Loading ...Few things are as terrifying as being trapped. That feeling has to be exacerbated when one is trapped underground. The recent tragedy of a group of miners trapped underground inevitably brings a sense of horror to any decent person who has heard of it.
There is, of course, nothing unique about this tragedy. Mining is an inherently dangerous occupation. Like most occupations with a high risk of severe injury or even death on the job, it is an occupation overwhelmingly filled by men rather than women. This is to be expected as the majority of the most dangerous jobs require a level of physical strength that most women do not possess. It is also quite possible that even those women who possess the physical strength to do such work tend not to choose such extremely risky jobs. However, it should also be noted that the occupation of mining is open to women in the United States and that there are women who are miners.
Nevertheless, the vast majority of miners are men as are all of those trapped in the recent case. Why do men take jobs that are high in physical risk? It is unlikely to be because such jobs are deeply fulfilling. Rather, they are often risking their lives to support women and children.
Women are often considered the more loving and more emotional sex. It is indeed true that we tend to be more emotionally demonstrative than men and more attracted to flowery displays of affection.
But perhaps the risks men accept in order to be adequate providers for the women and children in their lives display in the most substantial way possible the depth of caring of which they are capable.
The Biscuit Queen said,
August 21, 2007 at 6:40 am
amfortas said,
Here is Tasmania we have been following the Utah mine tragedy with not just great interest, but a great deal of empathy. Last year we had a mine cave in, in a gold mine, and it was touch and go for several trapped miners. There was much grieving for the dead too. Fortunately two men were rescued after a number of days and a media circus, but the subsequent closure of the mine - for safety reasons - almost closed down a whole town. We had many expressions of sympathy and advice from some splendid people in Tennessee who had suffered in the same way.
Our thoughts are with the people of that place in Utah.
August 21, 2007 at 8:03 am
anti armchair generals said,
Thank you for excellent article. Also good comments by others. Another dangerous work done mainly by men is highway repairs on rular roads and Interstate highways.
When a recent tragedy occured, an official said on TV matter factly that genrally 12 to 13 workers are killed yearly. I assume some are women, but local paper is covering a story how dimunitive woman had been admitted to fire academy despite twice failing a part of agility test. When she tried to hold fire hose, the pressure pushed her back. Tragically, she was killed in a fire.
Equal opportunities have their hazards, like another story today about woman soldier killed in Iraq. In Vietnam War over 58,000 men and 8 women were killed.Denise Noe's article ponts the dangers and grief for those left mourning.
August 21, 2007 at 1:45 pm
anti armchair generals said,
In early 2006, Wilson, who was a civilian working in the Fire Marshal's office, applied to the academy. She took an agility test but was rejected.
She took the agility test again in November 2006 and failed. The report says she was 10 seconds too slow on the "tower walk," a timed drill during which recruits wearing weighted vests must climb and descend the steps at the fire academy's six-story fire tower.
Wilson was accepted into the November 2006 class, however, even though the report says she had scored better the first time she took the agility test and did a better job on four of the five stations. That indicates that her physical conditioning had deteriorated from the time she initially applied to the fire academy and was rejected.
Wilson's autopsy found that she was 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighed 192 pounds.
"Racheal's physical stature may have presented some challenge to her becoming a firefighter," the report says.
Other problems were noticed. Wilson's instructors told investigators that during training she "had a propensity for removing her face piece" and said that she had trouble holding the nozzle of a hose under pressure. Instructors never documented their concerns and allowed her to progress through the academy without mastering those skills, the report says.
Wilson was holding a nozzle the day of the fatal fire, though she had never done so successfully in a live fire. As had occurred during previous training exercises, she was knocked backward when she opened it to spray water on a second-floor fire.
August 21, 2007 at 2:14 pm
anti armchair generals said,
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.soldier21aug21001521,0,4709374.story
August 21, 2007 at 3:09 pm
fourthwire said,
That written, I am amused that you believe that men who take risky jobs require attention focused on them.
Such men generally scoff at "awareness events" or campaigns to bring "awareness" regarding the risks they regularly endure.
In fact, a much greater benefit for such men would be a strong message to women (who may indeed be more emotional, but they certainly aren't more "loving"!) that men ARE NOT EXPENDABLE, as so many self-centered American women seem to believe.
However grisly mining accidents and other dangers of high-risk jobs can be, the misery and pain that men in America regularly suffer, because they do not yet have the same rights to remain in the family as women have to remain in the workplace are several orders of magnitude more commonplace.
Don't expect any changes soon - the feminazis are clamoring to provide courts and law enforcement with even more tools to have men kicked out of their own homes and separated from their own children.
Many more American men will die from suicide after such events in one year than will die in mining accidents and other risky jobs in the next five years.
August 21, 2007 at 6:38 pm
anti armchair generals said,
consepts advanced by advocates. Let's hope she does not face the fate of Norhtwestern University professor who questioned some of consepts about transgendered.
From New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/21/health/psychology/21gender.html?ei=5124&en=0c11623b4c191f82&ex=1345348800&adxnnl=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1187799014-y9inRa3y8U7Pblh4fzIVmw
August 22, 2007 at 10:26 am