This weekend, West Virginia University played Marshall in the first annual "Friends of Coal" Bowl in Morgantown. WVU predictibly whooped Marshall, but for me, the game was marred by the near-constant pro-coal industry sales pitch by the announcers, commercials, and "special guests" in the booth. Former Marshall coach Bob Pruett and former WVU coach Don Nehlen, both on the pro-industry lobby group's payroll as spokespeople, told about all the glories of the coal industry and the massive force of good it is for our humble state.
Let me say that my family have been heavily involved in coal mining going back several generations. Coal
miners are not the problem. In fact, my grandfathers on both sides and my great-grandfather on my dad's side were all miners. My dad was a federal mine inspector for 35+ years. My dad and mom do not share my views on mining, and point out, rightly, that money from mining and, in my case, inspecting mines, put me through college and gave us a nice place to live. This is true.
Several thousand people in WV make a damn good living by being coal miners, with salaries averaging around $65,000, well above the norm in the state. The "Friends of Coal" group makes much hay about how many jobs in WV mining produces. They act as if the whole state would collapse should mining go away, or god forbid, be regulated and properly taxed.
But just how many miners are actually working in WV? 16,455 miners. That's it. That means that coal mining employs 0.9% of the state's population. (My numbers come from the 2002 Census, if you're wondering.)
Do you know what Don Blankenship, CEO of WV's biggest coal company, Massey Energy, made in 2003? $6,105,714 (according to salary.com). That's
per year.
McDowell county, which has produced more coal than any other county in the state, has a per capita income of $17,622 (as of 2005). That means it would take the average citizen of McDowell county 347 years to make what Dandy Don makes in a single year. In fact, Don makes
in a single day about what our average Joe in Welch takes a whole year to earn. If he has a job, that is. The unemployment rate in McDowell county is 8.6%. Ouch. Seen in that light, coal doesn't look so good for McDowell county, after all.
Coal (and more recently, timber) have made up the lion's share of West Virginia's industrial base since the state broke away from VA during the Civil War. Through all those years, coal has been the engine that drove West Virginia's economy. It's given thousands upon thousands of workers jobs throughout those years (and it gave a lot of them black lung, too, but we'll ignore that for now). I won't dispute that. So what has been the end result of all those great years of mining? Surely, such a fantastic industry would have turned West Virginia into one of the richest, most progressive places in the nation, right? Wrong.
After 150 years of coal mining, WV is
50th in Median Income: $24,880
Number 8 in amount of persons below poverty level: 16.7%
3rd in unemployment: 7.5%
50th in persons 25 or older with a bachelor's degree: 15.3%
40th in teacher's salaries: $38,461
5th in infant mortality: 9.1/1000 births
No matter how you slice it, that sucks. My point is that for all the snowjobs put forth by
ex-football coaches and bass pros, the hard facts are that WV has never done all that well under the coal regime, even in the best of times--the '50s--when coal companies still actually employed people to mine coal instead of giant mechanical draglines.
And speaking of
giant, mechanical draglines, those monstrosities gouge out huge chunks of the Appalachian skyline day after day, enriching guys like Blankenship and other out-of-state corporations (Massey, for example, is located in Richmond, VA--well away from the horrors it inflicts on our mountainsides.)
On Saturday, FOC spokesman Nehlen said to the announcer "Some people don't like us because we sometimes
make a little bit of a mess." Count me as some people Don. WV is a great place. I just hope that the people living there wake up to the fact that "coal = jobs" is a myth before it's too late and they are living on a landscape that looks more like the moon than the lush paradise they grew up with.
This is a toy that will not be in our house anytime soon. I wonder if it comes with two screeners that alternate between talking to each other about what color to paint their nails and screaming at grandmas to take their orthopedic shoes off?
Boo Boo and I made a bird house this weekend, which was exciting and fun for both of us. Mommy got time off for good behavior this weekend. :-)
It's finally here! The Radio Free Charleston documentary on the Feast of Stephen reunion is now live and on the Web! Special thanks to Rudy Panucci, the brains behind RFC; Jerry Fugate, our intrepid cameraman and great friend; Brian Young, who ran the mixing board; and especially the other guys in the band: Tommy, Rad, Dan, Bob, and Fred, you guys are my musical brothers forever!
Surf, don't walk, over to Radio Free Charleston right now to watch this great show. You can see out-takes from the rehearsal the night before (which include our biggest hit, "Gomec") on the Feast of Stephen Website (look to the left-hand side of the screen under the band info). And Rudy gives the background on the show on his Myspace blog. 
Well, the band (My Life on Hold...or MyLOH, for short) is really coming together. We've recorded four demos that we're using to (we hope) get some gigs around town...stay tuned on that front. 
I hate to be a sore winner but...oh what the hell....
Long overdue posting this photo, but I just got around to downloading photos from my fabulous trip to Chicago in October. 
So I was in Lowe's in Bowie Md yesterday buying a new showerhead for our downstairs bathroom. I had on standard November weekend attire, which for me is a boggin, flannel shirt, blue jeans (modern stylish ones that Jenny bought me), Vans, and my Carhardtt black jacket. Also I was unshaven and suitibly scruffy. 
According to this article in today's Washington Post, a plane from Britain to Dulles was diverted to Logan Intl. in Boston due to a claustrophobic woman going a tad nutso in the cabin. 
Some would argue that we scored a major victory in the battle against terrorism yesterday when British authorities arrested a score of home-grown religious wackos bend on blowing up airplanes. And in the short term, we did. Undoubtedly, lives have been saved by good police work and diplomatic work between UK and Pakistani government intelligence agencies. My kudos go out to all officers involved in breaking up this admittedly nefarious plot. 
Sorry for not posting in a while, we were away for a few days on vacation in WV, and I'm still catching up on work and stuff. 
If you've ever been to downtown San Francisco, you might have noticed a Chinese-American man in sunglasses and a suit ambling down the sidewalk with a protest sign reading "Impeach Clinton 12 Galaxies Conspiracy Mind Altering" or some other seemingly random statement. 
I'm in the midst of reading Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick (very gripping, btw), and it's gotten me interested in my own colonial family history. 
Whoa. I DID NOT see that one coming. I don't think anyone did. Honestly, I was actually holding my nose and rooting for France in the final (the lesser of two evils, I guess, and I didn't want another Euro team to have more than three Cup titles). I thought the game was well played with substantially less Italiodiving than previous matches, and Zidane looked particularly good for the French side. 
Well, both my teams are now officially out of the World Cup. The U.S. I kind of figured would bow out early, but the Spaniards, well, I had high hopes this time. They always choke in the WC, though, so my hopes weren't all that high. 
For the last week and a half, I have been all-soccer, all the time. The World Cup is in full swing, and for the Italian team that means swinging elbows, as U.S. forward Brian McBride's face can attest. 
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