We've come a long, long way. We haven't killed a coal miner in a state of Illinois coal mine for two consecutive years.

They are closing the mine in two weeks, they say. Six days a week bumping down in the gondola, pecking out the rocks and hauling them back up, doing it again the next day for twenty-seven years, one cave-in, three thin raises, and a failed strike. Where am I going to go every day, what am I going to do with all that sunshine?

We just finished 2005 without a fatality in Illinois. We haven't had one for two consecutive years. That's the first time since records started being kept in 1882 that's been accomplished.

Illinois has always been proactive in mine safety and it is very important that we as a state continue to look at new procedures ... to ensure our miners are as safe as they can be.

And I said, 'A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could've had you?' And he said, 'Because when he sings ... even the birds stop to listen.

My father was a miner and he worked down a mine.