Bob Kincaid

Name:	Bob Kincaid
Location:	Beckley, WV

My personal volunteering highlight:

In our efforts to end mountaintop removal, my family and I travelled to Washington, D.C. recently for PowerShift2009. While there, I broadcast the proceedings of the Friday night plenary session to the world. At one point, I got a moment backstage with Van Jones. I told him "You can't green America without first greening Appalachia. Until Appalachia is green, any other attempt will be stained with coal's poison. A green America begins in Appalachia."

More about my volunteering with progressive organizations:

I serve as President of the Board of Directors for Coal River Mountain Watch, a grassroots organization dedicated to ending mountaintop removal and re-building sustainable communities.

What motivates me:

My children. My grandchildren. My heritage. My forebears, who sacrificed and died understanding the next generations would continue where they left off.

Families poisoned by coal companies motivate me. The hills and hollers of Appalachia, reduced to moonscapes, motivate me.

The heroic people who have stood so long and struggled so hard and put all they have on the line for justice in their communities motivate me.

How I try to motivate others:

By virtue of what I already do, I "talk the talk." In order to be effective, however, I also "walk the walk."

I travel frequently to talk to groups about environmental justice issues, to lobby Congress, to attend progressive events.

I work on social and evironmental justice campaigns in my community (see www.coalriverwind.org).

I serve as President of the Board of Directors of Coal River Mountain Watch, a grassroots community organization dedicated to ending mountaintop removal and re-building sustainable communities.

Where I see myself in five years:

Five years from now, I'll be doing the same thing I've been doing three hours a night, five nights a week, fifty-two weeks a year, only by then we will have proven that liberal talk does work and that it can work without patent medicine ads and shills for "Buy Gold Now."

Five years from now, the liberal movement will have finally understood that we must go toe-to-toe with the right-wing noise machine and refute their lies, their hate and their politics. Five years from now, I will be a "pioneer" in that effort, having created and sustained an organization older than Air America and built on a model of economic, social and environmental justice that no other such organiztion can boast.

Five years from now, the phrase "Conversation Radio" will be more prevalent than the right-wing invented "talk radio," and people will know the difference.

Five years from now, H.O.R.N. conversation hosts will be the people the liberal movement comes to when they need to get the message out and get folks talking about a better America.

My suggested bumper sticker slogan for the Stand with Dr. Dean campaign:

Would You Trust Wall Street With Your Health? No? Then Stand With Dr. Dean