Tragedy and Lies
TRAGEDY: Of course just about everyone who keeps up with the news is probably aware of the tragedy that has happened in West Virginia. 12 of the 13 miners are dead.....the lone survivor is in critical condition. I know after the mining incident in Pennsylvania a couple years ago, people were optimistic that most or all would be found alive, and rightly so. I know if it was my family trapped in a mine, I would try to think positive and only hope for the best. Unfortunately, there is an entire town and families torn apart with the deaths of these 12 individuals. I think most Americans were pulling for these people, hoping they would be found maybe tired and cold but alive. My heart goes out to the families that lost their loved ones in the mine.
This leads to my other point, why hasn't mining gotten any safer? Sure there are probably less fatalities today then there were say 50 years ago but that doesn't mean that improvements couldn't be made to insure the safety of people risking their lives for a paycheck. Miners are most of the time overworked and underpaid. They literally risk everything when they go to work each day to support their families. People shouldn't be dying in mines for any reason......not for fuel and not for metal. It's just not right. Especially when there are alternatives to coal and other heating materials.
LIES: Now this is a bit of local news. A long time columnist at the Baltimore Sun, Micheal Olesker, has resigned amid allegations of plagiarism. He's been with the Sun for nearly 30 years and is also a commentator on one of the local news programs. It was found that he had plagiarized a paragraph in a column he wrote on December 24. A writer from the free local Baltimore City Paper noticed something weird about a retraction that appeared did some research and found that he had plagiarized many times before. This writer tokk his finding to the editor of the Sun and the Sun began an investigation of their own. They had started looking through some of his previous work and before they could really get anything, Michael Olesker resigned. I think they'll probably still continue to investigate but his career is pretty much over.
It doesn't stop there though....The Baltimore Sun has filed a lawsuit against Governor Bob Ehrlich citing that he violated the first amendment. This goes back to when the governor banned state executive branch employees from speaking to either columnist. There is a lot of bad blood between the governor and the Sun so we'll see if the recent allegations will affect the lawsuit. Should be interesting to see how things play out. Of course the governor's office is using this to their advantage. They are saying things like what else has he "written" and how much of it is true, etc. etc. I can understand that but I know the Ehrlich administration is going to use this to the full advantage. I can only hope that it is resolved and the truth comes out not just concerning the accusations of plagiarism but that the governor has violated the first amendment.
You know though I don't remember ever hearing about this before now. I don't remember hearing anything about a lawsuit or anything like that. Very weird. Ehrlich is a shady character to begin with and a lot of people voted for him because they wanted no part of the previous administration in office. Parris Glendening was also shady but he was a democrat whereas Ehrlich is a republican. Glendening had a scandal concerning his private life and also some misappropriations of funds. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend seemed alright to me though. I still don't know why people didn't vote for her. I did but thats me.
Tangent: There are some interesting things taking place at home and elsewhere. There have been mudslides and I just read about a suicide bombing. Crazy stuff going on. I guess my hope for a peaceful year is going down the tubes. I wish I could get into the mind of a suicide bomber and try to understand the logic behind killing themselves and others. it doesn't make sense to me but I guess thats the difference between a killer and regular people. There is a movie out called Paradise Now that is about suicide bombers but a lot of people didn't want it shown here in the U.S. so I don't know when I'll be able to see it. It should prove to be an interesting movie...maybe it'll give some insight as to what is going through their minds when they decided to end their lives and the lives of others in the name of religion. Religious Wars is another hot topic with me and I'll save that for another post. For now I think I've written enough.
This leads to my other point, why hasn't mining gotten any safer? Sure there are probably less fatalities today then there were say 50 years ago but that doesn't mean that improvements couldn't be made to insure the safety of people risking their lives for a paycheck. Miners are most of the time overworked and underpaid. They literally risk everything when they go to work each day to support their families. People shouldn't be dying in mines for any reason......not for fuel and not for metal. It's just not right. Especially when there are alternatives to coal and other heating materials.
LIES: Now this is a bit of local news. A long time columnist at the Baltimore Sun, Micheal Olesker, has resigned amid allegations of plagiarism. He's been with the Sun for nearly 30 years and is also a commentator on one of the local news programs. It was found that he had plagiarized a paragraph in a column he wrote on December 24. A writer from the free local Baltimore City Paper noticed something weird about a retraction that appeared did some research and found that he had plagiarized many times before. This writer tokk his finding to the editor of the Sun and the Sun began an investigation of their own. They had started looking through some of his previous work and before they could really get anything, Michael Olesker resigned. I think they'll probably still continue to investigate but his career is pretty much over.
It doesn't stop there though....The Baltimore Sun has filed a lawsuit against Governor Bob Ehrlich citing that he violated the first amendment. This goes back to when the governor banned state executive branch employees from speaking to either columnist. There is a lot of bad blood between the governor and the Sun so we'll see if the recent allegations will affect the lawsuit. Should be interesting to see how things play out. Of course the governor's office is using this to their advantage. They are saying things like what else has he "written" and how much of it is true, etc. etc. I can understand that but I know the Ehrlich administration is going to use this to the full advantage. I can only hope that it is resolved and the truth comes out not just concerning the accusations of plagiarism but that the governor has violated the first amendment.
You know though I don't remember ever hearing about this before now. I don't remember hearing anything about a lawsuit or anything like that. Very weird. Ehrlich is a shady character to begin with and a lot of people voted for him because they wanted no part of the previous administration in office. Parris Glendening was also shady but he was a democrat whereas Ehrlich is a republican. Glendening had a scandal concerning his private life and also some misappropriations of funds. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend seemed alright to me though. I still don't know why people didn't vote for her. I did but thats me.
Tangent: There are some interesting things taking place at home and elsewhere. There have been mudslides and I just read about a suicide bombing. Crazy stuff going on. I guess my hope for a peaceful year is going down the tubes. I wish I could get into the mind of a suicide bomber and try to understand the logic behind killing themselves and others. it doesn't make sense to me but I guess thats the difference between a killer and regular people. There is a movie out called Paradise Now that is about suicide bombers but a lot of people didn't want it shown here in the U.S. so I don't know when I'll be able to see it. It should prove to be an interesting movie...maybe it'll give some insight as to what is going through their minds when they decided to end their lives and the lives of others in the name of religion. Religious Wars is another hot topic with me and I'll save that for another post. For now I think I've written enough.
posted by Kyleen at 5:15 AM
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