Replies

ohioWfan asked:

"Does anyone know what the 'Appalachian infant' thing is all about? Very strange, I thought...."

bpjam replied:

"When you mine for coal in West Virginia (where she is most likely referring to), you can destabilize the ground and cause settling of the soil which can be a hazard to buildings. ...."

But . . . the January 6, 2005 issue of the Washington Post indicates that it wasn't in West Virginia that the half-ton boulder "...hurled like a cannonball into Dennis and Cindy Davidson's house, right through the wall of the bedroom and onto the bed where 3-year-old Jeremy was sleeping. ...and continued its path, crashing through a closet before finally stopping at the foot of 8-year-old Zachary's bed. Zachary would be fine. Jeremy was crushed to death."

That didn't happen in the State of West Virginia; and it didn't happen because the ground was destabilized by coal mining. It happened in southwestern, Virginia, where "A bulldozer operator widening a road at a strip mining operation atop Black Mountain unknowingly dislodged the half-ton boulder that August [2004] night."

See Anger at Senseless Death: Boy Killed by Flyrock; Va. Residents Cite Flawed Regs at the following URL:

http://www.ohvec.org/newsletters/woc_2005_02/article_215.html

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Also: As a West (by God!) Virginia "hick" (?) whose own property was destroyed by irresponsible coal mining practices, I lose all sense of humour when a valid question receives an obnoxious reply such as the following (by word_warrior bob):

"She needed to include white people, so the hick Appalachian infant is killed by a boulder rolling over their shack, think Cletus from the Simpsons."

word_warrior bob's attitude tells me more about him (and what he "needed"!) than it does about Giovanni and/or her Thug Life-inspired rah-rah sis-boom-bah cheerleading style at a convocation for dead students and faculty members!

I know about the mining incident, how many others do who heard the speech.

You don’t have much of a sense of humor do you? My comment had the same relevance to her speech comparing kids getting shot to elephants losing their tusks, it’s open for interpretation. I interpreted the appalachian parable to Cletus’ baby getting rolled over by a boulder in the lean-to they live in.

Art is our interpretation of what’s presented isn’t it? I have a strange sense of humor, so now that you think you know what I’m thinking, tell me what I’m having for dinner tonight.