Gazette photo by Chip Ellis
If you’ve got access to a hard copy of Rolling Stone magazine or a subscription to their online edition, you might want to check out the new profile of Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship. Jeff Goodell’s story is headlined, “The Dark Lord of Coal Country,” and the introduction says:
Don Blankenship grew up poor in the h0llows of West Virginia. But as the richest and most powerful coal baron in Appalachia, he has destroyed the region’s mountains, polluted its waters, and overseen the worst mining disaster in 40 years.
Jeff starts out the article by describing a recent appearance by Blankenship to give a speech to an industry gathering in Bluefield, where the Massey CEO gave his standard attack on MSHA as being at least partly to blame for the deaths of 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster. But Jeff opines:
The entire speech, in fact, is nothing but a desperate attempt to shift blame for the tragedy and obscure the fact that 29 men died violent deaths in large part because Don Blankenship ran what amounted to an outlaw coal mine, racking up more than 500 safety violations last year alone.
Describing Blankenship, the article says:
For the past two decades, Don Blankenship has been the undisputed king of coal in West Virginia. Other Big Coal CEOs who operate in Appalachia are business-school types who have offices in other states and leave the dirty work to their minions. Blankenship, by contrast, is a rich hillbilly who believes God put coal in the ground so that he could mine it, and anyone — or any law– that stands in his way needs to be beaten down, bought off or tied up in court. Blankenship is hated, feared and respected, but nobody wants to tangle with him.
And despite Blankenship’s frequent rants against environmentalists and government regulators, Jeff astutely notes:
The real reason that the coal industry in West Virginia is dying has nothing to do with government regulation. After 150 years of mining, most of the good, easy-to-get coal in Appalachia is simply gone. Coal production in the region plunged 13 percent last year — one of the biggest drops in 50 years.
The article provides more interesting tidbits from Blankenship’s biography, and gives the first real big-time exposure to the ongoing water contamination suit in the communities around Rawl in Mingo County. And, Jeff goes on to describe the aftermath of Upper Big Branch:
For the first time in his life, Blankenship suddenly found himself in the midst of a crisis that he could not buy his way out of. The media coverage of the disaster was relentless, and industry insiders wondered openly if he would have to step down as CEO of Massey. Even longtime champions of Big Coal began to use him as a punching bag. During a Senate hearing on the tragedy, Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia — perhaps the single most valuable ally the coal industry had — took the extraordinary step of personally rebuking Blankenship for his recklessness and hypocrisy. “I cannot fathom how an American business could practice such disgraceful health and safety policies while simultaneously boasting about its commitment to the safety of its workers,” Byrd said. “The Upper Big Branch mine had an alarming — an alarming — record. Shame!”
Blankenship took the abuse from Byrd — and then got on with the business of being Don Blankenship. He recruited a team of heavyweight consultants from the Bush era, including lawyer Robert Luskin, who represented Karl Rove in the Valerie Plame spy case; a PR firm called Public Strategies, run by former Bush communications chief Dan Bartlett; and Dave Lauriski, the head of MSHA under Bush.
Regarding the ongoing criminal investigation at Upper Big Branch, the article says:
… it is highly unlikely that Blankenship will ever see the inside of a prison cell. The coal industry has more than a century of experience in structuring its companies to shield its executives from criminal liability, and Blankenship continues to disavow any responsibility for the deadly explosion at Upper Big Branch. Although he refused to talk with Rolling Stone for this article, Blankenship recently told industry analysts that he has “a totally clear conscience” about the tragedy and does not believe that Massey “contributed in any way” to the disaster.
The article concludes:
… Whatever happens in court, Blankenship’s days as the king of coal are over. The era of Big Coal is coming to a close in West Virginia. Even Senator Byrd, the biggest booster the industry has ever known, admitted as much before his death earlier this year. “The greatest threats to the future of coal do not come from possible constraints on mountaintop removal mining or other environmental regulations,” Byrd warned, “but rather from rigid mind-sets, depleting coal reserves and the declining demand for coal as more power plants begin shifting to biomass and natural gas as a way to reduce emissions. West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or resist and be overrun by it.”
Blankenship could still orchestrate a smooth exist for himself, perhaps by selling Massey to a rival company. But however his career comes to an end, his story is a deeply tragic one. Given his local roots and his business acumen, he might have helped West Virginia turn toward the future and imagine itself as something more than a landscape to be raped and pillaged by greedy industrialists. Instead, he has become just another coal baron, a symbol of all the worst impulses of American capitalism.
