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ABSTRACT
This essay examines how contemporary environmental activists identify with violent historical labor disputes in West Virginia. As activists tap into the region's violent past, they are faced with rhetorical opportunities and challenges. In analyzing this phenomenon, I contend that kairic folds occur when contemporary rhetorics draw directly upon historical events in a way that underscores salient contextual factors that shape rhetorical choices. These contextual factors betray a rhetorical register of class, how material, historical, and social class distinctions animate key aspects of contemporary rhetorical landscapes.
KEYWORDS:
Notes
1 Ryan Wishart, “Coal River's Last Mountain King Coal's Après Moi Le Déluge Reign,” Organization & Environment 25, no. 4 (2012): 470–85, doi:10.1177/1086026612466665.
2 Ken Ward Jr., “The Myth of the ‘War on Coal’,” The Nation, October 10, 2012, sec. Election 2012, accessed December 10, 2018, https://www.thenation.com/article/myth-war-coal/.
3 Jennifer Skinner, “In Clay County, WV, Trump's Inauguration Brings Hope of Coal's Revival—Even for Youth,” 100 Days in Appalachia, January 21, 2017, accessed December 10, 2018, http://www.100daysinappalachia.com/2017/01/21/in-clay-county-west-virginia-trumps-inauguration-brings-hope-of-coals-revival-even-for-youth/; Hiroko Tabuchi, “Coal Mining Jobs Trump Would Bring Back No Longer Exist,” The New York Times, March 29, 2017, sec. Business Day, accessed December 10, 2018, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/29/business/coal-jobs-trump-appalachia.html.
4 Harrison Jacobs, “Here's Why the Opioid Epidemic is so Bad in WV—The State with the Highest Overdose Rate in the US,” Business Insider, May 1, 2016, accessed December 15, 2018, http://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-opioid-epidemic-is-so-bad-in-west-virginia-2016-4.
5 Chris Arnade, “America's Opioid Addiction: ‘I Ended up Selling All My Valuable Stuff to Buy Pills’,” The Guardian, May 9, 2016, sec. Drugs: Addiction in America, accessed December 15, 2018, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/09/opioid-addiction-appalachia-tennessee. This article provides an example.
6 “Bitcoin: Massive Fossil Fuel Use Required for Cryptocurrency's Generation Is Industry's Dirty Secret,” Independent, December 15, 2017, Independent Online Edition, sec. Business News, accessed December 15, 2018, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bitcoin-energy-use-coal-power-cryptocurrency-generation-server-farms-dirty-secret-china-mongolia-a8111666.html.
7 Julia Fox, “Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia: An Environmental Sacrifice Zone,” Organization & Environment 12, no. 2 (1999): 163–83.
8 Ben Mauk, “The Ludlow Massacre Still Matters,” The New Yorker, April 18, 2014, https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-ludlow-massacre-still-matters.
9 John W Hevener, Which Side Are You On?: The Harlan County Coal Miners, 1931–39 (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2002).
10 For memory places see, Carole Blair, Greg Dickinson, and Brian L. Ott, “Introduction: Rhetoric/Memory/Place,” in Places of Public Memory: The Rhetoric of Museums and Memorials, ed. Greg Dickinson, Carole Blair, and Brian L. Ott (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2010); Sara C. VanderHaagen and Angela G. Ray, “A Pilgrim-Critic at Places of Public Memory: Anna Dickinson's Southern Tour of 1875,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 100, no. 3 (2014): 348–74, doi:10.1080/00335630.2014.982160.
11 James L. Kinneavy and Catherine R. Eskin, “Kairos in Aristotles Rhetoric,” Written Communication 17, no. 3 (2000): 432–44; Alexandria Peary, “The Role of Mindfulness in Kairos,” Rhetoric Review 35, no. 1 (2016): 22–34; Eric Charles White, Kaironomia: On the Will-to-Invent (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987); Thomas J. Rickert, Ambient Rhetoric: The Attunments of Rhetorical Being (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2013).
12 Cristy Beemer, “God Save the Queen: Kairos and the Mercy Letters of Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots,” Rhetoric Review 35, no. 2 (2016): 76–7.
13 Hannah Arendt, On Violence (Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1969), 8.
14 Matthew Sussex and Matt Killingsworth, “Introduction: Understanding Violence and the State,” in Violence and the State, ed. Matthew Sussex, Matthew Killingsworth, and Jan Pakulski (Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2016), 1.
15 Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” in Violence: A Reader, ed. Catherine Besteman (New York: New York University Press, 2001), 13.
16 John W. Bowers and others, The Rhetoric of Agitation and Control. 3rd ed. (Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2010).
