What the Miners Wrote

[abcrystcats]

Hey, can you imagine this?

You're trapped. You're about to die, and you take the time to write a message to your loved ones letting them know you didn't suffer, you love them, and it's going to be OK.

You're dying, but you think of someone else.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10723450/?gt1=7538

I think there must be something good in the human path for this to have happened.

[firsty]

when i die imonna write that i was in pain and suffered, not in death but in life.

but if i die it's true i'd rather it be by carbon monoxide than anything else i think. sleepy time, bye bye.

if i die i'll need to pre-apologize for anything that i havent been caught at yet. so thats a last note that would focus on love and everything. no one gets mad at you when you die. the last hope of all catholics, the last rites, the last nites, oil and a cross drawn on your forehead, come and take me now, Good Lord.

i'm sorry i ever sinned, but am i sorry for doing the things that were sins? i hope theres a difference.

miners can make $50 fucking grand first year in, first year down and in, into the cold cold ground. thats a lot of cash in west virginia or anywhere else for that matter. thats as good a way to go as any other way. rich and sleeping, with the chance to write a note that defines it all. honorable and everything else. i wonder if any of those heroes were also in the klan. ha ha wouldnt that cause fits. ha ha.

[microbe]

if i die

Has no-one explained how it works yet? There's no Santa Claus and there's no "if".

[firsty]

if i actually die, you can laugh at me then.

[mnaz]

Loving gesture(s), instinctive it would seem.

[abcrystcats]

I don't know if it's "instinctive." Self-preservation is instinctive. Thinking of others and putting yourself in their place is more of a unique human trait.

Can animals do this, too? Some say they can do it. I know my cats pay attention to me when I'm obviously upset. They pat my face with a paw, or they just snuggle up.

Once, when I was very sick with pneumonia I couldn't clean the litter boxes for days. I was too weak to get out of bed for that long. I was dreading the consequences, because I had kittens and young cats living with me. I didn't expect them to know how to deal with unusually full litter boxes. Are you kidding? After days of this (and YOU know how many cats I have NOW -- had 17 then, including fosters), maybe five days, there were only two accidents on the floor. One cat had even PULLED THE TOILET PAPER OFF THE ROLL to cover her mess. Now, how did she know to do that, and how did my cats -- who normally mess the floor if I leave the box for more than two days -- know that I simply could NOT help them then. During that whole time they hung out with me on the bed, too. I was never alone.

But is that INSTINCT?? Or is it empathy and caring?" Sending letters to the ones you love, when you know you'll die in minutes is not about survival. It takes a conscious, THINKING process to arrive at the conclusion that some people will be comforted if they know you didn't suffer.

firsty, 50 grand the first year? You don't say! How can I be a MINER? I'm going to look into this. My great-great-grandfer was a miner. My grandfather was a mining engineer and scientist, big time. I'm earning 33K plus commission mining for insurance policies. It's not nearly enough. I'm dying here. Think I'll haul some rock, instead. I need more than 200$ commission every half month to keep me floating.

What makes you ask if any were in the Klan? Tell me, I am curious.

[firsty]

$50 grand first year i heard on the news during a thing about the miners, why they go in for it, etc.

usually backwoods upper south undereducated, isolated areas in this country are high in racist tendencies. i live in southern PA, it's like that here. many racists, overt and otherwise. the klan was founded in indiana , this sort of appalachian/ohio river valley region isnt the most forward thinking in terms of cultural heritage. i bet at least one of those miners was a raging racist. odds are.

[hester_prynne]

I thought the notes left were amazingly brave, kind and strong. To be out of self like that, and thinking of those left behind, wanting to temper their grief while dying yourself.

Wow.
A real eye opener and a real testament to our own smallnesses, those of us living on......


H

[firsty]

seriously, wouldnt you write the same note?

i think most people would.

[firsty]

besides, the notes were dishonest. this would be my note:

dear people, i fell asleep and then died. at least thats what i think will happen. it's normal, thats how you die in these situations. there was no pain, which you should already know and my autopsy will confirm. during my last moments, i was thinking of the people who i love, because this brought me comfort. anyone else would have done the same. comfort is good, we seek it even towards death. also, please sue the motherfucking bastards who run this piece of shit coal company. i did the job for the cash. if my grandfather had passed down this job and it paid for shit, i never would have taken it. but we should still be able to work in a reasonably safe environment, where at the very least our employers should be able to know exactly where we are at any given moment. i mean, seriously. they have radios that fucking work from mars, for crying out loud. anyway, cheers. i hope mr hatfield dies.

