Labor Day, once again

Well, I suppose those of us who like summer can heave our collective sighs and recall the time it was.

Of all the holidays which dot the calendar, Labor Day is probably my least favorite. Sure, I appreciate the day off work but look at all the other things going on:

  • For many children (including my significant other’s), it’s literally the last day of summer vacation.
  • As a Shorebirds fan, after today I have seven months without baseball to dread.
  • Those in the local tourism industry see their window of opportunity beginning to close down, although the push to establish a “second season” in recent years has cushioned that blow to an extent.

But today is the day which Big Labor calls its own, allocating the celebration of the American working person despite the fact that the vast majority of workers don’t belong to a union. An area which is a union stronghold (like the city of my birth) is quite likely to have a Labor Day parade, and it irked me to no end that the Labor Day parade was much better attended and had greater participation than the Memorial Day parade which was often moved to the Saturday before. Something is amiss with those priorities.

And the Labor Day parade I attended wasn’t even fun. What is the interest in seeing union trucks, city vehicles, and a motorcade from businesses which happened to be union shops drive by? The only reason I went was for the marching bands, one of which at the time included my daughter by another father. I didn’t need to see a bunch of people waving signs for all the Democratic politicians who were driving business out and running a once-fine city into the ground.

Of course, now we’ve had the controversy of the Wisconsin parade where the unions basically said no Republicans need apply. But even if the GOP regulars did come and attempt to mend fences there was little chance of unions giving them political endorsements or contributions because Big Labor is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the Democrats – even at a time when more and more individual members are card-carrying Republicans or fiercely unaffiliated.

Now Salisbury doesn’t have a Labor Day parade, most likely because there’s not enough union influence to convince the city to play host to one. Instead, most local Labor Day events celebrate the American worker as part of the larger community like the Crisfield Hard Crab Derby festival, which is a local Labor Day weekend tradition. In other words, they look at the holiday as one last opportunity to gather in the summer sunshine and celebrate rather than promote a socialist agenda.

But lastly I also don’t like the holiday for another, more personal reason after last year since my late brother’s birthday falls around this time of year – generally once every five or six years it occurs on Labor Day although this year it did not. He is missed.

On Tuesday it will be time to revert to a different routine as school will get going in earnest, stores put out their Halloween (!) items in preparation for the holiday shopping season to come, and that familiar chill in the air will begin to be noticeable. Before we know it, we’ll be raking leaves and wearing sweaters. As a fan of summer, it’s the time of year I least enjoy because I really dislike winter.

So pardon my depression and bear with me as I cope. Perhaps the one good thing about this time of year is that political events begin to come back into focus, and people in various local municipalities and the commonwealth of Virginia begin to pay attention to politics because elections are on the way.

Despite their heavy influence on Labor Day celebrations in certain areas of the country, we can emerge victorious over Big Labor and their coerced union dues being sent to statist candidates around the nation. It’s time to get to work.

Author: Michael

It's me from my laptop computer.

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