Further, although I truly sympathize with the families of the lost miners (as much as one who is not in their shoes possibly can), I see tonight on CNN that they are demanding that the rescue effort continue. Haphazardly risking other lives (as has happened and is highly likely to happen again) is absolutely ridiculous and these families need to grieve, pray for their missing loved ones and move on so they are not joined by other grieving families. God help us if the trapped miners are still alive but how many other lives are worth the tiny possibility of saving the six? Nine dead or injured is already too many. Risking one more is unthinkable.

- I echo your hope, but the examples from coast to coast of bureaucratic indifference is legion. All the time, all the money, and all the “experts”, and still the bridges fall down.

- For now we need to be as supportive, and comforting to the families that have experienced this unimaginable loss.

- But sooner or later people have to start paying attention to the sad state of our infrastructure, and not just during the days when its 28 pt headlines in the media. we seem to play that game over and over, letting the politicians that get paid to address issues of safety off the hook as soon as the dust settles.

- Adding yet another layer of “watchers”, watching the watched, the classic answer to everything run by the government, isn’t going to help. We need oversight by people that have no political or financial axes to grind. Letting Murray run the recovery operations was unbelievably wrong headed, but typical of big dollar operations. Hour long wind bag speeches, designed to limit liability, is not a recipe for safe viable outcomes.

- BBH –

And Scott, thanks for the lucid and to-the-point admonition. You get right on it and fix the problem, okay? Stop wasting your precious time sneering at the simpletons who are praying. I can understand your frustration at all the lesser intellects, but losing even a second of your supreme brainpower makes it look as if you don’t care how many die.

You have my belated condolences for your loss.

That said, I am not trying to lay blame or to assign wrong, I am just saying that is the nature of things. It is instinctive for us to find the “why” about any given situation.

But is seems you’ve know that already.

I know… When my love passed away in 2006 I was looking for blame in myself. Enough people told me that was ridiculous.

Fromt the AP

The cave-in at 6:39 p.m. was believed to be caused by a “mountain bump,” in which shifting ground forces chunks of rock from the walls. The force from the bump registered a magnitude of 1.6 at the University of Utah seismograph stations in Salt Lake City.

Stickler said it unleashed a huge blast of coal and support material that hit the miners working to clear rubble from the underground tunnel. The blast created a destruction zone about 30 feet long along a wall of the chamber, and knocked out steel posts, chain link fencing and the cables that tied everything together.

Great comment.

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is no we can not as it is human nature.

I know they are bad and beat their wives…

Tragic situations like Katrina, bridge collapse in MN and mine tragedy will ALWAYS bring out people who are mean and comment without actual knowledge.

Why can’t we pray (or for the secular – hope) for the best outcome without making accusations that we don’t know are true?