"But Ma, I'm a miner. That's what I do."

[11 Bravo]

As per MSNBC, this was the response of a young man who lost three brothers in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion after his Mom begged him to "Please, never go down there again."
Damn, I hope there's a special place in Hell for the Massey Energy Company and Peferormance Coal Company execs who decided it was just good business to continue to pay a piddly-ass fine for each of their repeated safety violations rather than to fix the fucking problems!

[Brickbat]

1. So sad that he felt that huge safety violations were a part of the job.

[jaksavage]

4. I worked on construction crews

and commercial fishing boats. Surviving risk was a badge of honor.

[Brickbat]

5. What's honorable is standing together and telling the boss to shove it until the jobsite is safe.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. There is a difference between innate risks of a job and deliberate

overlooking of safety violations. Working construction can be hazardous, but you don't refuse to give the workers hard hats to save a few bucks.

[jaksavage]

10. Give me that saw

I ain't afraid of no asbestos.

"what do you mean go stand on the bow in a storm and pick up the bouy on the end of the net, I won't have a hand left to hang on."

[jaksavage]

2. It is the only job I can get

that pays a decent wage.

[Captain Hilts]

3. There's little else to do. The whole area is depressed because coal miners were exempt from

the drafts for WWI and WWII. So, no GI Bill, no labor mobility, no getting 'out'.

This is why Jessica Lynch joined the Army. Her area in WVA has the highest adult unemployment rate in the US.

It's mining, the military, or nothing.

[xxqqqzme]

8. Sadly true.

My former spouse taught high school biology when we lived in West Virginia. Kids would quit school as soon as they could to go to work in the mines. He tried to talk them into staying in school but the lure of 'good' money was too much. Within a few years, that drop-out had a wife - likely his high school sweetheart, who also dropped out, and a kid or two. They would all be living in a mobile home on some little lot just off the paved road, happy they had 'made' it.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. Tribute: Number Nine Coal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXGi0nY6fIY

[stray cat]

9. Have they shown a safety violation that led to the methane gas explosion?

I know there were violations - however I have yet to see a violation responsible for the current disaster. Maybe I've missed it and I wouldn't be surprised but I like to know facts before making a determination of liability.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. There were citations for inadequate coal dust control - improper ventilation -

get enough coal dust floating around in the air and it amplifies any explosion, whether from a methane pocket or whatever.

I don't think this is a 'shit happens' moment.