When the spit hits the fan…

You have to hand it to Massey Energy; they know how to handle a public relations (PR) nightmare. Okay, the reality is they have no idea, so they have turned to people who are said to be experts in such affairs, a PR firm known as Public Strategies, out of Texas.




First up for Public Strategies was what Massey’s senior executives might say during Sunday’s Memorial Service, held in Beckley, W. VA. This service saw comments by W. VA. Governor Joe Manchin, First Lady Gayle C. Manchin, U. S. Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, Senator Jay Rockefeller, and even Vice President Joe Biden, and President Obama, who are said to be two of the more unpopular people in the Mountain State.



But nary a peep from Massey executives. Funny thing, too. You’d think that if you paid a CEO as well as Massey pays Don Blankenship, this would be the time he’d step forward and earn that money, instead of, as it was reported by the Kansas City Star, sitting in the back of the room.



The day after the Memorial Service, though, the whole Board of Directors got together and held a news conference. And here, they all had something to say. Yes, Don Blankenship, CEO, Stan Suboleski, a mining engineer, and even Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, one time director of the NSA, and now an official in the PR firm, Public Strategies, each took their turn at a podium.



CEO Blankenship left the heavy work to the others. He merely thanked everyone for their help during the disaster, as he declared that Massey’s Board of Directors was “humbled and hurt, and searching for answers." We can only hope that this means more than how to replace the lost production of this mine while it is shut down.



For his part, Mr. Suboleski repeated Massey’s talking points so far, that Upper Big Branch had no more violations than any other mines, no lost-time accidents this year, and furthermore, all those violations aren’t the whole story, etc., and finally, we still don’t know what caused this, so please be patient.



Admiral Inman showed himself to be the PR expert as he blamed the impression that Massey let production trump safety on plaintiff’s lawyers and union leaders. Hopefully we will now all forget Mr. Blankenship’s frequent statements, most made well before the explosion, that seem to show just the opposite.



Despite this PR approach, there are still serious questions here that aren’t being answered. If the air was clean just “tens of minutes” before the explosion, how could such a massive detonation have taken place so quickly? Something is amiss here, and judging from the scope of the disaster, it would seem to be the contention about clean air.



Yes, Admiral Inman contended that Massey is constantly concerning itself with safety. But, according to a statement by UMW spokesman, Phil Smith, who was reacting to what Admiral Inman called “the big lie” (Massey lets production trump safety), “ "The big truth is, 52 people have been killed on Massey property since 2000. No other coal company has had even half that.”



Apparently, Massey has troubles, and they include more than a bad public image. And it will take more than a PR campaign to correct them.

Knee Jerks

You might know that the first words out of the mouths of certain prominent politicians and Massey Energy officials would be a warning against a knee-jerk reaction to the Upper Big Branch Coal disaster.

But what is meant by a “knee-jerk” reaction, anyway?

One example might be a political attack ad that portrays opponents as just biding their time till they can join up with President Obama to wage war on coal. In reality, pretty much all politicians in Kentucky view Big Coal as a wellspring of cash.

Or it could be decrying any opponent of Mountaintop Removal (MTR) as an outsider who wants only to destroy “our” way of life. Again, the reality is that almost all those opposed to MTR are local citizens. In other words, they live here and work here, too.

Well, there is all that evidence that purports to show that production trumped safety with Massey officials. Wouldn’t you know that all those violations allegedly committed by those in charge of Upper Big Branch would speak louder than Don Blankenship’s protests that, on average, this mine got fewer citations than the industry as a whole.

Mr. Blankenship is the highest paid CEO in the coal industry, and in this situation, he will have to earn that commission. So far, that effort consists of warning against knee-jerk reactions, and of reminding everyone that we still don’t know what caused this catastrophe.

He didn’t need to add the word “officially”, did he? Because, as one mining official put it last week (paraphrased), you don’t need to be an expert to know how this happened.

