My dad doesn’t like to wear his seat belt in the car. It takes both the law and the insistence of my step mother to make it happen. He doesn’t like big government telling him what he can and can’t do even if it’s for his own safety. I thought of my dad when I was thinking about the way coal miners are trapped even before a mine shaft caves in. Economics, work ethic, isolation, and family loyalty all play their part in holding them in a situation where their lives are at risk, but they are not rewarded for being risk-takers.

I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a school teacher in a mining community. (I can’t imagine myself being a school teacher anywhere.) How would you encourage boys to look at other options instead 0f following their fathers and grandfathers without feeling disloyal to the danger and hardship they have endured for their families.

I’m thinking I’d like to watch October Sky again.