High drama in the southern United States, where the great author Wendell Berry and a dozen others are in day 4 of their sit-in in the governor's office to end mountaintop removal coal-mining. The literary world is rallying around Berry and his crew.  In the last few hours, support has come from the country's leading writer on agriculture, Michael Pollan:  All of us who care about the future of the planet stand in solidarity with Wendell Berry and his compatriots tonight in Frankfort, Kentucky, where they are conducting a "sleep in" to protest mountaintop removal.

Also from Wes Jackson, who writes wonderful books and also figures out how to produce food from prairies at the Land Institute in Salina, Kansas: Hail to the citizens of Kentucky, forced to sleep on the floor in their state capital because the governor refused to honor their agenda of concerns about mountain top removal. One can bet they are from the margin from which change almost always comes. Unencumbered by greed and envy they know one big thing: the extractive economy featuring fossil fuels will end one day, either because enough citizens say it must or the earth’s limits will impose it. They know that if we fail in our citizenship, it won’t be pretty. They know that something will have gone out of us as a people if we fail to stop the forward stampede. 

And from the wonderful Terry Tempest Williams in the American west: I can think of no more appropriate action to be taking on Valentine's Day than what Wendell Berry and his fellow Kentuckians are doing:  taking a standfrom one's heart.  Mountain Top Removal is an act of aggression.  Civil Disobedienceis an act of love.  We are right there with them in solidarity and support.

We'll keep you posted