Happy 98th To Living Legend Ken Hechler

No one who has met Ken will ever forget him. I first met him in 1999 when I started at Earthjustice. Joe Lovett of Appalachian Mountain Advocates and his colleagues had just won the first-ever federal court ruling against mountaintop removal. This set off a political firestorm in West Virginia and at the U.S. Capitol….

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No one who has met Ken will ever forget him.

I first met him in 1999 when I started at Earthjustice. Joe Lovett of Appalachian Mountain Advocates and his colleagues had just won the first-ever federal court ruling against mountaintop removal. This set off a political firestorm in West Virginia and at the U.S. Capitol. Efforts were underway to overturn the decision by exempting mountaintop removal from federal environmental laws.

Ken inspired the citizen activists and all of us in D.C. to fight back. He moved us with his eloquence and his sense of humor plus love of music. One of the first times I saw Ken perform was at the U.S. Capitol, where he entertained but also moved us with his rendition of “Almost Heaven, West Virginia” by rewriting the words to say “Almost Level, West Virginia.”

One of his mottos is “I’m a fighter,” and he is. In 2010, Ken ran for U.S. Senate on a platform to stop the destruction caused by mountaintop removal. In 2009, Ken and others were arrested for civil disobedience for protesting a coal plant above an elementary school where children were forced to play in a toxic dust-covered playground.

This activism is just the latest in a long career of fighting for justice. Ken was the only member of Congress at the time who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma. He spent many years in Congress trying to abolish strip mining, including mountaintop removal. Much devastation and harm over the last 35 years would have been avoided if Congress had adopted his bill.

Ken, if there is anyone we need to be with us for another 98 years, it is you. We will keep working with you to stop mountaintop removal well before that. But we look forward to celebrating your 100th birthday in 2014, and many more to come.

On behalf of all Americans and people everywhere who care about justice, thank you and Happy Birthday!

Photos of Ken and some of his life’s work and history fighting strip mining are online at his website. View his Earthjustice “Mountain Hero” tribute.

Ken Hechler’s Mountain Hero photo, created in 2010.

Joan began her great work at Earthjustice in 1999, leading the organization in its work to save Appalachian waters and communities by ending mountaintop removal mining and to bring the protections of the law to all waters of the United States. One of the country's most effective and toughest advocates for clean water, Joan was a fighter for all who suffer environmental injustice. She passed away in 2012.

Earthjustice’s Washington, D.C., office works at the federal level to prevent air and water pollution, combat climate change, and protect natural areas. We also work with communities in the Mid-Atlantic region and elsewhere to address severe local environmental health problems, including exposures to dangerous air contaminants in toxic hot spots, sewage backups and overflows, chemical disasters, and contamination of drinking water. The D.C. office has been in operation since 1978.