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This calls to mind a fascinating and lengthy Daily Mail profile of Blankenship by Brad McElhinney in 2005.
A couple notable excerpts…
“I knew I had to do something because I had nothing to fall back on,”
Blankenship said of his childhood. “I knew I wasn’t getting off to a
real good start. I don’t know what makes a person determined.”
He never met his father. His mother, Nancy, was raising three older
children – George, 5; Beulah, 8; and Anthony, 10 – in a little town
called Stopover, Ky., in the early 1950s. Her husband was away in
Korea. She became lonely, met someone else and became pregnant with
Don.
…
“Mom fixed meals in one kettle,” said oldest brother Anthony. “She
would fix a pot of beans and potatoes on top of the stove. Anything
she could fix in one pot. We’d get behind the counter and sit and eat.
We pretty much lived in the store.”
From that vantage point, the young Blankenships watched their mother’s
hard work as she sold groceries and gasoline and kept the family
running.
“One of the biggest legacies she left us was her work ethic,” said
Anthony, who now runs the store with his wife, Kathleen. “She was very
blunt. She had a personality kind of like Don’s. She was quiet and
only said the things she meant and that made sense.”
…
Nancy Blankenship [Don's mother] also took an interest in politics, displaying Republican leanings. She rooted for conservative Barry Goldwater to defeat Lyndon Johnson in 1964, only to be astounded when Johnson won and implemented his Great Society programs.
…
“I was with her when she died,” [Don] said. “I was the one she wanted to
be there when she died.”
Blankenship says his mother was the greatest influence in his life.
“No doubt about that,” he said. “Her specifically, but Delorme in general.”
….
Murphy was a union miner for 30 years, hand-shoveling ton after ton of
coal. Blankenship guessed he and Murphy have never seen eye to eye on
a political issue.
Murphy acknowledged as much by plopping down in a lawn chair beside
Blankenship …
“I don’t know Cecil [Roberts]. I’ve never talked to him in my life,” Murphy
said. “But this guy I know.”
…
Blankenship graduated second in his 1968 class at Matewan High School
and then went to Marshall …
He took time off between his second and third years to earn money
working in a Pittston coal mine (in a union job, he noted) shooting
coal, running a cutting machine and installing a belt.
After his 1972 graduation, he took an entry-level accounting job in
Chattanooga, Tenn. While there, he noticed a listing in the newspaper
for a job with Keebler, the cookie and cracker company.
…
Ralphie,there’s been lot’s more deaths than just the 29. The 29 just happened to be the most at one time. My personal opinion of Blankenship and his top 5 or 6 managerial cronies is that they should be imprisoned immediately until all investigations are completed surrounding UBB, then given an opportunity to defend themselves and after their chance at defense let the strongest laws in the land deal with them to insure that those who follow get the message. Coal Tyrants are finished!!!
In response to the original Rolling Stone story, I am offended by the writer’s gross stereotyping of West Virginians and West Virginia’s coal industry.
In his zeal to portray Don Blankenship in the worst possible light, the writer called him a “rich hillbilly.” He also contrasted Blankenship with other “Big Coal” CEOS as “business-school types who have offices in other states and leave the dirty work to their minions.”
Sounds like the writer is a failed comic book writer — “Dark Lord,” “Rich Hillbilly,” “minions?”
Actually, this article should have been in a comic book. It is quite obviously not even an effort at good journalism.
Look, the last three chairman of the West Virginia Coal Association have been native West Virginians, from Wayne County, Kanawha County and now Logan County. The industry does have big companies such as Arch, Consol and Massey, but many of our leaders were born and raised in the coalfields.
They are plain spoken people with an independent streak who don’t like to be told what they can and can’t do. They work hard and often it is hard to tell the CEO from the red hat.
They are not “dark lords.”
I can’t speak for Don Blankenship. I don’t know him. I do know many other coal industry CEOs and it is not fair to characterize any of them as “greedy industrialists” who “rape, pillage and plunder” the mountains of Appalachia. The people I know are caring, considerate people who may have money but drive pick-up trucks, shop at Wal-mart and sit in the stands at Little League baseball games.
These “dark lords” exist in the comic books and in the warped minds of paranoid delusionals.
Thanks, Montanus. I had forgotten about that article.
