Labor Day is a national holiday, provided by the federal government as an acknolwedgment to the power of working people when they get together and demand progressive change. The official story is now that Labor Day is a homage to working people and their contributions to our society, but the backstory involves more. For nearly ten years, during the 1880s and early 1890s, labor leaders organized workers to stay out of work on the first Monday in September as a show of force, and the government responded with the political maneuver of its own, making it a national holiday in 1894 in an effort to nullify the unions' annual symbolic move. Thus, we have Labor Day.
When common working people get together and cooperate, the results are staggering and positive, as evidenced by the reforms of the 1880s and 1890s and later of the 1920s and 1930s. But we're forgetting that fact as we look on hard times these days, and as some working people allow splintering and isolating ideals to diminish the power of organized demands for improvements. We ought to be coming together to stand against corporate greed, an expensive and seemingly endless procession of military actions in foreign countries, and widespread economic instability; instead, too many hard-working people support ideologies that encourage us to stand alone and only work for ourselves as individuals or ideas about America that encourage us to accept mistreatment, mismanagement and mishandling as natural elements of a capitalist economy.
As I watched the Tea Party phenomenon grow into fruition, I would always say to my wife, Watch these people get their wish and they'll all be sorry. Calls for tax cuts and spending cuts and "stay out of my life" have led to what we see now. State, county and municipal budgets are so scant that the one of the only places left to cut is to make layoffs of public servants, like firemen, police officers, teachers, and court clerks -- layoffs of more hard-working people. The most obvious repercussions of reduced budgets have come in the areas of courts and education, where the lack of staffing causes the demand for services to exceed the manpower. As the economy struggled, and as people became either unemployed or scared of becoming so, the Tea Party built momentum by promising to reduce taxes and reduced "government waste," which would result in "more money staying in your pocket;" this offer may have sounded good at the time but it is sophistry in our complex and deeply interwoven modern society. We're seeing that now.
Well, I ask those people now: how does the food that you didn't buy taste? You kept your money in your pockets, and now our collective pantry is getting empty. What will you do when your children are in large, under-resourced classes and the teachers never even know their names? What will you do when you are victimized by criminals and the few policemen on duty are tied up already? What will you do when you are wronged or cheated and your lawsuit will take two or three years to be heard? Some people will say, I will home-school my children, and I will get a gun to defend my home and family. My response is that we would be retreating into chaotic, self-righteous vigilantism, if that idea were to prevail. Joining together for the common good is the better option.
Just as Memorial Day is an annual reflection on the service and sacrifice of the men and women in the armed forces, Labor Day is an annual reflection on the power and importance of working people. If working people put their faith in every-man-for-himself ideas, like those of the Tea Party, all of us will suffer for it. Organizing, pooling our resources, and speaking with a resounding demand for collective justice is our best hope in this time of difficulty. Happy Labor Day!
When common working people get together and cooperate, the results are staggering and positive, as evidenced by the reforms of the 1880s and 1890s and later of the 1920s and 1930s. But we're forgetting that fact as we look on hard times these days, and as some working people allow splintering and isolating ideals to diminish the power of organized demands for improvements. We ought to be coming together to stand against corporate greed, an expensive and seemingly endless procession of military actions in foreign countries, and widespread economic instability; instead, too many hard-working people support ideologies that encourage us to stand alone and only work for ourselves as individuals or ideas about America that encourage us to accept mistreatment, mismanagement and mishandling as natural elements of a capitalist economy.
Society is a scenario where people agree to work together to solve common problems, like the labor unions have done in so many cases, and this notion that society can take care of its problems by keeping each person's resources to himself is foolishness. The pooling of resources, a lack of selfishness, and a dismissal of paranoid isolationism always adds up to better results. When children attend schools, which are funded by pooling resources, they are taught each subject by professionals in each area, and the most well-educated of parents couldn't match the overall level of subject-area expertise in a school. Ordinary civilians rely on the protection of their individual properties by well-trained and well-equipped police force and military force, which are funded by pooling resources. Even in the colonial days, to which Tea Party advocates are so fond of referring, men banded together into militias to fight the British; they did not win by standing alone, each to protect his own property. Neither should we now.
As I watched the Tea Party phenomenon grow into fruition, I would always say to my wife, Watch these people get their wish and they'll all be sorry. Calls for tax cuts and spending cuts and "stay out of my life" have led to what we see now. State, county and municipal budgets are so scant that the one of the only places left to cut is to make layoffs of public servants, like firemen, police officers, teachers, and court clerks -- layoffs of more hard-working people. The most obvious repercussions of reduced budgets have come in the areas of courts and education, where the lack of staffing causes the demand for services to exceed the manpower. As the economy struggled, and as people became either unemployed or scared of becoming so, the Tea Party built momentum by promising to reduce taxes and reduced "government waste," which would result in "more money staying in your pocket;" this offer may have sounded good at the time but it is sophistry in our complex and deeply interwoven modern society. We're seeing that now.
Well, I ask those people now: how does the food that you didn't buy taste? You kept your money in your pockets, and now our collective pantry is getting empty. What will you do when your children are in large, under-resourced classes and the teachers never even know their names? What will you do when you are victimized by criminals and the few policemen on duty are tied up already? What will you do when you are wronged or cheated and your lawsuit will take two or three years to be heard? Some people will say, I will home-school my children, and I will get a gun to defend my home and family. My response is that we would be retreating into chaotic, self-righteous vigilantism, if that idea were to prevail. Joining together for the common good is the better option.
Just as Memorial Day is an annual reflection on the service and sacrifice of the men and women in the armed forces, Labor Day is an annual reflection on the power and importance of working people. If working people put their faith in every-man-for-himself ideas, like those of the Tea Party, all of us will suffer for it. Organizing, pooling our resources, and speaking with a resounding demand for collective justice is our best hope in this time of difficulty. Happy Labor Day!
0 comments:
Post a Comment