Blankenship gets off easy
While it is gratifying that former West Virginia coal company baron Don Blankenship will serve some time in prison for his significant role in the deaths of 29 miners in a horrific explosion, the sentence does not fit the crime.
聽It is ludicrous that one can be charged only with a misdemeanor for engaging in what the judge in the case properly characterized as a conspiracy to eschew safe operation of the mine in the pursuit of squeezing out every possible dollar in profit and that the maximum sentence for this crime is but one year of incarceration.
The damning statistic which indicates how the Blankenship-managed mines were operated is that the incidence of black lung disease among its workers was found to be about 20 times higher than the industry norm.
Coal miners do the dirty and dangerous that most of us could not and would not do. They earn a good living, but no amount of money is adequate for what they do to provide us with energy nor for the risks they take every day that they enter their worksites. They are human beings with families that love them and which pray for their safe return every day that they go to work. They must not be considered expendable.
Surely the survivors of the men who did not have to die at the Upper Big Branch Mine are furious that the deaths of their loved ones will deprive Mr. Blankenship of his freedom for less than two weeks for each decedent. After that, he can return to live in the lap of luxury, enjoying his millions and millions of dollars in good conscience since he has the audacity to believe that he committed no crime.
The Blankenship tap on the wrist sentence clearly cries out for crimes such as his to be considered felonies in the future and legislation has been floated to change the law to bring that about. Shamefully, Congressional Republicans stand in the way, believing that their role is to soften the blow against corporate criminals than to provide for the safety of those who work in the mines. May the electorate see through them.
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper St. Clair