re: #281 HappyWarrior

When I think about my mom’s grandfathers, immigrants from Eastern Europe, I think about how they did what they did so their descendants i.e. my grandparents, mom and uncle, me and my brothers, and now my niece wouldn’t have to do that kind of work. As I said, my grandfather ended up becoming a brick mason. He left Johnstown in the mid 50’s before my Uncle was born. Mom and my Uncle ended up becoming the first people in their families to attend college. My brother is about to receive his BA and I have my BA. Brother wants to get his MA. And our youngest brother could be headed for UVA if he keeps on doing well in high school. That’s the American dream. I think they’d be horrified at people still wanting to work in the mines even though there are better alternatives. It frustrates me that people like the Mr. Sylvester interviewed in the article are REJECTING retraining.

The nostalgia for coal is becoming as much a tribal thing as anything else politicized these days. They don’t pine for the reality of working in coal mining, they pine for the mythologized symbolism of what being a ‘coal miner’ is