this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
images and poem below the fold
special thanks to ksh01 at dKos who said – “My frustration tells me your title should still have Iraq in the title, as I feel that if the people and equipment and money that’s currently in Iraq were here in the US, the federal government would have responded in a more effective way.”
Iraqi men dig graves for pilgrims killed in the Baghdad bridge stampede in Najaf September 1, 2005. Thousands of mourners poured into the holy city of Najaf on Thursday to bury some of the victims of the stampede in Baghdad at the burial ground most sacred to Iraq’s Shi’ite Muslims.
(Ali Abu Shish/Reuters)
People wade in floodwater before burning buildings in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Huge explosions and fires have erupted in New Orleans, media reported, hours before President George W. Bush was to inspect devastation from Hurricane Katrina that turned the city into a virtual combat zone.
(AFP/James Nielsen)
Ballad of Spring Hill (Spring Hill Disaster)
by Peggy Seeger
In the town of Spring Hill, Nova Scotia,
Down in the heart of the Cumberland Mine,
There’s blood on the coal and miners lie
In the roads that never saw sun or sky
Roads that never saw sun or sky.
Down at the coal face the miner’s workin’
Rattle of the belt and the cutter’s blade
Crumble of rock and the walls close round
Living and the dead men two miles down
Living and the dead men two miles down
Twelve men lay two miles from the pitshaft
Listen for the drillin’ of a rescue team
Six hundred feet of coal and slag
Hope imprisoned in a three-foot seam
Hope imprisoned in a three-foot seam
Eight days passed and some were rescued
Leaving the dead to lie alone
All their lives they dug their graves
Two miles of earth for a markin’ stone
Two miles of earth for a markin’ stone
In the town of Spring Hill you don’t sleep easy
Often the Earth will tremble and groan
When the Earth is restless, miners die
Bone and blood is the price of coal
Bone and blood is the price of coal
– – –
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