I know this won’t be a popular post with the fashion blog set, but given the recent tragedy in West Virginia, I thought it necessary to point out the plight of one of the most neglected and ignored groups of Americans: Appalachian mine workers.

Harlan County, USA is a Barbara Kopple documentary made in 1976 and tells the story of the Brookside Mine / Eastover Mining Co. strike in Kentucky.  It lasted 13 months.  Mine workers and their families banded together against violence, intimidation, politics, coal operators, and politicians in the pockets of coal operators to assert their rights to form a union, to be paid fair wages, and to ensure safe working conditions.  I’m asking that if you’re still reading this post and decide to watch the movie, that you put aside your possible prejudice against the thick accents you hear and listen.  Listen to the stories of these miners and their wives, the people who value the lives of mules over men, the scabs, and the miners’ advocates who are in the trenches and standing with them on the picket lines.  Listen to the songs.  They are soul stirring and deeply moving, steeped in pain, loss, and unyielding struggle.

Working people, get your help from your own kind.  Your welfare ain’t on that rich man’s mind…

This is America, people.  These are Americans.  What sickens me the most, outside of the country’s complete neglect for and constant mockery of Appalachians as a whole,  is that the very same things these men and women were fighting and DYING for in the 1970′s and 1930′s are still not guaranteed or granted to many mine workers today.  I read this article this morning and was completely heartbroken and disgusted.   This article just pissed me off.

“They’re not doing this because they’re too stupid to do anything else.  They’re skilled and educated people — not just a bunch of hicks.” – Benny Crum, retired West Virginia miner

Profits over people seems to be the rule these days…and that doesn’t just apply to the miners.  I’m pretty sure that this mode of thinking is responsible for about 85% of what’s fucked up in the world today.  See my posts here and here, the recession, and anyone who makes over $100,000 a year complaining about government-run healthcare.

—

*high-five* to anyone who stuck this out.  I owe you a taco or two.

UPDATE: an extra taco to Pennerad who brought the song “16 Tons” to the comment box:

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man’s made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that’s a-weak and a back that’s strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin’ when the sun didn’t shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said “Well, a-bless my soul”

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin’, it was drizzlin’ rain
Fightin’ and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol’ mama lion
Cain’t no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin’, better step aside
A lotta men didn’t, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don’t a-get you
Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don’t you call me ’cause I can’t go
I owe my soul to the company store

PREVIOUS POST: …video: outta the window…

NEXT POST: …lazy Sunday…