Mourning in the Mountains

[elleng]

PEOPLE in West Virginia had hoped that on Monday night we would gather around televisions with family and friends to watch our beloved Mountaineers face Butler in our first chance at the men’s N.C.A.A. basketball title since 1959. Men working evening shifts in the coal mines would get to listen thanks to radio coverage piped in from the surface. Expectations ran high; even President Obama, surveying the Final Four, predicted West Virginia would win.

Then, on Tuesday morning, we would wake to triumphant headlines in sports pages across the country. At last, we would say, something good has happened to West Virginia. The whole nation would see us in a new light. And we would cry.

Instead, halfway through Saturday night’s semifinal against Duke, our star forward, Da’Sean Butler, tore a ligament in his knee, and the Mountaineers crumbled. And on Monday evening, while Duke and Butler played in what for us was now merely a game, West Virginians gathered around televisions to watch news of a coal mine disaster. . .

We knew then, and know now, that we are a national sacrifice area. We mine coal despite the danger to miners, the damage to the environment and the monomaniacal control of an industry that keeps economic diversity from flourishing here. We do it because America says it needs the coal we provide.

West Virginians get little thanks in return. Our miners have historically received little protection, and our politicians remain subservient to Big Coal. Meanwhile, West Virginia is either ignored by the rest of the nation or is the butt of jokes about ignorant hillbillies.

Here in West Virginia we will forget our fleeting dream of basketball glory and get about the business of mourning. It is, after all, something we do very well. In the area around the Upper Big Branch, families of the dead will gather in churches and their neighbors will come to pray with them. They will go home, and the same neighbors will show up bearing platters of fried chicken and potato salad and cakes. The funeral homes will be jammed, the mourners in their best suits and ties and Sunday dresses.

And perhaps this time President Obama and Americans will pay attention, and notice West Virginia at last.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/opinion/07giardina.html

[Skittles]

1. almost heaven

:cry:

[elleng]

2. Country Roads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN86d0CdgHQ

[Lasher]

3. The colony state. n/t

[elleng]

4. How are you doing, Lasher?

[Lasher]

5. Been a little busy with family stuff.

Family stuff is not related to the Montcoal disaster. Terrible about the miners. The mine is about 30 miles from here. At least one of those killed lived about a mile from here. The tragedy has literally hit pretty close to home.

[elleng]

7. I learned this evening that the National Symphony Orchestra

is spending this week (?) in WV; was in Morgantown today (Wed.) and Wheeling yesterday. If you're interested, check it out.

Had I known, I would have gone to Morgantown.

Our thoughts are with y'all.

[Lasher]

9. Thanks, but Morgantown & Wheeling are a long drive for me.

I live just south of Charleston, so it's a 3 hour drive to Morgantown - 3 1/2 to Wheeling. These days I travel with reluctance. I'm having breakfast with old friends this morning, some of whom are retired coal miniers. I'm sure I'll learn a thing or two about the disaster.

Later. :hippie:

[elleng]

11. Of course. I meant to suggest they might be near you, too, soon.

Later, too.

[Mopar151]

6. Coal is a hard business

Some things don't change - the wrong things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_Mine_War_of_1912-1913
Maybe, after centuries of abusive treatment and outright war on miners, our nation will start holding mine owners responsible for the manslaughter and outright murder commited by their managers, lackeys, and goons.

[amborin]

8. K&R

[Doctor_J]

10. The mine owner needs to be prosecuted for pre-meditated murder

that would be a fitting tribute to the victims.

[MountainLaurel]

12. Giardina is one of WV's best writers

And if you haven't read them, her books "Storming Heaven" and "Unquiet Earth" are probably the best fiction about the coalfields I've ever read.

[elleng]

13. glad to hear it. quite an article.

[kpete]

14. Mourning in the Mountains By DENISE GIARDINA

Op-Ed Contributor
Mourning in the Mountains

By DENISE GIARDINA
Published: April 6, 2010

Charleston, W.Va.


PEOPLE in West Virginia had hoped that on Monday night we would gather around televisions with family and friends to watch our beloved Mountaineers face Butler in our first chance at the men’s N.C.A.A. basketball title since 1959. Men working evening shifts in the coal mines would get to listen thanks to radio coverage piped in from the surface. Expectations ran high; even President Obama, surveying the Final Four, predicted West Virginia would win.

Then, on Tuesday morning, we would wake to triumphant headlines in sports pages across the country. At last, we would say, something good has happened to West Virginia. The whole nation would see us in a new light. And we would cry.

Instead, halfway through Saturday night’s semifinal against Duke, our star forward, Da’Sean Butler, tore a ligament in his knee, and the Mountaineers crumbled. And on Monday evening, while Duke and Butler played in what for us was now merely a game, West Virginians gathered around televisions to watch news of a coal mine disaster.

On Tuesday, the headline in The Charleston Gazette read instead: Miners Dead, Missing in Raleigh Explosion. And we cried.

the rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/07/opinion/07giardina.html?ref=opinion

[pinto]

15. Kick. n/t

[MountainLaurel]

16. Just incredible

Giardina gets to the heart of the matter. If you haven't read her books about the WV coalfields, find them. They're just incredible.

[elleng]

17. posted earlier. well done, eh?