Loose Leaf Notes

~ The following appeared in The Floyd Press on September 29. 2011.

At the UBAN Keep the Ban benefit concert, held at the Pine Tavern Pavilion on Friday, musician Ember Swift gave a looping demonstration, incorporating a “Keep the Ban” chant into the mix at the start of one of her engaging songs.

Michael Kovick, accompanied by his Mighty Shakey band mates, Rusty May, Dave Fason and Brad Miller, sang an original song with a refrain of “corporation’s not a person.”  Kovick, who along with Miller is a member of UBAN, also sang a new song he wrote about the “Roanoke Basin Blues” …  If minin’ wins, then poison bleeds to water … That’s just the way the whole thing goes …  Just ask anyone livin’ next door to a uranium mine … what goes around … comes home.

UBAN organizer Anne Armistead introduced Mary Rafferty in between band performances.  Rafferty, a Sierra Club grassroots organizing manager from Richmond, addressed the crowd from the stage, saying,   “My job is to work with communities to help protect the air we breathe so we don’t get sick and to insure the water we drink doesn’t make us sick.”

Rafferty talked about the radioactive waste created from uranium mining, which is deadly for 100’s of thousands of years, and stated that Virginia’s wet climate makes it unsuitable for uranium mining and milling and vulnerable to toxic pollution of the water supply.   She told those in attendance that the issue of lifting Virginia’s nearly 30-year old ban on uranium mining to benefit a few landowners and investors is a political issue.  “Get out and vote,” she encouraged.

Freeda Cathcart, who is running for the Virginia House of Delegates, also spoke and encouraged people to vote in November.  Cathcart, a community organizer who has a home in Floyd and Roanoke said she felt a sense of urgency to run for political office, especially because of the threat of uranium mining in Virginia, which has traditionally been done in dry climates that are sparsely populated.   She invited attendees to Roanoke Saturday morning to hear former U.S. Virginia Representative Tom Perriello speak.

Natasha Shishkevish of Natasha’s Market Café provided food for the benefit.  The well fed crowd was not shy about taking to the dance floor.  They cheered on the efforts of Floyd UBAN, which is part of a statewide coalition coordinating efforts to keep Virginia’s ban on uranium mining in place.

As a fundraiser, “It was defiantly a success,” said Armistead. “The people of Floyd are just so generous. We wanted to make it affordable to everyone so we had a suggested donation of $5- 10 dollars.  Most people paid the max and some paid more.” She said.     Colleen Redman

Post Notes: Floyd UBAN meets at 7:00 on second Tuesday of each month at the Jesse Peterman library. Pictured above are Mighty Shakey, Ember Swift, and Mary Rafferty and volunteer gate keeper Virginia Neurkirch.  Read more about the Keep the Ban on VA uranium mining efforts HERE.