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As I have stated previously, I do not watch or read the news. I have some experience with that media, and I find it repulsive. But the free-web throws things at you. This recent mining tragedy is a prime example. I did not need to know a single thing to guess, some bunch of fat white crackers in bad suits were responsible.

In my own experience the usual rationalization is updating safety costs money. If workers want safer conditions on the job, then the work force suffers in other ways – lay offs & lower wages, less benefits. Typical shit that happened in 1910, still happens. Me ranting will not bring back 25 good people. But somebody somewhere has to address why this is allowed to occur in the United States here in the 21st Century.

One summer – yeah, OK it was only a short term job- I worked at an industrial paint factory. The week before I was hired as a general laborer, the plant foreman was injured in a mixing unit accident. This turned out to be lucky for me. Once he returned, he quickly decided I wasn’t his kind of guy. By then 8 weeks had gone by and I was about to quit to return to college. It worked out for me -if you don’t count the word worked.

While I was there, I had become ill several times from fumes – something I’m still vulnerable to years later. I also had to report another guy who was smoking on the loading dock, ironically standing a few feet away from a sign which stated No Smoking. This was pre-PC no smoking as a concern for others lungs. This was about blowing the fucking place sky high. I love being a rat -really helps with co-workers. They prefer being vaporized to squealing. Machismo is big among morons.

It was no shock there would be dumb asses and dangerous work at a place with  highly flammable materials. It is another thing to predict less than salubrious conditions while say, being a radio deejay. One day while in the middle of my 4 hour show, the new owners sent in a guy to rebuild the production studio which was immediately adjacent to the air studio.* Just an open doorway. The banging & sawing was one thing -yeah, what can I say. But when he got around to the painting – see, common thread here, the fumes were getting me sick & I still had half a show to do. I was also high but not in a fun way. Those aholes didn’t give one good shit about me. It led to immediate resentment on my part. Believe me, they did not care  and had I asked them to do the work when there was no one there, no doubt I’d have been marked as a problem. That soon was the case. Why didn’t I file an OSHA** grievance? I didn’t want to be blackballed from any other stations who might hire me.

The point is, these are the same types who run mines. You need a job -you shut up and take it. Or somebody else will. I stuck it out but finally quit; we just didn’t agree on, well, everything. But in areas such as Montcoal, West Virginia, those people have families and debts. They are dependent on the mines, they have to put up with it. They also work harder than I can imagine, for giant creeps. Why are these people abused so readily by ownership who violate regulations. Because fat white fucks run this world. Somebody, somewhere, someday, with balls needs to take those suits down. Or 2010 will always be like 1910, in places like Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine.

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* This was pre computer show programming, which could’ve done a no-human show. Which btw, computers were installed a month later.

**  Occupational Safety and Health Administration