Bob Ross

THE APPALACHIAN LANDSCAPE: RAPED, PILLAGED, POISONED AND POLLUTED As individual citizens and as artists aware of the role we might play in shaping public consciousness, WE BELIEVE that the coal industry in rapacious greed has probed the belly of this land and run off with the wealth thus generated. WE BELIEVE that mountain top removal is the most blatant, extreme abuse of our people and our land both of which have suffered a long history of abuse. WE BELIEVE that extractive corporations have both purposely and negligently created a toxic environment which forces out-migration and depopulation. WE BELIEVE that knowledge of our history, a history of resistance, of organizing, of active spiritual and cultural renewal, is the necessary foundation for the future well being of all. WE BELIEVE that the artist, especially the singer of songs and maker of music and the story teller, have led us to seek new ways to express the frustration inherent in living in what amounts to a “colony” dominated by extractive industries.