Ted and I hopped on the motorcycle last Sunday and rode the nearly three hours to Price, Utah, for a fundraiser for the six miners still trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine and for the families of the three men killed trying to rescue them.
We have always felt welcome and completely at home in Carbon and Emery counties–largely because we share the same politics with most of the people living there. I’ve given many speeches there to community and church groups, and people still swarm Ted when we visit, sharing all these cool memories of when he ran for U.S. Senate and Utah governor. Invariably, someone asks him when he plans to run again!
So I came home from that bittersweet event and wrote my weekly column for City Weekly about it.
Then, two days later, I saw an interesting letter on the Aug. 23 Salt Lake Tribune editorial page. Letter writer Mary O’Brien, who lives in Coal Country, pretty much sees the topic of miners’ hardscrabble personalities through the same prism as I do.
I am taking some heart, however, in recent news stories that have begun to show the families’ anger and resentment toward mine owner Bob Murray and his toadie for big mining business, MSHA’s Richard Stickler. It’s a powerful thing to hear them speak up against Murray’s one-sided version of the past 18 days. I hope they keep the heat on.
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on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 12:39 pm and is filed under All, Politics, Community, Media, Big Utah, Work and Play.
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Ted and I hopped on the motorcycle last Sunday and rode the nearly three hours to Price, Utah, for a fundraiser for the six miners still trapped in the Crandall Canyon Mine and for the families of the three men killed trying to rescue them.
We have always felt welcome and completely at home in Carbon and Emery counties–largely because we share the same politics with most of the people living there. I’ve given many speeches there to community and church groups, and people still swarm Ted when we visit, sharing all these cool memories of when he ran for U.S. Senate and Utah governor. Invariably, someone asks him when he plans to run again!
So I came home from that bittersweet event and wrote my weekly column for City Weekly about it.
Then, two days later, I saw an interesting letter on the Aug. 23 Salt Lake Tribune editorial page. Letter writer Mary O’Brien, who lives in Coal Country, pretty much sees the topic of miners’ hardscrabble personalities through the same prism as I do.
I am taking some heart, however, in recent news stories that have begun to show the families’ anger and resentment toward mine owner Bob Murray and his toadie for big mining business, MSHA’s Richard Stickler. It’s a powerful thing to hear them speak up against Murray’s one-sided version of the past 18 days. I hope they keep the heat on.
This entry was posted
on Friday, August 24th, 2007 at 12:39 pm and is filed under All, Politics, Community, Media, Big Utah, Work and Play.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
August 24th, 2007 at 4:58 pm
It is becoming increasingly clear that Bob Murray is his own worst enemy. His response to everything is simply to state his version of the facts as if that changed reality. (It was an earthquake! I never changed the mining plan! There is no retreat mining going on!) I suspect that at some point Blowtorch Bob is going to lie under oath. Then he is going to find out all that money he gave the Republicans isn’t going to buy him anything when it becomes clear that there are six miners buried in his mine because he put saving money before saving lives.
August 25th, 2007 at 8:41 am
I agree with brucew but want to add that six miners are buried in the mine and three rescuers are buried in cemeteries and countless hearts broken and lives changed forever.
August 25th, 2007 at 8:52 am
The movie `October Sky` comes to mind after reading some of the press about the Utah tragedy. Kids in Coalwood W.Virginia desperate to escape the fate of coal mining..academics,football..anything to get away.
This Bob Murray could have a future as a Utah repub. Redneck,rotund,a congenital liar who cares only for money and frames events for his own purposes…add some xenophobia and he would make a wonderful convert (in Orem anyway).
August 25th, 2007 at 11:15 am
If you looked up “asshat” in the dictionary, there’d be a picture of Bob Murray.
Sorry for the language, but if the shoe fits….
August 25th, 2007 at 9:58 pm
Not all republicans and not all Mormons in Utah County - or any county for that matter - are like Bob Murray.
August 26th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Bob Murray’s campaign to become Utah Businessman of the Year took another setback today. He just laid off three hundred miners at one of his other mines and made clear it was because of Governor Huntsman’s complaints about how Murray had treated the families of the miners still buried in his death trap of a mine. He also complained about the Salt Lake Tribune’s coverage of the mine disaster.
Perhaps he should run for “Petty Tyrant of the Year”. That’s a race he can be competitive in.
August 26th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
brucew - heh heh.
redtazz, I am glad to hear it.
August 26th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Murray and his $$$$ was once the darling of the repugs and now it looks like the rats are jumping ship. Even photo-op Hatch is no where in sight.
August 28th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Holly, not to change the subject but where is your ire at Larry Craig? And he is blaming the Idaho Statesman (of all papers!) for his troubles…..
August 29th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Yeah, I am lostinutah, but I’m really found in Idaho (I’m a native). Thoughts Holly? I can’t stand Larry Craig, he’s a weasel. Now, he’s a caught weasel. Just wondering what the true Utah perspective is.
August 30th, 2007 at 12:58 am
From listening to talk radio around here it appears that “the true Utah perspective” on Larry Craig is to completely miss the point.
Everything from “No Child Left Behind” to the Iraq War has been incompetently managed by the current Republican administration with disastrous results. So they have resorted to passing hate legislation against homosexuals in the hopes that it will distract the electorate.
Doesn’t it seem just a tad ironic that some of the most ardent proponents of the homophobic agenda are not only gay themselves but see no contradiction between their gay bashing agenda and chasing underage teenage boys around the capital and seeking gay sex in public restrooms?
Edmund Burke once said, “Great Empires and little minds go ill together”. Larry Craig needs to go home to Idaho, not because he is gay but because he is a small minded moral coward who is more interested in holding onto power than actually doing something constructive with power. At least that’s my perspective.