Readers express sympathy to Sago miners' families

Sammie Wade, Florida

            It is hard to know what to say. I will think. I prayed for them, as did millions of other people, and I feel a personal grief that they are lost. The mines really are the beating heart of West Virginia. Without mines most of us would never have come to West Virginia. Even if we never worked in the mines, we are connected, blood and sinew, to them. The people who do the dangerous work of the Sago miners do it for all of us. I guess the only thing we can do for the miners is to remember their families.

 Builder Levy, New York City

Coal miners are among America's unsung heroes!

What began in 1968 as a ten-day trip became fourteen years of visiting and photographing in coal mines, miners’ homes, and communities in the hills and hollers of West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. I was attracted by a rich cultural heritage that included the rejection of British colonial rule, support of abolitionism,  and the collective struggle of coal miners since the late nineteenth century to make life better for themselves, their families, and the American working people.  With the help and encouragement, in 2002, of a commission from the Appalachian College Association, followed by an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship in 2004, I have begun to revisit the Appalachian coalfields. I have been looking at mountaintop removal mining, slurry impoundments, and other coal industry practices and developments to see how they are affecting the communities in the surrounding valleys and hollows. My primary focus continues to center on the lives of the people and their enduring humanity, but now more than ever on their mountains, whose fate affects them so intrinsically. 

Larry Gibson, Kayford Property, Cabin Creek, West Virginia

I am from a family of miners.  The price the miners pay is too high.  If they don’t die from black lung, they die from cave ins or explosions.  The price is too high to sacrifice our family and friends in the quest for energy when there are alternative methods.

Nelson Tinnel, Muddlety Valley Road, Summersville, West Virginia

    “The Working Man” The Backbone of The Country.  1/9/06

Brian S. Clendenin, Craigsville, West Virginia

            We are human by nature and coal miners by trade,
            We are proud of our heritage
            We are brothers
            We are West Virginians.
  Miner Operator, Brian S. Clendenin

    Craigsville, West Virginia 

Helena Edwards, Coalville, Leicestershire, England

   It is no consolation, but I just wanted you to know I shed tears this morning for the poor families whose hopes were raised and then tragically destroyed this morning. Mining communities across the world are thinking of you and sorrowing with you.

            I live in Leicestershire England, Coalville in the north west of the county was centre of our local mining communities but the pits all closed in the eighties, with huge consequences for the people. Slowly things improved, investment and jobs arrived. Now the area is site of a new National Forest project. Natural beauty arisen from destruction.

            The legacy of those who labored and lost their lives in mines will never be forgotten, it lives on in the spirit of their communities. with deepest sympathy           Helena Edwards

 Josephine Zando and Mary White, War, McDowell County, West Virginia

  My sincere sympathy goes out to all the families of the Sago miners.

 Jane M. Martin, BA, CRT

Author of Breathe Better, Live in Wellness

 A Message to Miners and their Families,
The Sago Mine Disaster will, no doubt, take its place as a major event in the history of Appalachia. As time goes by the memory of events, even those of this magnitude, unfortunately, tend to fade.  But, you can be certain that the heartbreak and loss felt at the Sago Mine will never be forgotten.

With a heart for the Appalachian people, especially coal miners, author Betty Dotson-Lewis has lovingly taken oral histories and preserved them by putting these accounts down on paper – in an everlasting form. As writers, our task is to keep stories alive, not allowing the world to overlook things vitally important, so hopefully, tragedies such as this will never happen again.

The toil and loss suffered at the Sago Mine will never be forgotten as long as there is the written word. Share your lives in order to inform and inspire the world.  Tell your stories. Never stop telling them… and we will never forget.