Category: Miners
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Job Alternatives for Coal Miners
If you ask a coal miner about the “War on Coal,” chances are you’ll get an earful about the EPA, President Obama, and all of the environmentalists who don’t care about coal mining families. You’ll may also hear that “coal mining is all there is” in an area where few living wage job alternatives exist.…
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Telling it how it is….
I recently engaged in a conversation with people on the “Coal Miners Light” Facebook page, asking pro-coal followers if they wanted their children to become future coal miners. I was not entirely unsurprised to find that everyone was about saving “coal,” but I was surprised that no one would answer my question directly. I pondered…
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Are We Ignorant Hillbillies?
Previously titled “Ignorance – Fighting the Appalachian Stereotype” Appalachians have been looked down upon, made fun of, and dehumanized as “uneducated,” “backwards,” or just down right “ignorant.” I myself would often denounce such stereotyping, but as of late I cannot help but acknowledge that many Appalachian people are fulfilling the descriptions placed upon them. The…
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True Appalachians
We are finding more and more ways to overextend ourselves in Appalachia. Our wants create debt; our debts force us to work dangerous environmentally destructive jobs. Nice homes, nice vehicles, nice this…nice that. Happiness is no longer admiring the small things—happiness became what people on TV told us it should be, it became what salesmen…
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How do you convince a coal miner?
People keep asking me, “How do we convince coal miners we need change?” My answers vary from week to week and I do not pretend to be an “expert” on the subject. What I know has come from my own experiences and observations of the many social, economical, and cultural issues impeding change within the…
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Coal Dust and Corporate Jets
The mantrip reaches #1 section where it slows to stop. The mine air is cool and thick with the familiar dank smell of coal, rock dust, and mold. The foreman asks one of the men to give a quick prayer for the crew. “Our heavenly father, watch over us today as we do our work,…
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Coal Miners are Good People
I’ve often stated that younger coal miners have a tendency to get themselves into large amounts of debt. It’s easy to do when you grow up in a low income household, start making decent money, and your coal company pay stub acts as instant credit with many local banks and auto dealerships. When the coal…
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Coal, Greed, and Maintaining a Captive Generational Workforce
Previously titled “Guess Who Wants Your Kids to Work in a Coal Mine?” There are many resources in Appalachia that make men wealthy. But without people, those resources would stay locked in the ground. After all, no one has been able to design fully autonomous machines to produce coal. Without coal miners the coal industry…
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A Coal Miner’s Health: Short Term Gains and Long Term loss
Coal mining is dangerous work. Spend any length of time talking with a group of underground coal miners and you are sure to hear “war stories” about close calls with severe injury or even death. Every aspect of the job requires a constant vigilance for potential hazards. Countless miners have been killed by collapses…