17 Slavoj Žižek, Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. 1st ed. (New York: Picador, 2008).
18 Neil L. Whitehead, “War and Violence as Cultural Expression,” Anthropology News 46, no. 5 (2005): 23–6, doi:10.1525/an.2005.46.5.23.1.
19 Scott Welsh, “Deliberative Democracy and the Rhetorical Production of Political Culture,” Rhetoric & Public Affairs 5, no. 4 (2002): 679–707; Pete Busmek, “Debate as Disease: Debate and the Dialogue and Deliberation Movement,” Contemporary Argumentation and Debate 30 (2009): 1–29.
20 Kevin DeLuca, “Practicing Rhetoric Beyond the Dangerous Dreams of Deliberative Democracy: Engaging a World of Violence and Public Screens,” Argumentation & Advocacy 49, no. 3 (2013): 230–1; Erin Rand, “Thinking Violence and Rhetoric,” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 12, no. 3 (2009): 461–77. Jeremy Engels, “Introduction to the Forum on The Violence of Rhetoric,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 99, no. 2 (2013): 180–1.
21 Katherine Ledford, “A Landscape and a People Set Apart: Narratives of Exploration and Travel in Early Appalachia,” in Back Talk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes, ed. Dwight B. Billings, Gurney Norman, and Katherine Ledford (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1999), 47–66; Gabriele Kupitz, “Hope and Homecoming in Recent Books on Appalachia for Young Readers,” Bookbird 37, no. 2 (1999): 38–42. Carol Mason, “The Hillbilly Defense: Culturally Mediating US Terror at Home and Abroad,” NWSA Journal 17, no. 3 (2005): 39–63; Henry D. Shapiro, Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870–1920 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1978).
22 Mason, “The Hillbilly Defense.”; Anthony Harkins, Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2004).
23 Ledford, “A Landscape and a People Set Apart”; Shapiro, Appalachia on Our Mind; Karen Roggenkamp, “Seeing Inside the Mountains: Cynthia Rylant's Appalachian Literature and the ‘Hillbilly’ Stereotype,” The Lion and the Unicorn 32, no. 2 (2008): 192–215.
24 Hevener, Which Side Are You On?
25 John Gaventa, Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1982).
26 Bradford Vivian, “Times of Violence,” Quarterly Journal of Speech 99, no. 2 (2013): 209–17.
27 Bill Haney, The Last Mountain: A Fight for our Future (Dada Films, 2011); David C. Holzman, “Mountaintop Removal Mining: Digging into Community Health Concerns,” Environmental Health Perspectives 119, no. 11 (2011): a476–83, doi:10.1289/ehp.119-a476.
28 PR Newswire, “Asthma, Heart Disease, Cancer and General Illness Found in Kentucky Mountain Top Removal Community,” KyEnvironmental-Study, March 18, 2013, https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/asthma-heart-disease-cancer-and-general-illness-found-in-kentucky-mountain-top-removal-community-198787271.html (accessed June 2, 2014).
29 Jeff Goodell, Big Coal: The Dirty Secret behind America's Energy Future (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co, 2006).
30 Ibid; Michael Hendryx and Melissa M. Ahern, “Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value of Statistical Life Lost,” Public Health Reports 124, no. 4 (2009): 541–50.
31 Fox, “Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia.”
32 Glenn Albrecht et al., “Solastalgia: The Distress Caused by Environmental Change,” Australasian Psychiatry 15, no. 1 (2007): S95–98, doi:10.1080/10398560701701288; Paige Cordial, Ruth Riding-Malon, and Hilary Lips, “The Effects of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Mental Health, Well-Being, and Community Health in Central Appalachia,” Ecopsychology 4, no. 3 (2012): 201–8, doi:10.1089/eco.2012.0032.
33 Robert Shogan, The Battle of Blair Mountain: The Story of America's Largest Labor Uprising (New York: Basic Books, 2006); David Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields: The Southern West Virginia Miners, 1880–1922 (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1981).
34 “Case File State Vs. Sid Hatfield Et Al, Transcripts, Jury Selection, Witness Statements (Originals and Photocopies),” March 19, 1921, AR-2027, West Virginia State Archives, Charleston, WV. I am referring to my review of these archived case files and my impression of testimonies and accounts within.
35 David Alan Corbin, eds., The West Virginia Mine Wars: An Anthology. 2nd ed. (Appalachian Editions, 1990); “More Charges in Matewan Case,” The Ogden Standard-Examiner, July 5, 1920; “Matewan Murder Trial Is Continued: Twenty-Three Accused in Shooting Which 10 Died Give Bond,” The Washington Post, July 13, 1920; “Nine Are Killed: Blood Gun Battle Staged in Mining Town,” The Des Moines News, May 20, 1920; “Twelve Killed in Battle with Mine Owners Detectives,” Daily Ardmoreite, May 20, 1920.
