Harlan County USA

bikerbabe · ‎03-09-2010

This remains one of my favorite documentaries of all time. I haven’t seen it since a college labor relations class. It’s on TCM tonight and I’m watching it now. Story of the early 1970s Brookside coal miners strike in Harlan County KY and their fight for better working conditions against threats, violence and murder. The filmmaker was a woman and she won an Academy award for the film. It’s also famous for the filmmaker and her crew being violently attacked by company thugs. It’s just heartbreaking seeing these guys die from black lung while the coal mines deny any health hazards.

Several years before the strike, United Mine Workers President Tony Boyle was convicted of hiring the murder of his primary opponent and his family in a rigged election. Boyle was widely seen as being in the pocket of the coal mining companies.

SurferWife · ‎12-12-2010

Oh...when I read the thread title the first thing that came to my mind was Raylan Givens,

Time is just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity. It isn’t how long you live that matters; it is how well you are prepared to die. ~~Colonel Robert B. Thieme, Jr.