Photo for thegazz.com by Walker DeVille. Click to enlarge

Former Gazette editor Don Marsh once said of coal's presence in these Mountain State hills something to the effect it had been as much a curse as a blessing for West Virginia. If not more. The Sago mine disaster and subsequent ones in the U.S., and elsewhere recall how bloody hazardous it remains for someone else to go get the coal that helps fire up my computer and yours. This statue to the state's miners on the Capitol Grounds lacks the punch of great heroic sculpture (and his face bears a vaguely uncomfortable resemblance to disgraced West Virginia governor Arch Moore). Still. This is a steely fraternity, those diggers deep below the earth, worthy of esteem and appreciation.