To get to the gist of that, we have to go back to the most serious of the violations that were allegedly committed at Upper Big Branch. They invariably involved failure to ventilate the mine properly, and leaving coal dust uncontrolled. Ventilation should keep methane to less than 1% concentration. Between 5-15% it will explode, as will coal dust that is allowed to accumulate.

If you take everything Mr. Blankenship has said about production over the course of his career at Massey, you might be tempted to jump to conclusions. You might ask yourself why he was seemingly so willing to roll the dice when he must have known how deadly the consequences could be if something went wrong and resulted in a worst-case scenario.

Perhaps, like those who drink and drive, he thought that nothing like this could ever happen. Take Larry Mahoney, the man behind the Carrolton bus crash. God only knows how many times he drove drunk without hurting anything but his own reputation. His last DUI, though, was a worst-case scenario eerily similar to the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine in one respect: It cost 28 innocent people their lives.

Sometimes those who are responsible for the tragic consequences of their own inaction are required to do more than engage in spin. Arthur Davis allegedly drove a semi he knew to have bad brakes. In arguing for an indictment on two counts of manslaughter, prosecutors maintained he should have known his actions would prove deadly.

Could Massey officials see similar indictments in the wake of this tragic event? That shouldn’t be ruled out if the investigation finds that they were at fault.

The Case of Gatewood and the Missing Pig

You might want to watch who reads this, not because it has anything really bad in it, but because of the subject. It might require some thoughtful explanation to younger readers.

This story took place in 1991, at a campaign rally for Gatewood Galbreath. Gatewood, if you will recall, was a stoner candidate for any office he could file for in Kentucky. He started out, though, by reaching for the highest office in the state, Governor. (Pun is intentional) His first try came in 1987, I think, and he made no effort to hide the fact that he was a user of the "weed”. During his first campaign, for instance, he was followed from downtown Lex to the airport by some reporters for the Lexington Herald Leader, and was photographed passing around a "funny cigarette".

In 1991, around the end of the spring semester at U K, my senior year, Gatewood was again trying for Governor, and had set up a fundraiser/smoke-in at the Natural Bridge State park just south of Lex. The purpose was to get a bunch of stoners together for an all-night concert, openly break the law against possession and use of pot, etc, and hopefully raise some campaign cash.

I was a political science major, and when word got out, a few of us decided to go 'round and see what took place. It was pretty much what you'd expect, sort of a Kentucky version of Woodstock, with a lot of haze around the event, and that was more than just the smoke coming out of the cars parked all around. Lots of the occupants of the cars had a hazy look about them, as well.

Gatewood was there, looking as happy as a stoner can, who may have taken too much of his favorite self-prescribed medicine, and was engaged in talking to anybody who approached him, blissfully ignorant of the events that would transpire that night.

In the meantime, a pig, sort of an honored guest, I suppose, was busy cooking in a pit bar-b-que, and was to be the main course at a dinner scheduled for the next day at around noon. Well, you know the thing about munchies, and at around three in the morning, the smell of that by-now cooked-well-enough pork got to be too much for all the hungry partiers. A few crafty individuals came up with lots of paper plates, and spoons, and something to parcel out hunks of hot pig flesh, and believe you me, there was no shortage of takers.

In short, by the time morning rolled around, there was nothing left of that day's main course but some bones, and a faint aroma of bar-b-que. Oh, and a lot of happy, well-fed aficionados of Mary Jane.

Funny thing, Gatewood's people failed to see the humor in the situation. The next morning, as the events of the previous night came to light, they went around all the cars demanding an explanation for this outrage. All they got in response was loud, rude laughter, and implausible suggestions as to what they could do with their investigation.

Imagine, if you will, their consternation. This cause celebre was lost. Not only was there no pig dinner that Saturday, they didn’t get much money, either. Most of the attendees needed what little cash they had for their favorite girl, Mary.

As for me and my friends, we literally rolled on the ground as we watched Gatewood’s people trying to piece together the puzzle of the missing pork bar-b-que. In fact, we laughed for at least a week, every time we thought about it. I still get a chuckle out of this, lo these many years later.

