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Elizabeth Beggins's avatar

What a touching and sobering story, Stew, not least that it was your last road trip with your sister. Looking at that memorial -- the names and ages of the little ones who never got the chance to live much of a life, the families who lost so many at once -- is gut wrenching.

I particularly appreciated how you wove in subtle commentary about the prices we've paid for "progress." Even back in the days when the social contract was robust.

You write: The town revived itself. The muck dam was rebuilt. Olin Chemical Corporation bought Mathieson in 1954. Operations of all the plants closed February 29, 1972 and Saltville had to recover again, this time from the loss of employment and the steady hand of the corporation.”

The social contract only ever extended to the point of affordability. The same is true today, though affordability now factors in the expectation that shareholders and executives will reap returns far greater in comparison to what is given to employees. Thus, the social contract, as it were, is more or less gone. When something gives (the muck dam is a suitable metaphor) it is always at the expense of the commoners.

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