Firefighters who helped are priceless
On Dec. 19 I had the misfortune to slide off of a very snowy Interstate 64 East near Sandstone. I was several hundred miles from home. It’s hard to describe how helpless I and the others around me felt. My road service company and the 911 operator said they could not help. I certainly understood that I was low priority to them. I wasn’t hurt, I was warm if my car was running, I had a little food and water, and the biggest danger was from the cars and trucks still attempting to plow through. I was looking at a long, cold night alone in my little car in rural West Virginia.
Then, after a few hours, along came members of the Green Sulphur Volunteer Fire Department in Summers County. They were in private four-wheel-drive vehicles going from stranded vehicle to stranded vehicle offering assistance. They took me and many others to their firehouse and provided warmth, food, drink, and a comfortable place to sleep that night. The next day they transported many of us to local motels so we could be even more comfortable. On the second day they even came out and helped many of us dig out and push out our cars to get back under way.
I can’t say enough positive things about these people. I saw how tired many of them became as the night and day progressed. I saw them help all kinds of people with all kinds of needs and worries. I think there were many firefighter spouses and children also helping out. I noticed simple caring things such as pushing out a very heavy truck from the firehouse rather than starting it up and filling the area with exhaust. I saw them coming in from hours of duty outside wishing for rest but instead walking around asking us refugees if we needed anything. I saw the gratitude from dozens of people, young and old, locals and travelers, and even one family from Canada. I saw kindness and caring I would never have expected; these firefighters are great people.
I can only reward these folks with my gratitude, and I did that as best I can. My hope in writing this note is that there is something more you can do in support or recognition of these fine people; they are priceless.
Michael Nackerman
Richmond, Va.
Mine companies could provide more jobs
The lyrics to one of those great 1960s songs were sung:
“The man from the government says it’s fine,
To walk on over to the free food line.
Nice of the government to be so fair,
But I don’t want my friends to see me there.”
Today, most people wouldn’t care at all to be seen there.
But every able-bodied man ought to have a job.
One of the arguments the coal industry always uses to defend mountaintop removal mining is that it provides jobs.
Then it would be reasonable to expect the coal companies to use their equipment and their workers to truck all of that rock and debris back to the top of the mountain from whence it came if that were the coal industry’s main concern because jobs would be created and the mountain would be rebuilt somewhat. Then the coal companies could really say, “Well, mountain removal does provide jobs.”
Richard A. Bradford
Edwight
