Althouse: "We're still hoping for that miracle."

January 3, 2006

"We're still hoping for that miracle."

Say a prayer for the miners.

13 comments:

J. Cricket said...: The miracle would be if conservatives saw the hypocrisy in rushing to pray for those who are victims of mine-safety laws that have been weakened by the Bush Administration.

Conservatives don't give a damn about mine safety! They whine that "big govenment" is getting in the way of "progress." But they are the first to engage in a very public acts of prayer for those who are the victims of their folly.

How comforting.; 1/3/06, 9:03 AM
Palladian said...: AS- Oh shut up.

Being a miner is one of the world's most dangerous jobs. I hope these people get out of that hell safely.; 1/3/06, 9:31 AM
vbspurs said...: Conservatives don't give a damn about mine safety!

Don't tell me what I care about, you sanctimonious little putz.

I can't believe you would take this thread about praying for the safe return of miners in distress, into a razor-cutting attack on political rivals.

And before I go the same way, I'll shut up.

God help those men down there.

I know, all will turn out all right at the end of the day.

Cheers,
Victoria; 1/3/06, 1:16 PM
Eli Blake said...: Three years ago, the prayers were answered with a miracle that I watched live on TV when nine men were brought out of a Pennsylvania mine.

As for what Anti-Sheck said, this isn't the appropriate place to say it, but what he said is true, and it is true that conservatives like to stick their heads in the ground when stuff like that is brought up. But right now we don't know if that had anything to do with this particular accident, in fact I suspect that laxer mining safety regulations had nothing to do with it since they are saying the explosion was started by lightning.; 1/3/06, 2:23 PM
knox said...: I'll bet all those rocks and carbon monoxide are *conservative* rocks and carboon monoxide, too!

In the meantime, prayers go out to the miners and their families....; 1/3/06, 3:09 PM
Meade said...: NEWS ALERT | 11:59 PM ET
Family Members Say Trapped Miners Are Alive, The Associated Press Reports; 1/3/06, 11:07 PM
vbspurs said...: Meade said...

NEWS ALERT | 11:59 PM ET [...]

11:07 PM

Hmmm, LMeade. ;)

Cheers,
Victoria; 1/3/06, 11:26 PM
amba said...: Twelve of the thirteen are alive and apparently well! One man, Terry Helms, was killed in the explosion.; 1/4/06, 12:35 AM
vbspurs said...: When I went to sleep, Amba, I had heard the same thing. As little as an hour ago, it was being reported only one miner fatality had occured.

I wake up, go get some water, and tune unto CNN.

12 of the 13 miners are found dead, not alive

One survivor, which Gov. Manchin is calling "one miracle", Randall McCloy, is in serious condition.

My deepest condolences, and prayers to the families.

And may we ask people to refrain, if only for a day, from politicising this event...somehow.

Cheers,
Victoria; 1/4/06, 3:09 AM
Eli Blake said...: amba:

An hour ago, I was watching all the people hugging on TV and celebrating.

Now, I am still watching. It turns out that those numbers were reversed, one man (Randall McCloy) is alive (barely-- he was stabilized at a local hospital and is being transported to a local trauma center) and twelve are dead. They are shocked, crying and angry. Really angry. I hear words like, 'betrayed,' and 'lied to.' I am listening to Mr. Hatfield from the mining company explain it. He is saying that an initial communication indicating twelve were alive was false, but it was an internal communication, apparently picked up by someone on the outside monitoring the frequency, and then it spread like lightning via cell phones. Hence the scenes of celebration and the rumors (i.e. that they were all walking out and would be brought to the church) that we heard an hour ago.

This is absolutely gut wrenching to watch. So sad.

Mr. Hatfield is saying that the internal communication to the command center was never meant to become public until/unless it could be confirmed. He is saying that the people in the command center celebrated at what they thought to be good information too but learned before long that it was in error. He is saying there should not be finger pointing at the rescue people because 'these are people who risk their lives to save lives, and there doesn't need to be finger pointing because one of them misspoke.'

Mr. Hatfield: "The employees families, are grief stricken, they've been on this emotional roller coaster, we wish this had not happened. We'd give anything for this not to have happened."

Q: You knew this was wrong information within twenty minutes. Why did you allow these people to celebrate for two to three hours.

