COMMENTERRY--

Profit at all costs?

Recent news brought us events that shook the stage on which they occurred.

A dispute is arising regarding the horror of men yet trapped in a collapsed Utah coal mine, and, another surrounds the achievement of Barry Bonds, a major league baseball player who broke the premier record in baseball of most home runs hit in a career previously held by Hank Aaron and, initially, by Babe Ruth.

The obvious similarity in both cases is the suspicion of a personal inclination to act in one’s own best interest regardless of the rules or scientific evidence.

While the scientific community believes seismological evidence points to the mine collapse in triggering what first appeared to be an earthquake, the mine’s owner is fighting fiercely to make the point, the scientists are wrong and a quake was indeed the cause of his mine’s collapse.

The mine owner allegedly uses a practice called retreat mining which removes the coal in the columns that support the mine’s roof as miners work their way toward safety. It’s a highly profitable practice but regarded as very dangerous by federal mine authorities.

In Bond’s case, his monumental record was achieved while he is undergoing an investigation on his alleged use of steroids; a body enhancing drug some believe artificially and against league rules supported his achievement. Bonds denies any wrongdoing.

In both cases evidence points to the fact personal profit could have been more important to the principals involved than obeying the rules.

Let us hope the trapped miners survive and truth ultimately prevails in each of these controversies.