Videos and Articles compared to In-class Movie

I saw a lot of similarities in the videos and articles compared to the movie.  What seems to be the general consensus between mine workers and their families in their small communities is that mining is just a job, and they need the money, because in most cases the families and their surrounding communities are surrounded by poverty.  The mine workers don't necessarily enjoy their jobs, but it's money in their pocket.  It also seems that whenever there is a bad occurrence in a specific community, for example the local mine explodes, the families gather together and pray and help the families who are directly affected by the explosion.  The families that I believe are directly connected are the ones who have had a grandfather, father, or brother lost in the disaster.  These families not only lost their loved ones, but also lost a great source of income.  The surrounding families would do anything to help the families that have lost a family member.  In the example of a strike or some other union related problem, the entire community gathers together to attempt to get what they want or even need the power company to give them.  A perfect example is that of Harlan County.  The people of this community all came together when the local mine was attempting to stop the local UMW's strike.  Everyone, even more so the women, were organizing ways to win the strike.

In regards to Blankenship's speech, he mentioned that American workers have the right to keep their jobs instead of having companies get cheaper labor in other countries.  Whenever he mentioned this, the crowd, especially the men cheered.  In one case, I heard a man scream "I love you!"