Best I Love Mountains Day Yet

It looked more than seven or eight hundred to me, but a thousand is possible.

KFTC members and friends celebrated their hope for Appalachia’s Bright Future at the annual I Love Mountains Day march and rally in Frankfort today.

“I believe in Harlan County’s Bright Future, in Kentucky’s Bright Future, in Appalachia’s Bright Future,” KFTC member Carl Shoupe of Benham told the crowd on the capitol steps. “But we must do more than want it. We have to dream it. We have to build it and protect it, together. We have to demand it and work for it every day. We have to organize for it and we have to vote for it.”

From the Capitol Avenue Bridge to the Capitol steps, people from toddlers to elders in wheelchairs, they marched and sang and chanted. Some had walked all the way from Prestonsburg - 140 miles. Some spent the morning before the march lobbying their representatives and senators. Mountain lovers like the gentleman below stationed outside the cafeteria mingled with suits wearing "I Love Coal" buttons. I love coal, too - so much that I want it left right where it is.