Someone silently left a flyer in the handle of my broken storm door today. I just wish I'd been able to greet them when they offered their invitation of ignorance.

The flyer is supposed to inform community residents of the threat of Industrial Wind coming to Tazewell County, Virginia. January 12, 2010 at 6:15 p.m., Tazewell Middle School will host a Public Hearing so residents' voices can be heard as they raise up to "Protect the Ridgelines of Tazewell County!"

The front of the flyer outlines the threat. The first (apparently the most important) point made is that the property value of your homes will decrease dramatically if they have a view of these monstrosities. Say nothing about the majority of the homes in this area running off of off road Someone silently left a flyer in the handle of my broken storm door today. I just wish I'd been able to greet them when they offered their invitation of ignorance.

The flyer is supposed to inform community residents of the threat of Industrial Wind coming to Tazewell County, Virginia. January 12, 2010 at 6:15 p.m., Tazewell Middle School will host a Public Hearing so residents' voices can be heard as they raise up to "Protect the Ridgelines of Tazewell County.!"

The front of the flyer outlines the threat. The first (apparently the most important) point made is that the property value of your homes will decrease dramatically if they have a view of these monstrosities. Say nothing about the majority of the homes in this area running on off-road diesel fuel and electricity to heat. Where does that oil come from again? Oh yeah.

Mountaintop Destruction is the second point argued. BD/Dominion will have to "demolish a large portion of the East River Mountain and any other considered ridges" by "blasting dynamite, leveling with heavy machinery, and the pouring of massive concrete foundations" which can "ruin the water tables, contaminate wells, and cause flooding." Apparently, these big companies don't take safety into consideration? If our under-educated community knows that these water tables and contaminate wells are here, how do we think that people that buy the property don't know about them? Because if someone is doing something that we don't like, they must be monsters without brains mindlessly jabbing our mountains. I've not heard any protests against the rock quarry not three miles down the road from my house. They use dynamite, huff heavy clouds of gravel dust into our lungs, and use huge machines and trucks to break and haul the rocks. They're breaking the skulls of our mountains too, but that's okay. They're not trying to make the world last a little longer so keep on keepin' on.

Hazards to Wildlife. Apparently birds and bats are too stupid to use their eyes and sonar to get out of the way of the whooshing blades. But ripping off the heads of the mountains and sucking dry the veins of coal running through our state destroying habitats and allowing toxic sludge to seep down our mountains and into our water supplies and ravage disease on our PEOPLE...HUMANS doesn't matter.

The ridiculous flyer then goes on to explain that few jobs will be created so no locals will benefit. Isn't a few more jobs better than a fewer jobs? So it isn't creating hundreds of jobs. At least a few more people will get to heat their homes, feed their kids, fix their cars without draining their parents' credit cards for help.

Our tourism is doomed because no one wants to look at mountains with wind turbines on them. It's just fine to look at radio, television, and electric towers though, which are just as high. East River Mountain area just does not have enough to offer for tourism to outweigh the benefits of wind turbines. It doesn't. There is just not that much to come here for. And there is NOTHING in Tazewell county that is drawing money from tourism.

Lastly, the flyer declares that "Turbines are dangerous and disruptive." It suggests that the turbines cause severe health problems to people living within two miles of the site (which is why it is UP ON A MOUNTAIN MILES AWAY FROM HOMES) and strobe lights (to protect the birds and bats) mounted on the housings will "permenently ruin our night sky." Southern X's spotlights be damned? Oh no. As long as naked skinnies are parading, lights are welcomed.

I'm not even going to get into the fact that this flyer is poorly put together. That is just the English major in me expecting professionalism from an organization creeping up to my door to slip a flyer in without knocking.