Eight things you can do to stop mountaintop removal coal mining Learn more 1. Visit I Love Mountains for excellent videos and fact sheets. Check for the latest on where the presidential and Ohio candidates stand. New books include Moving Mountains (Penny Loeb, 2007), Bringing Down the Mountains (Shirley Stewart Burns, 2007), and Lost Mountain (Erik Reece, 2006). Community action 2. Distribute informational flyers on your street, to friends, or at work. Call our office and let us know how many you need. Or show a film at the next meeting of a group you belong to -- civic, business, union, reading group or school class. There are many good videos and films on the subject now; we can help you find a good one. 3. Write letters-to-the-editor of your local daily newspaper and local weekly. Be sure to say why this is an important issue to you, in your own words. 4. Do you go to a church, mosque or synagogue? Has your denomination taken a position on the issue? If not, find out how to make it happen. If so, what’s next? Maybe it’s organizing a group trip to see the problem first-hand, or working with people in areas directly damaged. Political action 5. Write an old-fashioned handwritten letter to the candidate. Ask your family, neighbors, friends and co-workers to write, too. See if your children want to draw a picture to enclose with the letter. 6. Call a candidate’s office, asking for their position on the issue. If the person who answers says they don’t know, ask for someone who does. 7. Go to local political forums and ask federal candidates to declare their position on banning mountaintop removal. Be sure to follow-up when they dodge the question. 8. Videotape candidates trying to answer your questions and upload the results to YouTube. Here's how to do it. Then email the YouTube link to Ohio Citizen Action's Columbus office, and we’ll post the video on our website. Thank you. Any questions? Contact Ohio Citizen Action, 3055 North High St., 2nd floor, Columbus 43202 (614) 263-4600, Paul Ryder.