The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition has recently called for each of the candidates in the Aug. 28 Special Primary to take proffered non-profit flights over mountaintop removal sites. It's a great idea, and I join in OVEC's call.

Politicians need to see firsthand the effects of their policies, or policies they'll be called upon to either defend or condemn.

I'd like for Joe Manchin to take one of those flights. It should be done with a non-profit organization like SouthWings so that Joe can avoid any appearance of impropriety like he created when he flew Larry Puccio to Indianapolis on the state's aircraft, or when he flew in Massey Energy's aircraft back to West Virginia during Massey's Upper Big Branch disaster.

I want Joe Manchin to take flight with SouthWings because I was present in January when a number of us, including Judy Bonds, Bo Webb, Maria Gunnoe, Vernon Haltom and Kathy Mattea pleaded with Joe to consider what mountaintop removal does to us, to our communities and our future. In response, Mr. Manchin told us that we couldn't end mountaintop removal because to do so would not be "balanced," and that he seeks "balance" in making decisions about West Virginia's future.

That word, "balance" is scattered throughout Mr. Manchin's remarks like pepper flakes in sausage gravy. As we race toward Aug. 28, we need to know what he means. I have a single question for Mr. Manchin: Is there anything in his "balanced approach" that would cause him to call for a ban on mountaintop removal?

We know what has not caused Gov. Manchin to take such a stand: Science has not. It is scientifically indisputable that mountaintop removal ruins our mountains, streams, communities and families for a period of time best described as geologically epochal. No amount of coal industry spin (or money) can change that fact.

Economics will not. We know now that for every dollar coal brings to West Virginia, it costs us five dollars.

Labor will not. It is indisputable that mountaintop removal eliminates jobs.

Common decency will not. To ignore the exhortations of those who actually live near those toxic sites is to manifest a hard-heartedness comparable only to that of Pharaoh of old.

I wonder exactly what would move Gov. Manchin to put people first in this state. Would Gov. Manchin finally realize that mountaintop removal must end if the Brushy Fork Toxic Waste Impoundment broke, and, as Massey's engineers predict, killed a thousand people immediately? Would he finally see the error of his ways? Would a path of death and destruction the length of the Coal River move him to action? I don't know. Buffalo Creek certainly didn't move Arch Moore.

We're waiting, Mr. Manchin. What would make you finally alter course from this disastrous path down which you've led us? What would move you to end an apocalypse that has eliminated West Virginia's heritage and is killing West Virginia's future? Is there anything that would so move you, or are you, like that aforementioned Pharaoh, deaf to the cries of your people even unto their death?

West Virginia voters deserve an answer. For a confessed "pro-life" governor, West Virginia's unborn generations deserve it more.

West Virginians already know Ken Hechler's answer: End mountaintop removal, now and forever.

What about it, Joe?

Kincaid is a broadcaster and activist living in West Virginia.