For those with a Charleston Newspapers library sign-in and account, you can read that whole story here:
http://newslibrary.cnpapers.com/cgi-bin/texis/search/+9xe1858eMhbtqFxcwDAnD5ropaxGwmaTq0croDDnOqzmxwwwmzmeV-wwwhFq0eRGlnGeRRHmqwceRkHmGprveRDxxLo5eRDwm+XXXtFqwrFqw/storypage.html?id=47d7e2048
As for everyone else … while the Rolling Stone editors apparently don’t subscribe to our no name-calling rules, let’s try to be more respectful of each other here on Coal Tattoo, OK?
Ken.
Yeah, it’s pick on us poor hillbillies time, again. But … Bob Byrd said it – “West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or resist and be overrun by it.”
Don Blankenship is the classic Last Man Standing for the way King Coal … was. And he has made it very plain, repeatedly and in a variety of explicit ways, that he does not plan to change and is not interested in changing or adapating or doing anything except what he has been doing – mining the most coal for the cheapest price to benefit his (mostly) out-of-state shareholders to the greatest extent possible, regardless of the consequences. We don’t have to like it or not like it. It it what it is. But can we really get mad at someone for calling a spade a spade? That’s being hypocritical on our part.
I agree, there are good coal operators, and there are bad coal operators, both in WV and throughout Appalachia. Just like there are good global corporate CEOs, and bad global corporate CEOs. Only time, and history, will really be the judge of what category Blankenship gets slotted into.
Bob — I haven’t read the article, but Jeff Goodell’s reporting usually exaggerates and stereotypes, and I suspect that the article is true to form in that regard.
Blankenship’s conduct has been demonstrably awful in many respects. For example, he has funded efforts like climate science denial, and the perversion of the judicial selection process. These efforts serve his business interests but substantially injure the common good. He deserves lots of criticism and he gets it.
Glad to see the discussion here about my article on Don Blankenship. I’m a big fan of Ken’s blog, and am happy to contribute to the conversation.
Bob — you take exception to some of the language in the article, especially the phrases “Dark Lord” and “rich hillbilly.” Colorful phrases, yes, but well within boundaries of acceptable language, especially in a publication like Rolling Stone. In my view, too many journalists aspire to a false “objective” tone, whereas I think if you want to communicate with a broad audience, it helps to write like people talk. In this context, “rich hillbilly” is not any more pejorative than “rich WASP” or “rich Brahmin.” Anyone who knows my work understands that I have the deepest respect for the people of Appalachia — that’s one reason why I have spent so much of my professional life writing about the place.
You also point out there are many coal industry CEOs who aren’t like Blankenship, and I’d be the first to agree. The coal industry is full of honest, hard-working men and women. But this story is not about them. It is about Don Blankenship, and how he runs his business. And BTW, most of the decent, hardworking people I know in the coal industry are also the harshest critics of Blankenship, in part because of the bad light his outlandish behavior sheds on the entire industry.
Thomas — you say my work exaggerates and stereotypes. I’m not exactly sure what you’re suggesting here. If you mean that my writing has a strong point of view, that is certainly true. My job as a writer is to say things bluntly and clearly. I understand why you (or anyone) might disagree with me. But that is not the same thing as suggesting that I misrepresent things. Give me some examples, and lets talk about it.
Sorry Jeff, but your explanation doesn’t meet the smell test. For example, you gloss over your statement “other Big Coal CEOs are business school types who have offices in other states and let their minions do their dirty work.” Sounds to me like you just threw every other coal company CEO under the bus. Your efforts to walk around that statement simply show it to be what it is, blatant bias. As for likening “rich hillbilly” to “Rich WASP” or “Rich Brahmin” I would be equally offended by those obvious stereotypes. How would your readers react to calling someone a “rich Jew” or a “rich [and I am sorry for even using the term] raghead?”
Again, your explanation doesn’t pass the smell test.
And as for your statement that your job is to “say things bluntly and clearly.” I would agree, but that does NOT excuse blatant bias, exaggeration, stereotyping … and unprofessionalism.
Ken, I apologize for what you might consider an attack … but I think my comments are measured and presented in such a way that they are a comment on the story and the professionalism it shows rather than on the person. I do not know Jeff and I am sure he has the best of intentions … probably thinks he is “fighting the good fight.” At least he is out there standing up for his beliefs and making a case for them, as am I and others on this side of the fence. Ultimately, this issue will be decided in the court of public opinion, I just want to make sure that the facts presented are just that — facts — and not more “flyover journalism.”