[hester_prynne]

You crack me up.
Really is more like it I suppose....
Delusion is fun, but truth is funner....

H

[abcrystcats]

Yeah well, here's the crux of it:

please sue the motherfucking bastards who run this piece of shit coal company. i did the job for the cash

If you did the job for the GOOD cash (50K a year and more?) that it paid you, then please KNOW the risks you are running upfront and don't try to sue "the motherfucking bastards" for what you think they owe you. Nothing is risk free and the higher up you get in pay for MENIAL labor, the bigger the signal that ought to be sent to your brain that something is WRONG. People don't gt paid 50K a year for hacking out some rocks if there is no risk.

These miners probably knew it. Did any of them ask to sue the "motherfucking bastards" or is it just their relatives?

Miners in the old days didn't get 50K. They got enought to keep them in debt to the company store. And that is it. My great-great-grandfather was lucky. He got permanently INJURED in a mining accident. The crude form of insurance they had in those days was enough to give him passage to the Americas. So he went. He suffered from his leg injury all his life, but he was able to scratch out a new one. He didn't get the breaks. He had to trap for furs in the North Country, then farm in the midwest. He moved west to Colorado and then his FAMILY got the breaks, mostly after he died. Short story he worked his ASS off and someone else got the breaks.

It isn't like this for everyone, and I am not recommending it, either. But it's a mistake and a stupid one to expect that every thing is going to be peachy-keen and PERFECT all the time. If you are getting some 50K a year for hacking rock, check it out. There might be a risk you are running.

Let's not be stupid about this.

[firsty]

here we go with business ethics again.

who's stupid? me or the miners?

$50 grand is a lot of money, but not enough to keep me from suing a mining company for negligence, if thats what happened, or whatever. fuck em. big business is unethical, i've already finalized that argument.

what would be moral is for the owners of a mining company to dig their own fucking holes. that would be moral AND ethical. do you think the coal company would start people at $60 grand if competition dictated it? if so, that would mean that $50 is less than they could afford to pay, which makes them unethical, which means that when i'm dying in their hole, i want to sue them so my family has something to live on in exchange for my black lung and early death.

[mousey1]

Sure they knew the risks their job entailed for a measly $50,000.00 a year, yes I said measly. Christers, how many pencil-pushing C E fuckingO's would hoist their fat asses out of a chair for that pittance, not a fucking one that's who. The whole system is whacked. You get paid the big bucks, the really big bucks for education level, not for working in a potentially, I say potentially, hazardous environment. But when circumstances force one into taking a job that risks their life, their fucking life, for 50 grand a year, they're supposed to shut up and fade away quietly simply because they were aware of the risks inherent? Give me a break! There were some major fuckups and these fellows' families are entitled to "sue the motherfucking bastards" if needs be. Is there not comfort in believing and hoping that perhaps your family can rightfully benefit from your death under the circumstances. Yikes, abcrystcats! Or are you just playing devil's advocate?

You know, it's only money. And in a fair and just world there would be no need to sue. All would do what's right and good all the time. Safety measures would be put in place and maintained at the highest levels always. Unfortunately money and profit rules and yes, holds sway over the value of life most of the time. The Company's profits can afford to take the hit don't you think?

There's a good chance that my little farewell note would make mention of suing in the faint hope that my family might be somewhat fairly recompensed for my unnecessary and untimely death. Having said that though, there also is a good chance that my mind at the time may be on bigger and better things than money. Whose to say until you actually face such a thing.

[abcrystcats]

Well .... look. I've come down on the side of big business and/or big government before without knowing all the facts, and this may be no exception.

so, before I get all wound up here, I better ask:DID THE MINERS KNOW THE RISKS THEY WERE RUNNING? DID THEY KNOW THEM EXACTLY?

or were they deceived and lulled into a feeling of relative safety?

Because, if someone lied to them, then I agree with you. If NO ONE lied to them and knew what they were doing, then this is a ridiculous argument.

I am a free entity. I choose. $50,000 a year, and I risk my life. Or $20,000 a year, and I don't. C'mon guys. We have BRAINS. We're not SHEEP. Or would you like to believe that we ARE sheep??

Don't fuck yourself by taking the easy way out and then blame someone else, just because they're a big, bad corporate giant. Sorry if this offends anybody, but most people in this world have been given pretty good brains. If we USE them and if other people SPELL OUT to us what we have to lose by accepting their offer, then we shouldn't cry foul when the risks we accepted become realities.

If they lied, then that's totally different.