What a jerk! If coal magnate Robert E. Murray wanted to lay off his workers he should lay them off, but don't blame President Obama for it, much less hide behind God! Here's his self-serving pink slip "prayer:"
Dear Lord:The American people have made their choice. They have decided that America must change its course, away from the principals of our Founders. And, away from the idea of individual freedom and individual responsibility. Away from capitalism, economic responsibility, and personal acceptance.We are a Country in favor of redistribution, national weakness and reduced standard of living and lower and lower levels of personal freedom.My regret, Lord, is that our young people, including those in my own family, never will know what America was like or might have been. They will pay the price in their reduced standard of living and, most especially, reduced freedom.The takers outvoted the producers. In response to this, I have turned to my Bible and in II Peter, Chapter 1, verses 4-9 it says, “To faith we are to add goodness; to goodness, knowledge; to knowledge, self control; to self control, perseverance; to perseverance, godliness; to godliness, kindness; to brotherly kindness, love.”Lord, please forgive me and anyone with me in Murray Energy Corp. for the decisions that we are now forced to make to preserve the very existence of any of the enterprises that you have helped us build. We ask for your guidance in this drastic time with the drastic decisions that will be made to have any hope of our survival as an American business enterprise.Amen.
Yet nothing changed on November 9 in the mining industry. And since Murray Energy is privately owned, we have no idea how well it's doing, or will do, we just have to take old Bob's word for it that he's in "survival mode" now.
In fact, Murray just wanted to make a political point against President Obama -- and he used the Lord's name and 156 workers and their families to make it. (Gee, do you think it'll work if they pray to God to get their old jobs back; or will their prayers just cancel each other out?)
And let's not forget the complaint to the Federal Election Commission in October that alleges Murray threatened employees with reprisals, including the loss of their jobs, to coerce them to make contributions to the company's PAC.
Self-made millionaires like Robert E. Murray can be the most insufferable egotists. They figure if they made it big then everybody else should be able to as well. People like Murray discount luck and chalk up all their success to themselves (and maybe "God," in the abstract.) He's probably too dumb to realize his father and himself probably could have avoided their terrible mining accidents if Big Government had been allowed to ensure adequate mine safety.
So anyway, now Murray says he's in "survival mode," trying to generate all the cash he can. I wonder what survival mode means for a rich CEO like Robert Murray? I bet it's not the same, quantitatively or qualitatively, as survival mode for his laid-off workers.
By Kim Geiger
November 10, 2012 | Tribune Washington Bureau
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