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Written by a Keystone Pipeliner:

Today is a heavy day. Its hard to believe something I love so much can be taken away by people that have no idea exactly how I make my living. They have no idea the pain and misery and sacrifice that comes with this job.
This job kept me from being a shit bag like alot of the lower class kids I grew up with. This job kept me off drugs and out of jail. This job moved me out of the slums. This job gave me a below average simple man that started with nothing but bad credit and a shitbox truck the ability to rise above alot of my peers. I didn't have to get a goverment loan that I can't pay back for an education I'll never use.
All I had to do is put in my time and give it my best. I worked hard to get where im at. Nothing is free or given on the ROW. You earn it. Every damn bit of it. You work 7-12s no matter the weather. You miss holidays, birthdays, ballgames and all the other things 9 to 5ers enjoy.
Yes the money's good. It's not about the money. It's the feeling you get when you and your buds are ringing wet covered in mud after a 16 hr shift doing a tie in.
It's knowing you belong to something so much bigger than yourself.
Mr President how dare you take that away from me. You a man that has done nothing but live of my tax dollars. How dare you sale all of us out. How dare you shut down whole communities and make us dependent on foriegn oil again.
How dare you take food from our familys mouths.
How dare you sir.