simple action saturday : “it wasn’t bad”

The missing four miners in the Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia were found dead yesterday.

I remember the Sago mine disaster of 2006 for this reason, this note, scrawled on the back of an insurance form in the dark death chamber he knew would claim him, that would take him from those above ground who were anguished at his sudden missing.

And what did he choose to do in that space between life and death, between breathing and not, in that claustrophobic darkness? He chose to reassure those who would mourn him, those he loved, those in anguish. He chose to reassure them, given them this scrap of paper to hold on to.

"Tell all I see them on the other side. It wasn’t bad. I just went to sleep. I love you Jr.” And with those poignant words, mine foreman Martin Toler, Jr. went to sleep forever, along with 11 other coal miners in Sago, West Virginia, in 2006.

"It wasn't bad." Not "It won't be bad," but "it wasn't bad."

May the men in last week's mine disaster rest in peace. To them, my fervent hope that it wasn't bad. May their families find some peace, sometime, somehow. And may Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy, never find peace until he does something about the egregious safety violations at the mines that pay his salary. He is on Twitter at @donblankenship should you wish to encourage him to do so.

What is a fitting tribute to these dead miners? Encouraging reform in the coal industry. More importantly, asking ourselves how we can reduce our reliance on coal. Realizing that we must be willing to pay for precaution for each other, as Kathryn Ruth Schuth suggested to me on Facebook. Realizing that cheap energy prices–or cheap toy prices–mean that someone is likely being exploited to create that very thing for us.

And, as Jim Crawford suggested also on Facebook: