Jul 4, 2010 By Herald Standard Staff 3 min read

Several area state officials have come out in support for a stamp honoring coal miners. State Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-South Union Township, state Rep. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, and state Rep. Ted Harhai, D-Monessen, joined state House colleagues and members of the mining community at a news conference Tuesday at the state Capitol to urge the U.S. Postal Service to honor the efforts of the American coal miner and to issue a United States postage stamp honoring coal miners and their families.

Mahoney has co-sponsored a resolution (H.R. 873) sponsored by Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, D-Luzerne, and adopted by the state House of Representatives that honors the memory of the heroic miners who lost their lives working to provide the fuel to maintain the country’s energy demands.

“Being a former coal miner, I am mindful of how important it is to memorialize miners for risking their lives so we can have a better way of life,” Mahoney said.

Mahoney said the Coal Miners Stamp Committee of Northeastern Pennsylvania and the state-formers Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee have agreed to begin a nationwide campaign to educate and inform the American public on the stamp project.

Mahoney said people can add their support for the coal miners stamp online at www.coalminersstamp.com.

“Our coal miners helped to fuel this nation’s industrial revolution,” Solobay said.

“They continue working to heat our homes, run our factories and light our cities by doing a dangerous and difficult job,” he added.

Solobay also co-sponsored the bill that calls on the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee to recommend an image of an American coal miner be placed on the face of a U.S. postage stamp in recognition of the deaths of more than 100,000 coal miners.

“The effort to honor our coal miners with a stamp has been going on for five decades. During that time we’ve seen stamps for flowers and snowflakes, cartoons and movie stars. It’s time to honor real American heroes – our coal miners,” Solobay said.

“We’ve seen pop culture figures on stamps, wildlife and flowers, insects and snowmen,” said Harhai, “but never an image of the people who work in the deepest dark and who carved the foundation stone that propelled this nation to greatness and prosperity – a cornerstone of coal.

“To add the image of a coal miner to our nation’s postage stamps costs no more than a butterfly, musician or comic strip character, but its meaning, its symbolism, will be priceless.”

In presenting his case, Harhai cited three victims of the Darr Mine disaster in Van Meter in 1907. The explosion took the lives of 239 miners. “Andy Haden, Frank Vagner, John Yaremko. You won’t find them on a postage stamp,” said Harhai.” John left five children; Frank one; and Andy had had a mother back in Hungary.

“There have been vast improvements in mine safety, but, as we were reminded just this past April by the loss of 29 miners in West Virginia, those who venture into the earth to provide our nation with energy are still at risk, and bravery remains a prerequisite for every descent on the hoist.

“It is time we recognize Andy, Frank and John and the tens of thousands of coal miners killed and injured in the mines.”

Letters are being sent to the governors and legislative leaders in the 26 states that have coal.

People can sign by visiting www.coalminerstamp.com

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