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habits of being, their culture.
    Mass media representations of poor folk in general convey to the public the notion that poor people are in dire straits because of the bad choices they have made. It pushes images that suggest that if the poor suffer from widespread addiction to sugar, alcohol or drugs it is because of innate weaknesses of character. When mass media offers representations of poor mountain folk, all the negative assumptions are intensified and the projections exaggerated. No wonder then that is usually easier for citizens concerned about environmental issues to identify with the hardships facing nature and the lives of the poor in underdeveloped countries than to identify with the exploitation of the environment, both the natural and cultural world of people here is our society, especially in Appalachia.
    In Alice Walker’s most recent book, We Are The Ones We Have Been Waiting For, she describes soul murder in dominator culture as “pain that undermines our every attempt to relieve ourselves of external and internalized…domination…the pain that murders our wish to be free.” She concludes, “It is a pain that seems unrelenting. A pain that seems to have no stopping and no end. A pain that is ultimately, insidiously, turning a generous life loving people into a people who no longer feel empathy for the world. We are being consumed by our suffering.” While Walker is talking about the fate of black folk, her words speak to the human condition in our culture, especially to the lives of exploited and oppressed people of all colors.
    To truly create a social ethical context wherein masses of American citizens can empathize with the life experiences of Appalachians we must consistently challenge dehumanizing public representations of poverty and the poor. Restoring to our nation the understanding that people can be materially poor yet have abundant lives rich in engagement with nature, with local culture, with spiritual values is essential to any progressive struggle to halt mountaintop removal. Seeing and understanding that abundance means not only that we must collectively as a nation change our thinking about poverty, it means we must see a value in life that is above and beyond profit motives. And that is a challenging task in a material cultural where individual citizens of all classes spend significant amounts of their daily life fantasizing about becoming wealthy by winning the lottery as well as spending much of their income to purchase lottery tickets. This situation would be cause for widespread despair were it not for the education for critical consciousness that is already leading many American citizens to revaluate their lives. Among all classes, decreased economic resources caused by job loss, low wages, high housing costs etc. are all circumstances that are serving as a catalyst for folks to re-think their lives. This rethinking often includes a return to spiritual values which often acts to reconnect folk wit h nature. Walker tells us in her recent work that we have only spirit to guide us, that “spirit is our country because it is ultimately our only home.”
    One of the unintended benefits that have come with the widespread rebirth of religious fundamentalist has been the outgrowth of new ways of thinking about the poor. Concurrently, this revived theology calls for those who are truly living according to the biblical word to identify with the poor and to seek to live simply. That call to simple living often begins with a reawakening of wonder sparking awareness of our profound connection to nature. The Christian Bible tells believers to turn again and again to nature to understand the essence of spiritual values. And certainly all the diverse religions of the world pay homage to the role nature plays in our humanization, our spiritual self-actualization. In her essay, “Turning Slowly Nature,” Diane Glancy offers this insight: “It seems to me that nature is an unsaved world. A world