There’s been a lot of big news this week: Karl Rove and the Chamber of Commerce, trying to buy an election; lifting of the moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling; a federal judge shutting down Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.
Is that what the media’s focused on? Oh, no. Instead, everybody’s talking about the rescue of 33 coal miners in Chile.
And no wonder. What a wonderful, heart-warming, feel-good story.
It really is incredible, seeing these brave men brought to the surface, one at a time, after 70 days trapped underground with little to eat or drink and barely enough oxygen to breathe. The fact that mine operators could locate them, get supplies to them, keep their spirits up for two months, while drilling and creating special equipment to rescue them, is a miracle of modern engineering and can-do spirit.
And one other thing. After seeing 11 men killed in the explosion of BP’s Deepwater Horizon platform. And agonizing over the deaths of 29 men in our own Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, it’s nice to finally see a story about a workplace disaster with a happy ending.
And it reminds us how far we still have to go to keep our own miners safe.
That’s my parting shot for today.
