Happy Labor Day: an Oxymoron

Labor Day. The Rodney Dangerfield of holidays. Nobody knows why it's treated like the runt of the celebration litter. Maybe it has to something to do with our biological clocks being stuck on elementary school time. Deep down in our bones, we're anticipating the first Monday of September pounding the final nail into the coffin of our vacation signaling a return to whatever scholastic institution we've been consigned to that semester. Making it as endearing as thunderheads on a picnic morning.

Labor Day. The last plastic souvenir sports bottle of lemonade on the dying coals of summer. The beginning of the end of the bright light and harbinger of the darkness. Swimming pools close. Ice cream trucks tie up their bells and convoy back into hibernation, And Dad suffers his last second-degree hissing bubble burn from the BBQ grill for at least nine months. The dividing line between baseball's endgame and football's chrysalis from two- a- day drills into hardcore Bowl envy. The solstice is dead. Long live the autumnal equinox.

Labor Day. As a kid, I was too busy recoiling from the looming specter of the end of my freedom to pay much attention to the meaning or even the name of the holiday. One 24 hour period carved into the almanac to honor the American worker. Seems a bit of an archaic sentiment these days. A gesture almost as empty as the candy counter at a Cineplex after a Labor Day weekend Harry Potter festival, especially what with lean and mean being all the rage. And trust me, there is a lot of rage out there.

Labor Day. Now might be the perfect time to trot out that old chestnut that if it weren't for the blue collars there wouldn't be any white collars much less $4,500 Brioni grey pinstripe merino wool suit collars. Without labor and the labor movement, we might still be nomads, camping on a frontier, boiling river water to wash down our nightly meal of beans and mush and roots and moss. Getting way too friendly with the livestock. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Labor Day Admittedly, not the sexiest holiday: There are no fireworks to watch or ugly birds to cook or chocolate covered bunnies to steal marshmallows from. Just one Monday off for all those ordinary guys and gals trying to make ends meet; raising 2.3 kids, juggling a mortgage while trying to cover the monthly cable bill with at least one premium channel thrown in. The lifeblood of America's body politic has always been its workforce, the people. (claimants before Judge Judy disincluded) I'm talking about real folks who don't think "work ethic" is a dirty word. Or a dirty two words. Or whatever.

Labor Day. A calendaric conundrum. A day we celebrate what it is we do for a living by taking the day off from work. Paying tribute not to fancy movie stars or stodgy founding fathers or rich and bloated athletes, but us. The real American heroes. You and me. OK, mostly you. But allow a guy who memorized his social security number at the age of twelve, wish you a happy Labor Day. Go out and buy a new notebook and a couple of pens. And a ruler. Nobody buys rulers anymore.

Will Durst is a San Francisco based political comic who writes sometimes. This is one of them. Please catch his new one man show "The Lieutenant Governor from the State of Confusion," appearing at a theater near you.

Comments

[DevonTexas]

Labor Day is the working wordl's version of Free Parking, a holiday with no expections other than a day of relaxation.

No Cards. No Gifts. No formal rituals. Just the personal preference for how one celebrates the end of summer.

[EminemsRevenge]

And for MOST laborers, it's just another holiday---a day without pay that puts a hole in your pocket!

[ramal]

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night...

[dogman44]

"Alive as you and me, I said but Joe you're ten years gone,
I never died said he."

[RoseMerry]

The rest of the world celebrates the workers on May 1 buy nooooooo, the U.S. most marginalize this so-called holiday just as Will says.

Workers of the World Unite - you have nothing to lost but your chains!

[winningticket]

They should change the holiday to "Big Business Day".

[COPerez]

Everyone seems to have forgotten what we ALL owe to the labor movement that spawned Labor Day:

- 5-day work weeks
- Weekends
- Holidays
- Overtime
- Paid vacation
- Safety regulations that let you go home at the end of the day with all your limbs intact
- Minimum wage
- Health insurance paid by your company (some)
- Workers compensation

I'm sure you can add lots more.

[eilish]

Sadly, this Labor Day marks the time of the 33 hour average work week, 48 million with no health care whether because it's only gotten through employment, or at least full-time employment. We're so desperate we'll work weekends, holidays, three five-hour split-shifts, sleeping 4 hours between so they don't have to pay overtime, no paid vacation or sick leave for most, safety regulations are an option, minimum wage is the standard, and workers comp is a vague memory.

[Bloggerrogr]

Thank the Republicans for that.

FWIW

[x76]

Labor Day is a slight respite from the shell-shocked beginning of school on August 20th -- yeah, August 20th. Our school district has a real gung-ho attitude which means beginning school in time for the last couple of weeks of August, which are usually really hot, at least 90 degrees. Lovely.

