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Monday, September 4, 2017

Labor Day, 1894

The Federal holiday celebrating the American worker dates back to 1894.  The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was 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.
I myself am actually working on Labor Day, and I also did what I have done in years past, which is to spent the long weekend canning, as it is also the peak time for garden harvesting.  Fifty seven quarts of marinara sauce this year, enough to supply our extended local family for the year.
The important thing to remember and celebrate on this day is the vital force that labor adds that materially raises America to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known.  May we be brought closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy, rather than going the direction the current administration is bent on taking us in.

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