Transcripts For CSPAN2 U 20100426 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
dean jones, richard k. lane, william roosevelt lynch, nicolas darrell mccroskey, joe marcum, ronald lee maynor, james e. mooney, adam keith morgan, rex l. mullins, joshua s. napper, howard d. payne, dillard earl persinger, joel r. price, deward scott, gary quarles, grover dale skeens, benny willingham and ricky workman. nothing i or the vice president or the governor, none of the speakers here today, nothing we say can fill the hole they leave in your hearts. or the absence that they leave in your lives.
the homes, we are thankful for the rescue teams, but our hearts ache alongside you. we are here to memorialize 29 americans. carl accor, jason atkins, christopher bell, gregory steven brock. kenneth chapman, robert clark. charles timothy davis, cory davis, michael lee elseworth, william. edward dean jones, richard k. lane, william roosevelt lynch, nicholas darrell mccroskey, joe markham,
underground explosion. we also understand maybe roughly about 15 minutes after the hour, president obama will deliver the eulogy. we understand it might be about ten minutes long. of course, he ll talk about the collective grief that people are feeling as a result of this explosion and the lives lost, and he will also try to offer some assurances that some measures of safety will be put into place for future coal miners and other communities that have such great investments in the coal mining industry. there you saw the governor, joe manchin. the first lady, gail manchin is also there. i understand she is actually the one introducing the family members. let s just listen in right now as names are being announced on the p.a. system and family members are filing in. tammy davis. [ applause ] benny r. willingham. [ applause ] again, what s taking place here is you re hearing the announcements of a family member who will come forward. they re being greeted by governor joe man
virginia. and we deeply cherish that. those of us who live here. and we honor that profession. and people say, well, why do they go into those coal mines? they go into those coal mines to provide for their families, and in the process, they keep the lights on in america. [ applause ] but for the families, that means waiting each day, every day, for the sound of your loved one s footsteps on the front porch. it means waiting anxiously to hear that they have returned safely. every day. and the 29 families who one day never heard those footsteps knew what that terrible silence meant. it is almost too much to bear. so we ask why. why does this happen yet again? as the governor said, we will find out. we will learn exactly what happened. we will get answers. and we will pass legislation to meet the requirements of those answers. and we will do it for you, the miners, of west virginia and america. [ applause ] in closing, i should note that west virginia, all of west virginia, is i