West Virginia Mine Disaster

Why is it “same old; same old” in the West Virginia mines? Fifty years ago, two doyens of the Democratic Party, the wannabe presidential candidates, John F. Kennedy and the ever-ebullient Hubert Horatio Humphrey, were traveling into the most remote hollows of West Virginia in the run-up to the crucial primary vote on May 10th. One can go back and look at the promises made to West Virginians to eliminate poverty and to make the mines safe. And, then look at the reality of the last 50 years with mine disaster after mine disaster, and the silence of the media with respect to the roles of the congressional delegation from West Virginia, which has Senator Byrd, the oldest and most senior United States senator; the “failure” of Mr. Trumka’s United Mine Workers to protect its members at a mine that had 1,500 safety violations in a short period of time; and the unquestioned abdication of the Obama’s mine safety administration from its statutory responsibilities to protect miners. It is a sad commentary on the state of the American media that all that is being said is an evil man micro-manages this mine and contributes a lot of money to the Republican Party—the implication being that it is Republicans and this one man who killed these miners. The reality is that the Democratic Party of JFK and HHH defaulted massively on their promises to the good people of West Virginia; the West Virginia congressional delegation, which is hardly a bunch of eunuchs, failed in their jobs; the union seemingly did little or nothing, and certainly should have shut down a mine with 1,500 safety violations; and the federal mine safety establishment, like the good bureaucrats like they are, generated a blizzard of paper and nothing else. In other cultures, all of these very powerful people who, by their negligence and indifference, allowed these miners to die, would stand in front of the families, bow their heads, and ask for forgiveness. Instead, we will undoubtedly have a congressional sideshow where the Democrats try to portray this as somehow the responsibility of the prior administration. Shame on all of you.