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‘War on coal’ label obscures battlefield realities

By Vicki Smith
Published October 20, 2012 4:00am ET
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‘War on coal’ label obscures battlefield realities
In a Saturday Oct. 13, 2012 photo, hundreds congregated along U.S. 23 from Big Stone Gap to Pound and into Kentucky in support of coal miners and the mining industry. Only a few generations ago, coal miners were literally at war with their employers, spilling and shedding blood on West Virginia's Blair Mountain in a historic battle for union representation and fair treatment. Today, their descendants are allies in a carefully choreographed rhetorical war playing out across eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and all of West Virginia. It's fueled by a single, unrelenting message that they now face a common enemy, the federal government, that has decided that coal is no longer king, or even noble. (AP Photo/Bristol Herald Courier, Allie Robinson) | ALLIE ROBINSON

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Drive through the coalfields of Central Appalachia, and signs of the siege are everywhere.

Highway billboards announce entry to “Obama’s No Job Zone,” while decals on pickup truck windows show a spikey-haired boy peeing on the president’s name.

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