Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I wish to extend my personal condolences to those who suffered the two tragedies while we were back home--one here in America and one halfway around the world. The mining tragedy in West Virginia hit home for me. It brought back a lot of memories. When I was less than 1 week old, my dad was working in a mine in a place called Chloride, AZ, which was just over the Colorado River from Searchlight. He and another man were sinking a shaft, and in those days you didn't have all the protections you have today. They had drilled some holes--seven to be exact--and always, when the holes are lit, both miners don't stay there. They leave and one remains to light the hole. So Carl Myers, who was working with my dad, went to the next level, as a matter of fact, and waited until the holes were lit, and then my dad would come up and meet him and the holes would go off. What happened was that one of the pieces of fuse was defective, and it set off one of the holes prematurely. It blew my dad's light out and blew one of the soles off his shoe. He was hurt and in a state of shock. What the miners did in those days, in a shaft, is they would have a sinking ladder about 10 feet long and they would take it up before the holes went off and then they would climb out on that ladder. My dad, even though he was hurt, knew he had to get out of that mine because he knew there were six other holes burning. They were covered with muck.…”