Oh, and again, I apologize for using the two terms I use in making my point about stereotyping, but I couldn’t think of a way to make my point without doing so. I considered using “*#@” but I didn’t think it would work.
So to any reader who is offended by the use of either term, please accept my apologies and understand the context in which they were used.
T. Rodd,
There are some things that Blankenship has done that helped the common good: 1) lobbied for and helped reduce the WV food tax, 2) helped defeat an ill conceived and unneeded WV bond proposed by Manchin, 3) helped to remove a “bad apple” supreme court justice that certainly contributed to the poor business climate of WV that has harmed and is harming the common good of WV.
I would agree with Jeff Goodell’s statement that his article is about Don Blankenship. However … there is “mainstream” journalism and there are other kinds of journalism. The internet, blogs, webcasts, smartphones and streaming media have all blurred the lines between what is and isn’t journalism, but, in my personal opinion, Rolling Stone falls outside the definition of “mainstream” media. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have a story to tell and that it doesn’t make contributions to whatever the issues of the day are. It does mean that it may make those contributions in ways that are outside what the majority of the population perceives as “mainstream” media.
Jeff, my impression is that “heroes vs. villains, victims vs. perpetrators, etc.” are a big part of the way you tell the story of Appalachian coal mining.
In my experience, which admittedly is limited, the people involved are much more complex and nuanced — with plenty of BS, hyperbole, hysteria, and exaggeration on all sides.
Bob’s comments appear to be based on his reaction to an error by you in generally characterizing West Virginia “coal operators” other than Don Blankenship in a stereotyped fashion that is contrary to reality.
I’m extremely impressed, Jeff, and grateful that you have invited some critical responses to your work from readers of this blog. (Ken Ward has set a great example in doing the same thing — every day!)
Keep up the good work and keep reading Coal Tattoo!
P.S. Jeff, how about asking Rolling Stone to set up a two-week link from Coal Tattoo to the article? Then you could get some comments from folks who don’t subscribe. (I expect to get my son-in law’s copy in a couple of weeks — he’s definitely a rocker!).
Thanks for your thoughtful comments everyone. Agree that stereotyping is a tricky issue, and agree emphatically that everyone — and every story — is far more complex than can be rendered in a magazine story. Or even a book. To communicate ideas requires a certain degree of simplification and shorthand. If you think I have a unfairly black and white view of the coal industry, I encourage you to have a look at my book, Big Coal, especially the chapter on coal miners. I have nothing but the deepest respect for the work they do and the lives they lead. And it is one reason why operators like Blankenship, who have a long history of pushing the boundaries of mine safety, deserve special scrutiny and exposure.
Honestly, I am still a rocker as well. In fact, I still have the Rolling Stone issue with the cover shot of Kurt Cobain after his death framed on my desk, and I have a (shall we say) “unofficial” video of Roger Water’s stage performance of “The Wall” in my DVD player.
Still looking for a good video of Led Zep’s reunion tour. Anyone? Anyone?
OK, I caved and bought a copy of Rolling Stone. And after reading it, Mr. Goodell, maybe I missed the parts where you demonstrated you “have the deepest respect for the people of Appalachia.” Could you point them out? As for skewering Don Blankenship, all well and good, because in his own way Don has become the public whipping boy for King Coal, just like BP had become the public whipping boy for Big Oil. In that respect, your article served the necessary function of continuing to shine the bright light of national public attention on the way things have been for far too long in WV.
I got a copy of Jeff Goodell’s article and my reaction is that looking at it in its entirety, it’s a great piece. Of course, I have a very negative view of Don Blankenship’s conduct, and the article is aligned with my views.
Having said that, here are three quotes from interviews with Jeff Goodell that I found on the web, illustrating the reasons I said he can exaggerate and stereotype (at times).
“There are economically prosperous regions in West Virginia and Kentucky, for sure — West Virginia has a booming biotech industry — but they are in areas where coal mining is not.” True?
“. . .coal mining is still a commodity business. It’s a low-wage business where all the profits go to the company and very little goes to the people who actually mine the coal. For example, Don Blankenship, the head of Massey Energy, the largest coal company in West Virginia, made over $30 million in 2005, while most miners in the state were struggling just to pay the rent.” True?
