Do What You Love

Drive down any road in West Virginia and you’ll be hard pressed not to see a “Friends of Coal” sticker on a bumper or window. I usually see two to three per day. My personal favorite is the obnoxious full silhouette of a coal miner crawling which spans the whole length of the rear window and is normally found on trucks; at least in my experience. The question is, what does it mean to be a friend of coal? Is that the same thing as saying a person is coal-friendly? Does it really mean support your local sedimentary rock?

Coal is big business for West Virginia. According to an estimate by the West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health, the coal industry provides 30,000 jobs. It also generates half of the electricity used in the United States, and 99% in West Virginia. Since West Virginia’s coal industry affects so much of the United States and almost all of itself, why are we the lowest or just about the lowest on the economic totem pole? Who is pocketing that money? Both US News and the Kauffman Foundation ranked West Virginia as the No. 1 worst state to start a business. I digress. The economic aspect is a topic of a much later discussion. The topic at hand which I got side-tracked from deals with the “friendliness” of coal.

Plainly put, coal is a killer. 2010 was a stellar year for casualties in the coal industry in West Virginia alone, with 35 fatal accidents and 828 non-fatal accidents. The death rate is so bad that the Onion just released a “humorous” (albeit right-on-target) article that all of West Virginia celebrated because 32 people died from a non-mining related accident.

Two days ago The Herald Dispatch released it’s annual Progress section of the newspaper. Entitled “Progress 2011: Industry,” the main focus was coal. Nick Carter the president and CEO of Natural Resource Partners, which owns and leases coal properties, said concerning the difficulties they have had with getting permits from federal agencies that, “It’s not as much fun as it used to be to be a coal miner.” Really? I guess that all depends on how you define “fun.” The safety issues presented by the coal mining industry are terrible today, but not even close to what they used to be. The United States Department of Labor tells a different story altogether. Including both coal and non-coal related fatalities and injuries (but predominantly coal), the numbers have decreased from over 1,000 deaths and over 80,000 injuries annually to 69 deaths and 11,800 injuries. None of this discussion has even touched on the annual deaths caused by coal plant pollution, which is also another rant for another day.

So what does the slogan “Friends of Coal” mean? The answer is nothing. It’s propaganda. It’s much the same as the slogan “Support Our Troops.” Noam Chomsky in his very telling book, Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda, states that phrases such as “Support Our Troops” are solely propaganda and have really nothing to do with the actual troops or a person’s support of them. It has everything to do with an administration’s decision to send troops into war. Thus, the appropriate hidden phrase is “Support Our Administration’s Decision;” but that doesn’t resonate with people as much as “Support Our Troops.” That’s very clever propaganda in the sense that not many are going to say, “No, I don’t support our troops,” because that wouldn’t be patriotic at all. The key: make a slogan that doesn’t mean anything, that most everyone will support, and makes those who disagree with it look bad. Are you a friend of coal? If you’ve thought that you were in the past, what you’ve really been is a supporter of a few rich corporations and a few very rich men who profit from your dying.

No, I don’t have a solution of how we can shift away from our dependence on coal. However, I do think we should taper back our advertisement of our “love” for coal and at least come to terms with what it means. It’s not our friend. It kills your family members. It locks people into a way of life that is totally dependent on the mining industry. Forget furthering your education, we’re a coal mining family. Yes, it’s a good paying job, but at what cost? Also, don’t ever forget that the big few companies are the ones really rolling in the cash because of the miners’ dedication to death by black lung and mine accidents. You can guarantee Nick Carter has a “Friends of Coal” sticker on his brand new vehicle. I bet he’ll even print one out for you.