Letter to Editor by Isaiah Terry
It is important to try and do what little I can to try and make the world a cleaner and better place. The Trustees’ decision is incredibly reckless. A $7 million donation will not clean up my hometown nor will it undo the extensive amount of damage done by coal production.
For those telling us those who oppose coal should leave and go live somewhere else: No.
Kentucky is my home. I grew up here — in McCreary County. The coal mines provided income for my grandparents just the same as it did many of my friends’ families for the past century.
This state is where I grew up and where I would like to start my family.
That said, it is reprehensible that UK has decided to allow coal companies to advertise at the highest level in Kentucky: UK basketball.
The donation, however, will not undo the ecological harm and deaths linked to coal production and energy production. It is scientifically proven that the use of coal is responsible for global warming.
Does that make it OK because these deaths are in a rural Indian fishing village being inundated by rain and flooded more each year? Will it erase the fact that every time it rains hard, the water in creeks and streams around my home turn from a beautiful blue to a crimson red or rust color as pollutants pour from the long-abandoned mines? Does it erase the sulfur smell that burns my nostrils and makes some peoples’ noses bleed?
Not at all.
The problem is that we don’t look down the road … That’s where the greatest problem of coal lies.
The fact of the matter is, coal production in Kentucky WILL end. It may be 50 years down the road, maybe 100 years. When that coal is gone, and the money spent from producing that coal is gone, we’ll only have the scars from coal.
Increased cancer rates, irreparable environmental damage and the loss of thousands of jobs will be the only mark coal will leave behind. With that said, it’s shameful and embarrassing as a citizen of Kentucky that the Board of Trustees condoned coal Tuesday by renaming living quarters the Wildcat Coal Lodge.
What’s next for Kentucky? I am suspicious that we may next see a new “Commonwealth Marlboro Stadium†or a “Bourbon Tennis Facility.â€
It is truly embarrassing that a college institution that dedicates itself entirely to the education and growth of young minds has turned its head blindly and allowed what happened Tuesday.
Isaiah Terry
UK Alumnus 2009
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