Speech from Anthracite Fields by Julia Wolfe featuring Bang on a Can All-Stars & Choir of Trinity Wall Street

If we must grind up human flesh and bones
in the industrial machine that we call modern America,
then before God I assert
that those who consume the coal
and you and I who benefit from that service because we live in comfort,
we owe protection to those men and we owe the security to their families if they die.

I say it, I voice it, I proclaim it
and I care not who in heaven or hell opposes it.
That is what I believe.
That is what I believe, I believe, I believe.
And the miners believe that.*

*adapted from a speech by John L. Lewis (head of the United Mine Workers) to the House Labor subcommittee

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