Damn Yankee Buttons: Short Stories and Essays (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781977540379)

When Thomas Jefferson was president my ancestors settled on Big Coal River, then in Virginia. Grandpa Charlie Barker and my dad Weldon Martin were Union underground coal miners and Grandpa fought at the Battle of Blair Mountain for the United Mine Workers of America. My 1959 Chemical Engineering degree was my family's first college degree. In 1961, I was being trained to make sidewinder missiles when I became West Virginia's first Peace Corps Volunteer and after that was West Virginia University's first full-time Foreign Student Adviser. After joining the hippy culture revolution in San Francisco, I taught high school chemistry, physics and revolution----it was a joy. Environmental hero Larry Gibson and I walked across West Virginian in 1999, to bring attention to Mountain Top Removal strip mining. I have served on the board of directors of the: West Virginia Highlands Conservancy; Kanawha State Forest Foundation; Committee of Returned Volunteers; Regional Council on International Education; West Virginia American Civil Liberties Union; West Virginia Environmental Education Association; West Virginia Labor History Association. Awards include: 1999 Grassroots Organizer of the Year from the West Virginia Environmental Council; 2009 Outstanding Achievement in Environmental Education from the West Virginia Environmental Education Association; Sphinx Senior Men's Honorary at West Virginia University; All Conference Football Player at St. Albans High School. And my grandchildren call me Boppie, Papaw and Papa Julian. And what is most important, I am concerned about First Amendment Freedom of Speech, war and peace, the destruction of our mountain and stream environments, and money controlling our politicians. I know who guarded Wilt Chamberlain when "Wilt the Stilt" scored 100 points and I know why hens cackle when they lay an egg.