co-founder of Earth First! A decade ago, he founded the West Virginia-based Climate Ground Zero, an anti-mountaintop-removal mining initiative.

The men hold their vigil at the capitol building from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (and for four hours daily on weekends), and in the evening retire to a motel.

So far, “We’ve gotten to know practically everybody who works there,” said Roselle. They’ve even gotten some press coverage.

But so far, says Roselle, there’s been no face time with Tomblin or any other high-ranking authority figures with whom they might discuss mountaintop-removal mining (MTR). The extreme form of strip-mining, widespread in West Virginia, involves blowing the tops off mountaintops to reach the coal inside, and typically shoving the rock and soil that once covered it into adjacent stream valleys.

< snip >


http://www.pghcitypaper.com/Blogh/archives/2014/07/23/fast-continues-at-west-virginia-capitol-civil-disobedience-planned

[Petrushka]

1. Copy & paste from Facebook --->

Climate Ground Zero added 2 new photos.

Day 18. Fast for the Mountains. See Roland's remarks below. And thank you all for the magnanimous support you have given, Roland and Mike could not have come this far in their fast without your encouragement, thoughts, and positive reinforcement!

THE NEXT LOGICAL STEP....

Well, good people, we've just completed our 17th day and are deciding to ratchet up the action to the next level. We're ending the fast on Friday and are going to invade a mountaintop removal site on Coal River Mountain. We will release this information to the media in advance, including the time, and are inviting any so inclined to join us. If arrested, we will refuse bail and demand a jury trial.

We have generated an enormous amount of support from the folks who work in the Capitol building, as I've mentioned many times before. The press too, has been totally sympathetic, and in general I'm quite satisfied with their coverage to date.

We're looking forward some cheesecake, pizza, and some of Mike's cooking, and are going to be gaining in strength before this next action.