So I went to bed last night believing that 12 of the miners in the West Virginia mine disaster had been found alive. Sadly, as most of us now know, this was incorrect, and they in fact found only 1 of 13 miners alive. (news.yahoo.com)
I feel awful for the families who had to suffer through this, only to come to such an awful ending. It fucking broke my heart this morning to hear that the reports were wrong and these men were not saved. However, when I heard about this, I found myself thinking about a ]http://the-w.com/thread.php/id=28350 (thread on here) from a week or two back, and the argument between AWARulz and DrDirt regarding the culpability of a company.
Originally posted by CBSThe explosion raises questions about the safety record of the Sago Mine, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr. Federal and state inspectors wrote up more than 300 safety and health citations last year – 46 in one 11-week period just before Christmas.
"You had a mine that was operated by a company that had been in bankruptcy, that had recently been bought out and you have to start wondering whether they were cutting corners," coal industry expert Jeff Goodell told the CBS Evening News.
If they were cutting corners, or if they simply blew off these violations, what punishment will they feel? Some money? Having to pay a settlement? Maybe someone might have to resign with a Golden Parachute? Thank goodness in this case the big bad government didn't intervene and do anything to the poor aggreived business owners just trying to give people jobs.
If someone put a bomb in a diner in Sago and blew it up in the name of Islam killing 12 people, we would try to find the people who were responsible, we would try them and sentence them to death or we would kill them where they slept. They would go to Guantanamo, or prisons in Eastern Europe. Well, the same 12 men are dead. And it sure as hell looks like someone was malicious in overlooking these safety issues. I know I'm one of the resident lefties here, so I am asking those folks who are the usual defenders of the government and business, what do we do with a situation like this? Because frankly I am pissed off, and feel like 12 men were murdered for a cause, only in this case the cause was profit, not jihad.
Hey, I fee bad for the miners too. It's rough life, and I know plenty of people who are in or near the business.
And you can look it up - most mines have lots of safety violations, and without looking, I am sure this one does too. And most mines have deaths each year. It's one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
I think right now we should reflect on the men who go down in these black holes so that we can have our thermostats set to 72 year round, and our facories and busnesses have electricity and not assign blame. I think there's plenty of time for that.
We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.
Why should we be introspective, when we can assign the blame? After all introspection could lead to us realizing our part in whats happened, and that a popular media story doesn't make. Beyond that, just because all mines cut corners and have safety violations doesn't make it hunky-dory. Even under the most ideal cirstances you could have in regards to safety with mining there would still be deaths and accidents every year.
I'm pretty damn happy for the hydroelectric dams now.
I think it would be prudent to wait for more actual facts before we go around accusing anyone of murder. We don't really know the exact circumstances that caused this accident. And we don't know if the previous violations are even related or not. And we don't know what corrective action the company took, and what role the government took to ensure corrective action did indeed take place. There simply just not enough facts yet, so I'm not sure any of us can intelligently comment on this situation (I don't consider an off-hand comment from an "expert" about "wondering if they were cutting corners" as much of a fact. It's that kind of speculative reporting that helped contribute to the media debacle last night.)
The Bored are already here. Idle hands are the devil's workshop. And no... we won't kill dolphins. But koalas are fair game.
In the event that you are too lazy to find it yourself, here's a link to CNN's text version: http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/07/bush.address.text/