The April 5 explosion that led to the death of 29 miners in West Virginia was horrific. It was traumatic. And even to Gators more than 600 miles away, it was heartbreaking.
As diversified as we are by race, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status, we Gators always seem to be able to join hands when it’s needed most. We did it for Haiti. We donate blood in drives across campus daily. And we did it this weekend, raising more than half a million dollars for the Children’s Miracle Network at Dance Marathon.
Say what you want about those two-stepping, Macarena-playing, shoulder-leaning sorority women and fraternity men, but those kids braved exhaustion and gonna’-need-some-Dr.-Scholl’s-pads-soon warnings in their Sperry’s to donate more than $500,000 to a worthy cause.
The situation in West Virginia, the death of 29 of our fellow Americans, is just another example of why we need to stand up like the Boys of Old Florida that we are and act.
The death of the miners was heartbreaking, yes. But the deaths were also unnecessary and avoidable. The explosion that sent the miners to an untimely death in the mines that let them live electrifies exactly why there’s no such thing as clean coal.
We must join forces one more time, Gators, and demand for a more sustainable future in which King Coal does not sit atop his throne, wielding power unlike any president has ever possessed. Coal pollutes our air. The mining process often destroys our mountaintops, and, even if rarely, it directly leads to the death of our fellow men.
We must demand a future for our children that does not involve air-quality levels lower than an anorexia joke at the Olsen Twins’ birthday party. Because the future of not only coal miners across the world but our Mother Earth depend on it.
