On the morning of May 8, I joined an action more than one hundred people strong calling on the US Environmental Protection Agency to enforce the Clean Water Act.  Dozens of Appalachians had traveled hours to the heart of our nation’s democracy in Washington, DC.  They came all the way from the hollers of West Virginia and the mountains of Kentucky.  They came seeking justice for their families and communities.  They came because their survival and their futures depended on it.

They weren’t there alone.  The crowd was composed of allies from DC and up and down the East Coast.  It was populated by students calling on their universities to divest from the very industries that harm Appalachia – students from Georgetown University in DC all the way to Middlebury College in VT.  “I felt called to take action and come to DC.” said Greta Newbauer, a student divestment activist who traveled all the way from Wisconsin to stand in solidarity with Appalachia Rising "because their fight is my fight - our struggle for justice is the same."