I watched MSNBC last night, flipping off and on to other news channels. The last I'd heard about the miners in West Virginia was that there was little hope. Probes sent into the mine showed it was highly toxic with carbon monoxide. The rescuers had found one body, which gave a little more hope, perhaps, that the others had escaped. The Governor was at a church with the families of the miners. And incredibly, word came to the church that 12 of the remaining miners were rescued. A cheer went up. They sang a hymn of thanks. The church bells rang.
A couple hours later word came again. The last call was wrong. It wasn't one dead and 12 alive, it was 12 dead and one alive. And then the recriminations began over how someone could do that to the families (when it was clearly a terrible mistake).
The Governor was grilled by the press in an endless press conference, although he didn't seem to have anything to do with the false news reports. Apparently someone misunderstood communications between the rescuers and their command center, and, of course, the cell phone network was activated and the familes were told that unconfirmed story. I had flipped off the television, thinking "well, that's pretty cool. This doesn't happen very often." And when I turned it on later, the new news was that the miners has perished.
You always feel for the families, in these all too public tragedies, but this was especially painful. . .those moments of hope have to make the other moments even worse. It also reminds me of the enormous changes cell phones have had on our society, and world. You can't really analyze this; it just sucks. I never did like the Bee Gees or U2 songs about mine disasters either. . .
---o0o---
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