Freedom, Liberty and Labor

Today is labor day in the United States. Labor day has become another holiday for BBQ's and pick nicks and family gatherings. It is a holiday that started with very good intentions but has degenerated to a form that is not what the founders intended.

We now view Labor Day as the "Official End" of summer. Even though in many parts of the USA, warm weather may last until the end of the month. Below is the history and meaning of the holiday as expressed on the US Dept. of Labor website.

The History of Labor Day

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation. The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment. By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

A Nationwide Holiday

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

In some respects, one could say this was a sort of Communistic holiday where the worker, and only the worker is celebrated. Where is the holiday celebrating the Captains of industry and the innovators and inventors of the past 200 some years?

In any event, we all do well to remember the meanings of the holidays we celebrate be it Labor Day or any other Holiday. Have a great Labor Day! Be safe! Be Free!

Did we win one?

I just learned that Green Jobs Czar Van Jones has quit. Yes, NPR is reporting that "Czar Jones" has resigned his post at the White House.

He claims he quit because of a "smear campain" against him. I am still trying to figure out how people on the left side of the political isle, or any isle for that matter, can get away with calling the truth a smear campain.

How is telling the truth using ones own words a smear? It isn't. The reason it becomes a smear is because the one who said the convicting words wants to hide from those words.

Think about Obama telling people he is not for taking over the health care industry when he is on record numerous times saying he is for a Single Payer System. He has even given a time line as to when he would like to have that system in place. But he says that those who point out those facts are using scare tactics and a smear campane against him.

Well what was so controversial about Mr. Jones? Asside from the fact that he is an avowed communist, he said that he believes that the 9-11-01 attacks were the work of our government.

Oh sure, there are some others here in the USA that feel that somehow the government of the United States had a hand in the destruction the World Trade Center Towers. But none of those kooks works in high places of government. At least none that we know of.

However, Van Jones, is nothing more than a huge black communist. Black in the terms of his race. Although he is black in the terms of stealth as well. He wants to do things from a secret position. This position was that of a Czar appointed by Obama and accountable to no one.

Well, Mr. Jones thought he could get away with being in stealth mode but people out there in America found the things that Van said, wrote, supported and tried to bring about into reality. He has his own self serving agenda to blame, not some smear campane that really is nothing more than the truth.

You could say this is a minor win for those who fight for liberty and freedom. You could say that this is a small step forward in taking back the country in which they love so dearly.

Yes, Van may have quit, but we still have some 47 or so Czars to go. And, indeed, we have the biggest Czar of them all to get rid of...Barack Obama. Lets hope that more Czars vacate their positions due to public pressure because of the truth being reported. And then let us hope and pray that in 2012 we are able to vote out Obama and in his stead, put someone who still believes in our nation, our freedom, our constitution.