A day of mourning

So far my Blog has been about comedy (and if you couldnt tell, I do apologize), but today I am feeling a bit more solemn. Reading about the mining tragedy in West Virginia (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36183425/ns/us_news-life/?GT1=43001) I am experiencing a mix of sadness and anger: 25 miners are confirmed dead in the worst mining accident since 1984 although 4 missing miners will likely bring that number to 29, making it the worst US mining disaster since 1970. And naturally, the company that runs this mine has a history of safety violations relating to ventilation of methane gas, which is of course what caused the explosion (according to preliminary reports).


My first response to this is cynicism: we hear these stories all the time; mines are regularly being spotlighted as dangerous and having numerous safety violations. But why is that? How does this happen? Are safety regulations not enforced? Are they treated as a guideline? As a joke? Whatever the case, enforcement of these regulations is clearly a problem. At least the mining company wasn’t downloading music off the internet right? Then they REALLY would have felt the wrath of the US government, that is to say, Corporate lobbyists.

But I am being unfair. After all, 2009 was a relatively “safe” year for miners in the US with only 34 (accident related) deaths. But that’s nothing! China had over 6000 miner deaths in 2004. Whew, at least we have a better safety record than China (although that is somewhat misleading since China has 50 times the number of miners as the US, which means we have only ¼ the number of miner deaths per capita).

What I find myself confused about, Dear Readers, is that I thought the US was beyond this. I thought safety regulations were better enforced, I thought US citizens were better protected. At the same time, I have a voice in my head saying “what are you talking about? You know that’s BS. Government protects the corporations, the money, to the detriment of its citizens.”

Maybe, but I still thought we were better than this. And this makes me sad. And angry.
Suddenly I look back at my previous posts about being unemployed and feel incredibly grateful that we’ve been able to “squeak by”. At least we haven’t had to go to work in the mines to make a living. Although if there were mines in Brooklyn I probably would have applied to them by now.

And so I leave you on a somber note, Dear Readers. Hopefully there will be a day when we don’t write about these sorts of stories. When we can honestly say that our government does protect its people and hold our safety above the bottom line of corporations.

But today, my heart goes out to the families of West Virginia.


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