Giving a little thanks, and feeling sadness

As the news on the situation for the [coal] miners that were working in Utah continues to come out, with none of it encouraging, I'm reminded to give thanks to those that do the dirty work that helps to provide the electricity that is used along the way in getting this message written and posted.

I was talking with a co-worker about the situation a bit on Friday, before leaving work that day, and neither of us could really grasp the sadness of the situation that befell the workers that were involved in this tragedy, and the families of those workers.

Coal mining is something I don't believe I could ever do, as it is incredibly dirty work that is far from the healthiest job that someone could do.  Miners work hundreds of feet, or in some cases over 1,000 feet below the surface of the earth.  They work in confined spaces where the air is dangerous to breathe, and they work in fear that at any moment the mine they are working in could collapse around them and leave them buried alive (or dead).

Thanks for the electric consumption needs in this country, and a refusal to switch more of our electrical production over to technologies like Solar, Wind or Nuclear, we continue to push the companies that mine coal and suck oil from the ground to give us more, more, more so that we can avoid paying higher prices for the electricity we use, or for the things that are produced by using that electricity.  Perhaps sometime in the future the people of the world will move away from old technology and towards electric production that doesn't require people to work in coal mines.

As the days have passed and the hopes for any survivors of this latest tragedy pass along with the days, I'm more sad that the families of the people buried at the bottom of the mine shaft will likely not get good news.  They will have lost loved ones, bread winners, and companions.  The future will be far from bright for those families and it makes things all the more tragic.