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Jan. 7, 2006
RAHALL REPORT: West Virginia Mourns Our Lost Miners
From the desk of U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV)
Representing West Virginia's 3rd District
Washington, D.C. (HNN) -- West Virginia's heart broke this week with the
news of the tragic loss of 12 brave miners at Sago Mine in Upshur County.
Whether from the north, south, east or west, we all continue to mourn the
deaths of these unsung heroes who lost their lives toiling beneath the earth
to provide a better life for their families, their state and all of America.
This is a tragedy affects us all because as residents of a coal state, we
are a special family bound together by this essential but sometimes
dangerous profession. We know that it could just have easily been our own
brothers, fathers, sons and friends trapped underground in that mine.
But out of this cloud of sadness, West Virginians have responded again with
compassion, which is as much a part of our state tradition as mining coal.
Donations are pouring into the Sago Mine Fund, a fund established by the
International Coal Group Inc. West Virginia Wireless has established a cell
phone drive to raise funds for the families. Bank One is giving $10,000 to
the West Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges and Universities to be
used for scholarships for the children and grandchildren of West Virginia
miners and $2,500 to the American Red Cross to help the Sago Mine families.
These are just a few of the efforts already under way and they are joined,
just as significantly, by a chorus of prayer from the coalfields of southern
West Virginia to our Northern Panhandle and everywhere in between.
We are a state built on the hard work of men and women like Thomas P.
Anderson, Alva Martin Bennett, Jim Bennett, Jerry Groves, George Hamner Jr.,
Terry Helms, Jesse L. Jones, David Lewis, Martin Toler, Fred Ware Jr., Jack
Weaver, Marshall Winans, and Randal McCloy Jr.. Our miners have lived with
dangers many can't even imagine: falls, explosions, fires, gases, black-lung
disease. They deserve our respect and the respect of the rest of the world.
They also deserve our every effort to keep them as safe as we can. May this
tragedy strengthen America's resolve to ensure the safety and well-being of
our miners who, through their united daily work, help keep our country
strong.
We should leave no stone unturned in our efforts to learn the cause of this
tragedy. I am calling on Congress to more vigorously exercise its oversight
of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. The long list of citations
issued by MSHA against Sago Mine has been well publicized and how these
violations were addressed and whether MSHA followed up to ensure that those
violations were being remedied are questions that beg scrutiny. And I will
continue my work to bring the latest technology to our deepest mine pits.
Technology has increased coal production and these same technologies can and
should advance the protection of our miners.
The road to healing from this tragedy will be a long and hard one for all of
West Virginia. Let us honor the memory of these fine men by coming together
as a Nation, as we have in face of past hardships, to ensure a tragedy like
this never happens again.
Again, may God be with us all.
