Last year, 47 miners - 24 of them from West Virginia - died in the nation's coal mines. The toll was the highest since 1995. The deaths included 12 men killed in an explosion at the Sago Mine in Upshur County. Also last January, two miners died in a fire at the Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County. to read the story this statistic and excerpt came from click here.

These statistics and fatalities are very present in my mind because of the two recent deaths of miners in West Virginia. Its reasons like this that I am lucky that a friend of mine recently bought me a membership to Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a social justice organization based in Kentucky dedicated to stopping strip mining and protecting the rights of minors. I am writing to remind folks that miners in these regions are responsible for our power across the country and we have a responsibility to the environment, the miners, and the regions that are being ruined by the devastating effects of strip mining. So consider becoming a member of KFTC and helping them fight for these issues. It is as cheap as ten dollars a year and sheer numbers alone will go a long way to help this organization.