No, it isn't strange at all that George Will and those who emulate him haven't picked on the miners unions when bitching about "entitlement" programs for active and retired workers. Blue collar guys. Guys who leave their youth and health and bodies at work and don't eat, sleep, or walk very well when they hit the ripe old age of 55 or so. There was a time when people understood that a lot of industrial jobs ripped a man apart body and soul, and the only way, or the only moral and decent way to treat such workers was to pay them well, give them the best health benefits possible, and assure that their retirement years were looked after. The miners, the steel workers, the plant workers all over the country who age faster than any of us doing what most of us wouldn't even consider.
It somehow isn't an entitlement for a doctor or lawyer or big business wig to demand, and get, ridiculous wages and benefits because they paid their dues in a classroom. During these same formative years the blue collar guys and gals were paying their dues in pits and factories but somehow a "professional" person is given the heads up when he places 10% of his annual salary of millions of dollars in a retirement fund and the working man is called a beggar for doing the same and not able to make ends meet because society values his work far differently.
For some folks seeing the agony of a dozen men dying so that we can flick on our lights is a wakeup call. And even the ultra conservatives will hush up for a time, and not caterwaul about providing good benefits and wages to those that lay it on the line for us each and every day.
But when the smoke clears and the last note from the last dead miner is read and soon forgotten, the heartless bastards will return to begrudging the working class for daring to ask for a piece of the American pie.
There is no logical reason for Randal McCloy Jr. to have survived the tragedy at Sago Mine. Notes from other men suggest that they began to perish at least 24 hours before help arrived, yet somehow Randal clung to life. Granted, his is a worse case scenario, but if you believe that millions of the working class don't spend their retirement years as less than half the person they were before breaking themselves for their jobs, then you need to get out of the classroom and back to the real deal. Randal suffered extensive brain damage and for the rest of his life will be provided the best society has to offer because his is a media inspired incident. I've met many other men from his field who began feeling the cumulative effect of such deplorable working conditions when in their 40's or 50's and cannot add 10 plus 10 without a calculator. Or when they finally retired wondered just when it was they forgot how to tie a good knot in the laces of their work boots without the wife's teasing assistance. Hard work destroys muscles and ligaments and bones and minds. Always has, always will.
Try to have a little compassion for the working class the next time someone is bitching about their entitlements. That's all.
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