At least we now know one reason why poor Gatewood could never get hisself elected to any political office: This details all to clearly what many have long suspected, Gatewood ain’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Thoughts expressed in a post on facebook.

The following is from a U/I friend of mine on facebook, UI because I mean to protect his privacy. What follows are my thoughts on the matter expressed in the first post.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75JDqWzkN9U&t=3s
If every person on our blue Earth watched this video, the world would be a much better place. At least for a few minutes. Listen closely to Carl Sagan's words till the end. It won't fail to get you teary.-JD

Brings out another topic: This morning, I heard reactions from some of our astronauts to Pres. Obama's plan for NASA. I won't bother going into any detail, but I started wondering just where we'd go if we could leave this planet.

Venus is out. Battery acid rain and 900 degrees plus temperatures in an atmosphere that has as much pressure as the ocean at the bottom of the Mariana trench just isn't conducive to our form of life.

Mars isn't much better. Atmosphere too thin for a deep breath, and no water, and no food, unless you are a big red rock eater. (What's big and red and eats rocks? A big red rock eater!) How much fun this planet would have been if it were like Ray Bradbury's descriptions in The Martian Chronicles. Instead, it is a cold, dead planet. It's core is not molten, it's plate tectonics are stopped, ergo the lack of a magnetic field such as the one that surrounds the Earth and shields us from deadly cosmic radiation. Mars has no such protection. Life for us here is impossible. Planet can't be terraformed, either.

No, it looks like this is it. This planet is our home, such as it is, and it is all we are likely to ever see. No other planet in this solar system is habitable. And the closest star from our own, the sun, is Proxima Centauri, a mere 4.2 light years away. BTW, that distance translates to the distance light will have traveled in 4.2 years, and light's speed is a blazing 186,000 miles in a single second. And there are 31,536,000 seconds in a year, times 4.2 would give you 132,451,200 seconds, and multiply that by 186,000 is 24,635,923,200 miles. Yes, that's over 24 and one half BILLION miles. That, as Bugs once said, ain't just around the corner.

Now I know we all have our pet theories as to how the planet was formed and what its ultimate demise will be, but we should all realize that until that fate is realized, we gotta call this wonderfully small, but indescribably complex world home. That means that we have to accept that the world was here before we got here, and it may have to, and should be able to sustain life for many, many years to come. But only if we begin to accept that nothing on this planet was put here so that a mere handful of its denizens can enrich themselves at the expense of both the planet and the majority of the life forms that inhabit it. Otherwise, we may find out what happens when one of those mass extinctions hits the earth, as we and most of the other life forms are killed off, largely by our own hand.

State of the (Hillbilly) Union

A quick look at the calendar tells me that it is now the third week of April, and that signals the start of one of nature’s great migrations. Yes, as the swallows return to San Juan Capistrano, California, and the buzzards to Hinckley, Ohio, so too, do hillbillies, both great and small, genuine and honorary, return each year to Pikeville, for the great celebration known far and wide as Hillbilly Days.

You might say that all roads lead to Pikeville. That would be true if a portion of U S 23 between the Shelby Bridge and the Shelby Food City hadn’t been washed out by a water line break. I assume the locals have a favorite detour by this point. Others coming in to the gala from the south, however. will have to fend for themselves. (Better get out the GPS, Ma!)

When you get to Pikeville, you will notice a great hole in what was once “downtown”. This is not unlike the great hole in the hearts of a lot of the area’s citizens created by a group who want to build a white elephant on what was once a vibrant and historic block in the Big City.

Yes, we are told we are responsible because we did not show up for some hearings, but we are smart enough to know that these hearings are for show, and no matter what is said at them, the powers-that-be will proceed with whatever they’d had in mind, anyway. We hope that you had a chance to say good-bye to this block during last year’s Hillbilly Days

Not all is well elsewhere in the Hillbilly Nation. All of us are still in shock because of the tragedy that took place at the Upper Big Branch Mine in Montcoal, West Virginia where 29 miners lost their lives in a horrific explosion. To paraphrase the poet, John Donne, every man’s death diminishes us, but here, where mining is a way of life, the great number of deaths at this mine, so unexpected, and so needless, have practically left the area paralyzed.