36 Shogan, The Battle of Blair Mountain.
37 Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields, 210.
38 Shogan, The Battle of Blair Mountain.
39 Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebellion in the Coal Fields.
40 Shogan, The Battle of Blair Mountain.
41 Ibid.
42 Robert Alan Goldberg, Grassroots Resistance: Social Movements in Twentieth Century America (Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1991).
43 W. R. Thurmond, “The Issue in the Coal Fields of Southern West Virginia: Statements to President Harding,” n.d., Box: Ar 1972 William Blizzard Treason Trial Jefferson Co. Folder: State of West Virginia vs. K.F. Keeney Exhibits Presented for Change of Venue Petition, West Virginia State Archives, Charleston, WV.
44 Logan District Mines Information Bureau, Battle of Blair Mountain: Before and After: Facts of Record Concerning the Organized March of 6,000 Armed Invaders against the Coal Mines in Logan and Mingo Counties W. Va, Aug 24 to September 4, 1921, 1921, Box: Ar 1972, William Blizzard Treason Trial Jefferson Co. Folder: State of WV vs. K.F. Keeney Exhibits Presented for Change of Venue Petition, West Virginia State Archives, Charleston, WV.
45 Heber Blankenhorn, “Marching Through West Virginia,” in The West Virginia Mine Wars: An Anthology, ed. David Alan Corbin and Topper Sherwood (Charleston, WV: Appalachian Editions, 1990), 107–11.
46 Lorelei Scarbro, “Some Day the State's Coal Supply Will Run Out; W. Va. Should Protect Mountains, and Seek Alternatives,” Charleston Daily Mail, July 7, 2009.
47 Brad Wood, “Reader's Forum: Mining Protesters Deserve Protection,” Charleston Gazette, July 30, 2009, sec. Editorial, P4A, paras. 1–2.
48 Ibid., para. 3.
49 Ibid., para. 4.
50 Robert Howell and Allison Moroses, “The New Battle for Blair Mountain,” CNN, August 13, 2011, sec. In America, accessed May 31, 2018, http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/13/blair.mountain.history/index.html; “Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America—Educator and Parent Guide,” CNN, August 10, 2011, sec. In America, accessed May 31, 2018, http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/studentnews/08/04/battle.blair.mountain.guide/index.html.
51 Melanie Hoffman, “Film Focuses on Battle for Blair; CNN Film Shows Fight between Jobs, Environment,” Charleston Daily Mail, August 12, 2011, sec. News, 2A, Lexis Nexis Academic.
52 “Battle for Blair Mountain.”
53 Harvard Ayers, “CNN Missed Story on Blair Mountain,” Charleston Gazette, August 28, 2011, sec. Editorial, P1C, Lexis Nexis Academic.
54 Howell and Moroses, “The New Battle for Blair Mountain.”
55 Ayers, “CNN Missed Story on Blair Mountain,” para. 2.
56 Ibid., para. 3.
57 Chuck Belmont Keeney, “The Second Battle of Blair Mountain: Mountaintop Removal Is Destroying Our Heritage,” Think Progress, June 8, 2011, accessed May 31, 2018, https://thinkprogress.org/the-second-battle-of-blair-mountain-mountaintop-removal-is-destroying-our-heritage-fd144077fd18/.
58 Ibid.
59 Ibid.
60 Paul J. Nyden, “Blair Mountain Concert June 5,” Charleston Gazette, May 29, 2011, sec. News, P5B, Lexis Nexis Academic.
61 Brandon Nida, “Blair Mountain Heroes Inspire Modern Action to Save Mountains,” Coal River Mountain Watch Messenger (Winter, 2011): 7, accessed April 8, 2015 https://www.crmw.net/files/CRMW_Winter_Newsletter_2011.pdf.
62 Brandon Nida, Barbara Rasmussen, and Harvard Ayers, “The Battle for Blair Mountain Is Far from Over,” Charleston Gazette, May 1, 2011, sec. Editorial, P1C, para 10, Lexis Nexis Academic.
63 Shanna Lewis, “Remembering the Ludlow Massacre 100 Years Later,” Colorado Public Radio, April 18, 2014, sec. News, accessed December 15, 2018 http://www.cpr.org/news/story/remembering-ludlow-massacre-100-years-later; Mauk, “The Ludlow Massacre Still Matters.”