After attending another funeral of another coal miner friend this week, I began to wonder how much longer are we going to put up with the disregard and no respect for us retired and disabled coal miners in this crooked state of West Virginia.
Coal miners crawl around in these mines scratching out a living for their families, not knowing every day if they will get to see daylight again like the miners at Sago and Aracoma, working for Massey and the likes of Don Blankenship.
Then when their lungs are eaten up from coal and rock dust, they are no more use to them anymore. Oh, excuse me, the government has said there isn’t much dust in the mines, their mining laws cleared that up, at least that’s what the man on TV said.
How many old miners have tried to get Black Lung Benefits by going to a government appointed doctor (who can hardly speak English) that has them blow in a big hose and report to the government “this man is as healthy as a horse” even though he may be using a portable oxygen tank. If he can carry that thing around he must be in pretty good shape.
When we had the so-called Union in this area before Massey bought the state — judges and all — I don’t remember a single work stoppage to help disabled miners fight for the Black Lung benefits they deserved. The great UMWA sold us out in 1974.
I think it’s time to go back to the Blair Mountain days to get some action from the crooks running this state. We could start right here in Logan County.
I’m not talking about banners or card board signs, let’s break out some hardware. If this sounds like drastic measures, these are drastic times. We got too many good miners dying from lung disease and no one seems to give a damn in the Department of Labor.
We won’t have to tie red hankerchiefs around our necks like the Blair Mountain boys; the whole world calls us crazy rednecks anyway.
Thank you,
James D. Kilgore
Davin
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