Europeans get a month or so off in the summer months -- enjoy your one day. I'm going to grind up some chuck roast into burgers and crack open a cold beer, look at my dead lawn (the better to conserve water with) and gird my loins against the approaching Holidays-w­ith-string­s-attached schedule which is coming up fairly quickly. It could be worse, I'm not complaining.

[dontberadicalized]

Most of us are working, have the day off, and will celebrate it. Those who want to bleed all over this blog as if we are all unemployed and miserable, before they go celebrate their labor day holiday, are free to do so.

[eilish]

What world you livin' in?

[ThePeacemakers]

But if you get Labor Day off:
It's a no pressure holiday. Unlike Xmas, Easter, Valentines Day, Thanksgiving - you aren't "required' to buy anything. And these days that could be a plus. No symbols with dubious meanings.

Unlike Columbus Day, Presidents Day, Memorial Day - no people of dubious meanings represented (everybody has their own beliefs).

New Years is great. But often a bit too much pressure to have a good time.

If you want to see family, most likey you can spend time with the ones you want to spend time with.
If you miss a bar-b-que, it's not like missing the family Thanksgiving dinner or something.

You don't have to do jack, Jack.
It can be more like a vacation than any other holiday.

[moonshine2000]

well if you think "you aren't "required' to buy anything."­...obvious­ly you don't have school age children
it is just another day off drain your bank account again.....­.....but you'd better start getting ready for th big one...chri­stmas!!

[GrumpyOldGeek]

Ahhh, Labor Day.

It's always been an oxymoron. Still is.

Recession, high unemployment, big business excesses, and an unresponsive government.
Same conditions then as now.

Labor Day began as a knee-jerk reaction by a frightened Congress and was an attempt to pacify labor rioters following the Panic of 1893 recession/­depression­. Many labor riots had occurred earlier, the most notorious being the bloody Haymarket Riot in Chicago in 1886. This riot started the idea of an 8-hour work day. People honored laborers on May 1 and called it May Day. Although the May Day Riot in Cleveland occurred on May 1, Congress decided in 1894 to celebrate Labor Day on the first Monday in September.

The conservative governments that existed during those bad times essentially did nothing. People actually starved to death. People who were sick got no treatment.

Labor Day was popular that first year. People still like the idea of getting a day off. Congress never did do much more than create Labor Day. It didn't stop the riots.

I'm unemployed now, so I have every day off.

Happy Labor Day, everyone.

[Elyriaohio]

I'm in the same boat,
I can't wait to negotiate my next job's vacation. After working for Thirty-two years I'll be lucky to start out (again) with 2 weeks vacation. Just shoot me.
Most of Europe just had all of August off. What's wrong with this picture?

[JBS]

You know there's so many things wrong with the state of Labor this year there's no way to catalog them all with Huff-Posts 200 word limit.

BUT ...

Round about 6:00 PM Monday Evening there's going to be a Symphony Orchestra, or a big band, or something, somewhere giving a free outdoor concert.

And as they do every year, they're going to finish up with Stars & Stripes Forever and fireworks.

I intend to be there and enjoy it.

So, y'all rest this weekend, recharge your batteries and we'll all be ready to go back to dealing with all the stupid sh*t the corporations dish out on Tuesday morning.

In the meantime, as Cicero sez: "Noli spurii permittere te terere"

[medicontheedge]

there is a direct correlation between the erosion of workers rights, pay , and safety and the decline of labor UNIONS.
wake up people.
it is time to rise again and take back what we lost.

[EminemsRevenge]

Maybe we should call it Reagan Day...sinc­e Ronnie came to power WE THE PEOPLE have been serfing out!

[Bloggerrogr]

Yes; I knew the end was nigh when St. Ronnie of Ray-gun killed PATCO.

FWIW

[ladyblug]

Many have to work on "Labor Day". That's really an oxymoron.

[ElCapitan]

If Labor Day seems hollow as a holiday it's because as far as I can tell we no longer respect people who labor. We used to look up to workers who labored to manufacture the wealth of our country. And we used to want them to have a large share in that wealth. Now we as a society look on them with a social darwinistic distain. We only love the paper pushers, deal makers, and those that transfer wealth today. The ones whose labor to actually makes that wealth are now regarded as leeches on the backs of the John Gaults who've inherited it. Labor day today, is just a sad barometer of our countries morals.

[WorkingClass]

American labor is despised by our corporate masters and their media. How do you suppose Grover Norquist celebrates Labor Day?

[BlackJAC]

By throwing urine balloons at anyone who doesn't have an MBA.

[IntellectuallyHonest]

Labor Day in the USA is mainly a day off for the wealthy, bankers and government officials. The blue-collar shift workers spend the day, the night and the morning toiling away at their restaurants, power plants, fire stations, police stations, radars, hospitals, etc, while the government people go home and enjoy the fruits of their labor. But we're 'The Greatest Nation on Earth' aren't we? Yeah, right.