Weekend Sit-in at KY Governor's Office

UPDATE Below

As much of a cowardly waste of oxygen as Gov. Steve Beshear is, he knows better than to give a protester-enamored national media photographs of Kentucky icon Wendell Berry, age 76, being handcuffed and dragged out of the Capitol.

From the Herald:

Bags of groceries packed with bread, sandwich meat and granola bars lined the interior of Gov. Steve Beshear's outer office on Friday night as a group of high-profile environmentalists hunkered down for a weekend sit-in at the Capitol.

The group, which includes noted Kentucky authors Wendell Berry, Silas House and Erik Reece, was not satisfied by a meeting with the governor earlier Friday about mountaintop mining. They had said they were going to stay until they were arrested.

But the group was told shortly before 3 p.m. that they would be allowed to spend the weekend at the Capitol.

Kerri Richardson, a spokeswoman for Beshear, said the state decided the group appeared not to be violating any laws.

"As far as we can tell, they aren't doing anything wrong," Richardson said.

Mickey McCoy, an Inez native and a member of the group, said they plan to stay in the Capitol at least until Monday, when the annual "I Love Mountains" rally is held in Frankfort.

The issue is not "mountaintop mining." The issue is mountaintop removal mining, which destroys entire watersheds, ecosystems and communities along with the actual 450 million-year-old mountain itself.

On a scale of permanent environmental destruction, it ranks with the devastating BP oil spill killing the Gulf of Mexico.

The annual I Love Mountains rally in Frankfort begins at 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 14. It's gonna be gorgeous - 45 degrees and bright sunshine. Be there.

UPDATE, Feb. 13: See Media Czech, Matt Murray at the Kentucky Kernel, and Kentucky Rising.