Lest We Forget

Today marks the one year anniversary of the rescue attempt of 6 miners trapped in the Crandall Mine, Utah. If you recall, 10 days after the initial collapse, more of the mine collapsed on the rescuers, killing 3 more men. Remember that mine owner Robert E. "Bob" Murray (who says he got into mine ownership one day when a squirrel hopped up on his front porch and told him he should be running mines) swore up and down that the second collapse was due to an earthquake, even though no seismologists detected any seismic activity anywhere in the area. Remember also that Richard Stickler, head of the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration, is a Bush crony. The MSHA conducted an investigation that placed the blame on the mine operators. However, a second independent investigation, conducted at the behest of the Department of Labor, held the MSHA responsible for ignoring reports of a potentially dangerous condition at the mine. Good articles about it here, here, and here.

The twenty-first century, and not much has changed since miners were fighting for their rights in the early part of the twentieth. Three book recommendations: Storming Heaven and The Unquiet Earth by Denise Giardina, Holding the Line by Barbara Kingsolver. Two film recommendations: Salt of the Earth and Matewan.