January 6, 2006 - The details are beginning to be pieced together.  It appears that an explosion in a section of the Sago mine that had been worked out and sealed off killed one miner outright and trapped 12 others deep beneath the earth.  The trapped miners retreated as they were trained to do.   They sealed themselves up to preserve the quality of the air they had left and settled down to wait for the rescuers to come.  While they waited and their air grew foul some of them wrote notes to their families.  One by one they drifted away into that sleep from which there is no awakening.  Finally, after 41 hours the rescue party reached them. 

They were thirteen and twelve have died. While those twelve waited in the ground on the surface a different drama unfolded.  It was a drama of uncertainty; of hesitant irresolution as time passed.  Time passed and precious minutes wasted grew to hours of inaction.  As those responsible to insure the miners’ chance of survival were paralyzed with indecision the air below grew stale and became lethal as carbon monoxide replaced life giving oxygen and the twelve were overtaken in their silent race with death.  Representatives of a faceless corporation faced representatives of a faceless Federal agency and time ticked away before someone took responsibility and a rescue plan was implemented.  While they all dithered Junior Toler wrote:

“Tell all I’ll see them on the other side.  It wasn’t bad.  I just went to sleep.  I love you, Jr.”

The mining company has announced that it has set aside $2 Million for the families of the twelve who have gone away to the other side.  The company has announced that it has set aside another $2 Million to fund the fight to resurrect Randal McCloy from the grip of the Dark Angel.  Mine inspectors whose job it was to see that Sago and other West Virginia mines were in compliance privately complain to reporters that their Department of Labor superiors prevented them from strictly enforcing safety regulations.  As the details leak out it reminds us of the faltering response to Katrina disaster.

The suggestion is being made that the cause of the explosion was a lightening strike – an Act of God against which there can be no defense.  Whether these deaths were caused by a random Act of God or the studied neglect of man twelve families mourn while a thirteenth clings to fragile hope.  If it was an Act of God perhaps it was no accident that He chose twelve to taste death and left one living to remind us of his promise to us and our pledge to each other.