Mr. Hatfield: "Who do you tell not to celebrate? I didn't know who was alive, or how many, I only knew that the number alive was somewhere between zero and twelve."

I was only watching on TV, and I went from watching and being excited by what you were watching, to watching this. And I felt like putting my fist through the TV, that is how frustrating and sad this is, just to watch it. It's horrific and shocking. I can imagine how awful the families felt. Apparently there were even fights going on in the church. Some of these people leaving are so angry. Furious.

The company didn't come out and say something like, 'we cannot confirm..' Now the commentator is saying that it is because the company President (Mr. Hatfield) just said he didn't want to say anything, not even a 'we can't confirm...' statement. Hindsight is always 20/20. People saying, 'they're all liars, they're all liars.'

That is the problem with live TV sometimes. It's sort of like 9/11, what you hear is true, isn't.

Gov. Manchin is speaking. He said he was at at the church, and heard people celebrating, and they all said, 'twelve are alive, twelve are alive.' He said he got caught up in the situation with everyone else. Then in 20 min. he heard there was some confusion (question I have: why didn't HE make a 'we can't confirm...' statement). Then he said there was a period of confusion, the rescue squad is doing the best job they can. Then they radioed back and said there were no survivors. Then he had to kick the media out and tell the people there that they were all dead. He is recalling a 1968 incident when he lost his uncle in a mine explosion, he is going through the chain of command, that the company was supposed to brief the families first, then the governor talked to them, they were angry when he talked to them. (something he did right-- kicking out the cameras from that church before talking to them). He is saying, not to point a finger, the rescue teams have done everything they could. He said, he had that dream of a miracle. They found the tram, and knew that twelve people had gotten off, so they had hope. They had training what to do. He is pointing out again that he was with the families, not at the mine site, and when the faulty information came there, the church bells started ringing and he believed the wrong information to be accurate. He hasn't really answered how come he didn't confirm it. After that they were in a rescue mode. He's explaining about the structure of communications and how the miscommunication could have occurred. (earlier TV reports said it was because of a rumor spread on cell phones because someone was listening in on the band that they were communicating on-- if that is the case, it went from one bad transmission or person mis-speaking to cell phones to the crowd to the broadcast media to all over America within minutes). He is explaining his quote that 'miracles do happen.' He said when he first heard it, he was as euphoric as the rest of them, and he said, 'yes, miracles do happen.'
Manchin: "Everything we were led to believe, turned out not to be true." He stayed at the church and talked to the families after the truth came out. He is saying that the families understand the risks in mining, but the hurt you see coming out is the high and the low.

Q: Have you talked to the person who said, 'we have twelve lives saved?'

Manchin: No, I can't imagine what that person... I can't say there was only one, it might have been not hearing things right. It might have been misinterpretation, it might be that one said, 'all twelve are here.' and it was misinterpreted. He is asking people to be compassionate towards the rescue workers.

Sorry this comment is so disjointed, I'm typing it pretty much in real time from the TV. And this is so, very, very sad, especially the way it happened. Maybe I wish I had gone to bed two hours ago (I've been typing this comment on and off for an hour).

Good night.; 1/4/06, 3:11 AM
Eli Blake said...: Victoria:

I guess you feel like I do right now. Sort of like getting kicked in the gut.

God Bless.; 1/4/06, 3:13 AM
vbspurs said...: I guess you feel like I do right now. Sort of like getting kicked in the gut.

It's simply devastating, because of the reversal of fortune from only an hour ago.

I had gone to sleep knowing one thing, only to wake up to another.

If we feel like someone punched us in the gut, I can only imagine what the families are feeling now.

I make a request in my blogpost, Catastrophe, that we not Katrina this event.

The Governor, whose Party affiliation I could care less about, even though I know it, was misinformed, same as the rest.

In the heat of the moment, stuff like this happens.

This isn't the fault of politics. It's the fault of human rumourmongering.

So sad. God bless all affected. :(

Cheers,
Victoria; 1/4/06, 3:35 AM
Meade said...: Devastating. I saw the headline at NYTimes.com just after midnight. I'm sorry I copied and pasted it here.

(Victoria, the time stamp must be Central Time, Madison, WI); 1/4/06, 8:00 AM