I have been feeling for the families of the lost miners and reflecting on the insult added by the mistaken announcement that they had been found alive, which lifted their spirits only to have them dashed to the ground again. This has been explained by rumor getting ahead of facts during desperate moments, but aren’t desperate moments the last time we can afford a mistake about something so ‘up or down’ about whether people have been found alive or dead? especially when that was the sole crucial piece of information for which the entire world waited?

I am also having a hard time with the punditry I’m hearing all across the media which philosophizes on mining as an “inherently dangerous” profession, and the miners and their families accepting the level of risk for the financial payoff. We have all heard about the number of safety citations the mine had been subject to in the past year, and I have already posted the disingenuous comment of the unnamed International Coal Group official that the Labor Dept. could have closed the mine if it were deemed unsafe. Keep in mind that these mine owners are corporate raiders with no history in the mining business and no business owning coal mines. I expect that, as criticism of ICG mounts, we will hear ‘anguished’ company spokes and their defenders trotted out calling ICG heroes for providing jobs for out-of-work Appalachia and, of course, reiterating the workers’ knowing acceptance of the inherent risks. They specialize in buying up bankrupt companies and, I am sure, ascertaining that they are not troubled by pesky labor unions when they take over — labor unions that would have made made sure an issue was made of the safety conditions, a hedge against the desperation that forces people to take on unacceptable dangers to feed their families. These people buy in to make a quick killing on the spot market, and a quick killing is exactly what they have made. This is business as usual in the Bush dystopia, with regulatory authority gutted or turning a blind eye and no vestige of corporate responsibility. And the media rush in, thrusting microphones and cameras in the face of grief, cannibalizing the melodrama.