“In West Virginia, particularly, the industry has been very good at keeping the state dependent on coal revenues; they’ve been very successful in keeping other kinds of industry out. The coal industry makes it very clear that they don’t like people having alternatives for jobs.” True?
The people who I want to keep in mind are people who have no voice, except for the one we provide — the 29 men who died because they went to work at Upper Big Branch.
I think they would entirely applaud Jeff Goodell’s article. Great job!
Hey Jeff, I read the article and I thought you wrote an incredibly well-informed and fiery expose. I think all this squalk over bias is just silly and Jeff made the best point thus far about false objectivity being the real ailment in journalism today. If he wrote it the way “Bob” wanted, we’d have another one of these gutless false equivalence news stories. “On the one hand he’s accused of criminal negligence, but on the other he’s a blue-collar job creator, so in conclusion they cancel each other out and you should go about your life feeling ambivalently confused on the subject.” BUT NO! Jeff understands that there’s a higher calling beyond impressing the silly journo purists who believe all news should be toneless and scrubbed of personality.
People commenting here don’t seem to get that Rolling Stone has a long history of ‘advocate journalism’ and when it’s good, as Jeff’s piece truly is, it makes you want to get out in the street and protest. And it’s not his colorful language that enrages, it’s the facts. (BTW, Thomas, if you want answers to those “True?” questions why don’t you go and find out for yourself instead of lazily challenging something because it doesn’t conform with what you already think. That’s called reader bias.)
The press have been out to lunch on this story, constantly framing the mining explosion to be “an accident.” It’s not. It was manslaughter, in the worst sense of the word. And there’s evidence. Plenty of it. And irrefutable. Jeff lays it out very clearly and I hope he gets recognition where it counts. There aren’t enough truth-tellers out there. And too often, they get marginalized for having “an agenda.” Well if his agenda is that Blankenship’s life is no more important than the dozens he’s destroyed, poisoned and burned alive than hell yeah! I’m down with that agenda. Sign me up.
And for those on the fence of whether to read the article, Jeff makes his POV clear from the first line in the article, but it’s by no means a screed, and he does a really good job of creating a complex picture of a man who’s clearly lost touch with his own humanity. I have one question for you Jeff. In the article, you mention that there are people within the Justice department who are looking to prosecute Blankenship further. On what counts will they go after him and when can we expect some action, some justice?
Allen,
In response to your comment that “the press has been out to lunch on this story,” I just want to point out that — with all due respect to Jeff Goodell — most of the “facts” he uses in his story regarding Upper Big Branch have been previously reported by others in the more mainstream media — including the Gazette, NPR and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, among others.
I’m sure that Jeff would agree that, in this regard, his story is “derivative” in nature, meaning that it’s not all original investigative reporting by him or anyone else at Rolling Stone. I’m not complaining about his use of that material — just pointing out that the story he wrote was educated in large part by original reporting by others.
And, in fact, the very view that Jeff takes on Massey’s PR blitz against MSHA is very similar to the coverage that Massey’s campaign has received in both the Gazette’s news coverage in the print edition and in posts by me here on Coal Tattoo.
I’m not saying that the mainstream media couldn’t do a better job covering Upper Big Branch, Massey and mine safety in general. But to say that we’ve been “out to lunch” ignores where most of the information about the disaster has been initially reported.
Ken.
I disagree that the press has been out to lunch on the Upper Big Branch tragedy – I, personally, am amazed with the staying power of this story in the national press, given their (genrally) short attention span. They have not let it go, in particular NPR, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Washington Post, and others. Ken’s work goes without saying.
Great conversation — this is part of what makes Ken’s blog indispensable. Very busy day, but just want to add a couple of thoughts:
I wholeheartedly agree with Ken: my piece relied heavily on this blog, the Gazette, NPR (esp Howard Berkes) and others. They have done a remarkable job reporting on the UBB story — asking tough questions of both Massey and MSHA, and holding both accountable for their answers. When people complain to me about the sorry state of daily journalism, I just point to Ken and the Gazette as examples to the contrary. I did many weeks of original reporting for my Rolling Stone story, including three visits to WV, but I was less interested in details of what happened at UBB than the broader context of how Blankenship operates and what he has done for (and to) the world he grew up in.
