West Virginians Rally to Take Back America
Sun Aug 27, 2006 at 12:14:58 PM PDT
Despite the extreme heat yesterday I estimate between 3 and 500 people showed up on the Steps of Robert C Byrd Courthouse in Charleson WV, to rally for economic justice, reproductive freedom, worker rights, and against Mountaintop removal mining which is ruining a lot of peoples homes in Southern West (By God) Virginia.
Anyway since for some unknown reason, maybe it's just my own perception, but it seems like WV is often cast as some sort of redneck backwash on a lot of Democratic sites, I though I would post some pics of the event to help dispel that myth and show the truth, which is West Virginians are mostly independant and having suffered under the "Gilded Age" of the first part of the 20th century, are now ready to mobilze to oppose the coming Gilded Age being foisted on us by the Republican Congress, their Korporate handlers, and their frontman "W"
(I hope I don't mess up first time I have tried to post any pics here) Sorry for so many pics but very proud of my fellow WV'ians.
Here is the crowd from the back looking up to the stage. My camera was not wide enough to take it all in.
All ringed around the back and sides of the crowd was the WV Patriots for Peace "Wall" listing the service people killed in the war. These guys put the wall up several times a month near my building at lunch and I can remember when it was just a few panels long. Now many times during the week they lack the hands to hold the whole thing up. At the rally they had enough people and it was very disheartening to see how long the list had become
West Virginia has a very strong union background and there were strong sentiments against companies hiring illegals, free trade agreements not protecting workers and corporate greed.
Where some Democratic people seem to be afraid to speak about religion, progressive West Virginians have never been afraid to use the lessons of scripture in political discourse
I believe this was Margaret Chapman, speaker for WV Free, who was one of the best speakers there. She was joined on stage by Susan B Anthony since it was the anniversary of women getting the vote
I thought this was an artistic anti war sign
One of the politicians to brave the heat, and with a bald head no less was the heroic Mike Callaghan, who is running against Congresswoman Shelly Moore Capito, the daughter of our former Gov who went to Jail Arch Moore. The GOP pumped gobs of money in last time she ran and trashed her opponent who was from humble beginnings and a self made man. Dave is a nice guy and will need all the $$ folks can give him
www.callaghanforcongress.com is his website. You can see he was not afraid even of Bush when he showed up!
The rally turned into a march. Here's some of the residents who are impacted by Mountain Top Removal in the parade and the banner they had by the courthouse. The Banner Reads "Mountaintop Removal in Appalachia" "Who Pays for your cheap power"
And finally the shirt that says it all
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