A MOMENT TO PAUSE – AT 9:03 A.M. ET:  There has been a mine tragedy.  We sometimes look at these stories, then quickly glance over to something else.  But please remember that these men are the salt of the Earth.  They get the work of this country done every day.  And, at the end of a work day, you can actually see what they've done, and accomplished.  So take a moment to pause and reflect: 

MONTCOAL, W.Va. — The death toll from a blast at a West Virginia coal mine rose to 25 on Tuesday, federal safety officials said, making it the worst mining accident in the United States in 25 years.

Four miners were still missing, and the officials said it was likely that those men also had been killed in the explosion on Monday.

A recovery operation was called off early Tuesday morning because high levels of methane gas made the mine unsafe for rescuers. Workers were boring holes into the mine to try to get more oxygen inside, an effort that was not expected to be completed for several hours.

“The bodies will not be recovered until the mine is ventilated,” Ronald L. Wooten, the state’s mine health safety director, said at a news conference early Tuesday.

COMMENT:  The New York Times, to its credit, has an excellent set of photos on its front internet page, depicting life in a mining community after an accident.

April 6, 2010