As for the rest of the media, I’m always surprised by how quickly it turns on mining disasters. Esp. cable news. When a tragedy like Sago or UBB happens, CNN and MSNBC and Fox go with wall-to-wall coverage, treating it like a movie of the week. Then when it ends, and the miners (dead or alive) emerge from underground, they immediately move on. When was the last time you heard Anderson Cooper talking about mine safety legislation? The NYT and the Post do a decent job of follow-up, but still, the coverage is still mostly tragedy-driven.
Allen — as for your question about what criminal charges Blankenship could face (if any), that is indeed a big question. And one that I don’t have the answer to. But here’s one way to think about it (there are others): when prosecutors went after Martha Stewart for insider trading, they were not able to convict her on securities fraud. But they did get her for lessor charges, including making false statements to prosecutors. She spent five months in a federal prison (a cushy one, of course).
Thanks for your kind words, Jeff, and for taking the time to respond several times to comments here on Coal Tattoo about your Rolling Stone piece … Ken.
In case anyone missed it, the Rolling Stone piece is now accessible on the free web, http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/17390/236336?RS_show_page=0
Bob,
I actually DO know Don, mostly through my parents. I went to Matewan High School many years after he did. I grew up in Matewan, and know the Red Jacket/Matewan/Stopover/Varney areas all very well. Don really is a “rich hillbilly” as the article calls him. Incredibly rich. Back home in those areas, many people are deadbeats and “on the draw”, as my mom would say. You do what you have to do to survive. Unfortunately for the area and the state in general, Don milked those beautiful hills for everything they are worth. Calling him a “greedy industrialist” who commits “rape, pillage and plunder” on the hills is a very accurate description, in my opinion. You should see the view from the little town of Matewan. It used to be all green around. Lots of dirt hills now where nothing grows. Strip mining does that. And what’s funny is that people love Don there because he provides jobs. People have to eat. They don’t know what kind of a raw deal they are getting, long term. But Don knows. He just doesn’t care.
Google his name and Judge “Spike Maynard” sometime. They have a long history, but check out the story about them on the French Riviera. That’s my favorite. I’m also embarrassed to say I know Spike (better than I know Don, actually).
And btw, the hills really are running out of coal. That’s pretty well understood back home.
Allen – it’s nice to “know” that the Upper Big Branch tragedy was manslaughter, plain and simple, as you say, and it’s irrefutable and there is plenty of evidence out there, etc., etc. But no matter how much any of us may “know” something was or was not manslaughter, Rolling Stone is smart enough to not let Goodell directly accuse Blankenship of that because of a little thing called libel. Just like a wise old city editor once told me it’s best not to get in arguments with people who can buy ink by the truckload, it’s also a good idea not to accuse someone who has a hotel full of lawyers on retainer of a crime no matter how “obvious” it is.
Unfortunately, that’s why we have to let the criminal investigation run its course. We don’t have to like it.
Jeff (et al) I am late reading this excellent expose on undoubtedly one of the most corrupt people to ever come from my wonderful home state. Thanks to my mother, who is still a young activist at heart in her seventies, I now have boiling blood and a headache to go with it — the excesses, cunning (he clearly has used his “talents” for evil, not good) and arrogance of Blankenship sickens me. (She sent me the article). My ancestors and my first degree relatives on my mom’s side, all male, of course, have paid ultimate prices for reliance on the coal industry for their and their families’ livelihoods: lung diseases, shortended life spans, poor quality of life due to health issues, economic stresses from drawn out labor union strikes, psychological scars due to repeated totally avoidable “tragedies” that anyone outside the system can spot and predict like a successful card shark, and communities left in economic and environmental ruins b/c of rich, devious coal barons like Blankenship. Jeff, I was stunned by your comment that the reason his cruel, self-centered and arrogant style and actions smite people from WV so deeply is that “he’s one of them.” You are so spot-on in that analysis: I didn’t think others got that. It’s usually the outsider who is held in contempt and at an arm’s lenght in our culture. I hope the message gets to those who need to say “enough is enough.” And, I hope that you continue your written advocacy. I hardly recognize the town where I grew up in north-central WV anymore. Don Blankenship and his minions have blackened and tarnished the Halcyon memories many of us in our state held prior to the demise of coal and the realization of its negative impacts on the larger world. Federal prison is a great retirement location for Mr. Blankenship — let’s hope they put him in a rickety trailer so the cirlce is completed. Keep up the good work. Our state needs invested, smart people like you to keep the word going. Shine the light!