The autumnal equinox doesn’t occur until later this month, but Labor Day is considered the end of summer for most purposes – a nice three-day weekend for the family to relax. Generally if the kids aren’t already back in school by now, they’ll go back tomorrow. And the Shorebirds season comes to a close tonight, marking another rite of passage from summer to fall.
In looking back at the summer, one that was considered “decent” by tourism standards in Ocean City, it’s worthy to point out that the national economy didn’t hurt the tourism industry as much as feared, but certainly this wasn’t a boom year many wanted after enduring $4 a gallon gasoline last year. Apparently a lot of families (mine included) opted for day trips to the local resorts and/or cut costs in various other ways.
Secondly, despite the howls of protest about paying for parking at Shorebird games the average attendance was actually up this year by about 3 percent. This increased average will resume an upward trend since 2005 that barely was halted last year by a tiny decline of 5 people per game. The bad news though is that we will need just over 7,000 attending tonight’s game to avoid setting an all-time low for attendance – the current seasonal low is 217,980 in 2006 and as of last night the season total this year was 210,829 with just tonight to go. The culprit in this case has been a summer full of rain at the wrong times, as the Shorebirds have only played 59 of the 69 scheduled starts this season (and tonight’s forecast isn’t so great either.) I’ll discuss this more in the next couple weeks as I do my seasonal wrap-up for the Shorebirds and pick a Shorebird of the Year.
But the group who really has had the bummer of a summer has been the group today was set aside to celebrate, Big Labor. They thought by now that they’d have two of their cherished objectives they sought when they backed Barack Obama for President and a Democrat Congress – “card check” and national health care. But so far they’re 0-for-2 as they met stubborn and principled opposition to both issues. (You’re welcome.)
Big Labor (more specifically, the Service Employees International Union – a.k.a. the “purple shirts”) also got a black eye figuratively for delivering black eyes and other physical ailments literally at a town hall meeting in Missouri (I put the video in FNV3.) Those actions once again reinforced the perception of “union thugs” that many on the right have, and with good reason. I’ve detailed before (FNV2) the aggressive tactics used in attempting to organize workers who may already be pretty happy with their situation as it stands.
So the summer for Big Labor passed like a rainy day at the beach, frustrated by forces one can’t do a whole lot about. It did make the situation more tolerable for the rest of us, though, so the summer of their discontent (marked by a lot of pro-liberty people showing our discontent with the ever-growing government Big Labor favors) will hopefully portend a fall filled with more of the same, with a dash of crushing defeats for Democrats at the ballot box thrown in.
I keep telling you all the time: That video shows union members on the ground. Where’s the “victim”? When did he get all of those “punches to the face”? And why didn’t he have a scratch on him the next day on Cavuto’s show?
I smell the same shenanigans as the woman who carved a backwards B on her face.