A message from the mines

Rescuers at the Alma mine tragedy recently found Don Bragg and Ellery Hatfield. Soon they’ll be home with the 12 men who died two weeks ago in the Sago mine tragedy. The miracle prayed for this time didn't happen. I guess after the last miracle that was then wasn't the survivors expected this reality.

The nightly news actually mentioned that the safety standards which were in place during the last century had been done away with by the Bush Administration. What the press failed to mention was that this administration approves of putting profits of corporations before the safety of the people. When you hear George Bush that he's doing his job of keeping Americans safe it is with a wink and a nod because he expects big business to voluntarily comply with those federal regulations which are still remain.

A good way to honor those who have died recently in West Virginia is to google the U.S. Army’s intervention in West Virginia, 1920-1921. You’ll soon find as did I that Bragg and Hatfield weren’t the first and certainly won’t be the last to be buried alive by the greed for profit which now seems to have become an American value which came out of the closet during the Bush Administration.

One could also read “Strike!” by Jeremy Brecher to understand and more fully appreciate the genisis of the relationship between government and business at the expense of the worker. Anyone with a sense of justice and fairness will experience a surge of outrage against the human condition in which the few profit at the expense of the many.

At the passing of some people worth remembering often a tree is planted Let these seeds of suggestion be planted as a tribute to one day demand that those from government officials to mine owners be charged with the responsibility for the deaths and injuries at Sago and Alma and all that follow be held accountable and never be permitted to ever again be in a postion to ignore the lives of those salt of the earth, hard working Americans who work in the perpetually black light of the coal mines below.

Honor the survivors of those who lost their lives providing the people with an opportunity to take whatever action possible to prevent such future mine tragedies and take whatever action necessary to insure it will never happen again because of an owner's neglect or the complicity of a co-opted government.

One of the primary roles of our government, yours and mine is to regulate economic relationships between business and labor. In today's America, government neutrality is bought and paid for. Lobbyists carry this virus in black leather brief cases that don't have to be open to inspection.

The deaths of 12 men in Saga and 2 men at Alma were caused by the same disease which corrupts democracy today. A neutral government could not in good conscience permit one mine with over 200 violations and the other with over 90 violations in 2005 to operate in 2006 without some corrective action being required. Remember this when you remember those miners that died in the bowels of the mountain state.