To the Editor:

I wish the article written by Thomas Crowe (“The terrorists are right here among us,” July 23 Smoky Mountain News) would have never been published, but I reckon this is freedom speech being exercised.

I live in coal country and work at a refinery. Yes, we lost 29 miners in West Virginia just recently, and a great loss it was. British Petroleum lost 11 men on that rig that blew. Not everybody has office jobs where the greatest danger may be a paper cut, tripping over extension cords, or maybe even a strained back while changing the water bottle on the cooler!

Why is it the well-funded green machine makes all these statements, yet out of hypocrisy, they write and use computers that use electricity that is made from burning coal or nuclear energy? Or like Al Gore makes such statements as the ocean is rising and then turns around and buys a mansion for a mere $9 million. Of course he went and looked at it before purchasing it — in his jet, which burns 1,000 pounds of fuel per hour.

It’s amazing to me. They preach the message of doom and gloom, and people buy into it. Part of that message is we need to change our way of living.

I have a better idea. What if the power companies that supplied the A/C your sitting in while you read this or the electricity in the hospitals would shut off power to everybody that didn’t like coal, or what if all products that you used that contained some sort of crude oil in it was eliminated. Needless to say you wouldn’t be driving on roads then. All the while the rest of us who believe in coal and oil maintained our way of life as usual and see how long it took for your opinion to change! Thank God for the greatest country on the face of the earth!

Jesse McClanahan

West Virginia