Many of us had thought that these sort of “accidents” were a thing of the past. Let us pray, both for the families involved, and for those who run the mines, and let us hope that whatever led to this disaster can be avoided in the future.

In the meantime, we soldier on. There are children at the Shiner’s Hospital who need our help. So we do what we must. We can do no less. “Shady” Grady Kinney and “Dirty Ear” Howard Stratton would expect no less from us. In fact, if we shirked our responsibility, there are those of us who would expect that “Shady” Grady Kinney would come up out of his grave and come after us. And we would deserve it.

So, for this wonderful week that promises the best of weather, let us all show up in the Big City of Pikeville. We can all meet our old friends from Hillbilly Days past. We can reminisce about old times, and anticipate Hillbilly Days to come.

Oh, yeah, We can also help celebrate the State Championship that the Shelby Valley Wildcats brought back to Pike County. If you see a Valley Cat, high five him for me!

Is it hemp, or marijuana?

There is none so blind as he who will not see. Anonymous

Recent stories about the drug problem in our area make it only too obvious that its most troublesome aspects involve prescription drugs. Funny, isn’t it, that the most harmful drugs are the addictive pain pills produced by the big pharmaceutical companies?

Cigarette manufacturers do the same thing; produce a highly addictive product, I mean. They are so good that two or three cigarettes are enough to hook you. Like the big pharmaceuticals, they, too, make a lot of money from their product.

These two have one other thing in common; the use of one can lead to misuse of the other. Cigarettes are the epitome of the so-called gateway drug. Once children learn to smoke, it is usually only a matter of time till they move on to illegal drugs.

Those responsible for helping the country overcome the difficulties presented by illegal drug use sometimes misunderstand the situation. Take our own Member of Congress, Hal Rogers. Like the federal government, Mr. Rogers seems to think that hemp is a “derivative of marijuana”.

In answer to a letter I sent, wherein I ask Mr. Rogers to consider co-sponsoring H R 1866, a proposed amendment to The Controlled Substances Act that would exclude hemp from the definition of marijuana, Mr. Rogers not only declined, he wrote “…I disagree with (attempts to) legitimize growing or using marijuana or its derivatives.”

He then went on in some detail about how “legalizing any aspect of marijuana” would “lead to more…trafficking…harming…(our) communities.” He concluded by saying that we are better off by “fighting the scourge of drugs” than “asserting the…benefits of…product derivatives.”

I tried to allay the Congressman’s concerns by pointing out hemp’s low levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) , which simply means “not a buzz in a carload”, or that its production would stymie a pot farmers aims, as it easily pollinates a pot plant, thus rendering the pot worth less, if not worthless, but to what avail, I don’t know, as he has not answered that e-mail.

Funny thing, the Congressman’s concerns didn’t stop him from supporting tobacco. You know, that highly addictive product that I spoke of earlier? It kills some 440,000 Americans each year, in ways that cost the medical system lots of money. You know, emphysema or lung cancer or throat cancer or oral cancers or heart disease can be expensive.

Makes you wonder why Congressman Rogers voted against healthcare reform. Of course, he also opposed the federal government’s lawsuit against tobacco, and was listed as an ally by Philip Morris in 1999. Perhaps that is why he felt comfortable taking $42,700 from tobacco Political Action Committees over several years.

It’s sad that the Congressman has so many misguided ideas about hemp when they are so easily disproved. A visit to http://current.com/green/92348771_americas-hemp-warrior-alex-white-plume.htm would do the Congressman a world of good. This site has a portion of the documentary "Standing Silent Nation" , which clearly explains why hemp is not pot, and details the many uses hemp has, also.

More importantly, Congressman Rogers might find out how profitable this crop could be for Kentucky farmers: Hemp would be ideal as a replacement for tobacco. Perhaps then, the Congressman could admit that he is mistaken about hemp.