Labor Day 2020

      Labor Day was always the last holiday weekend before we went back to school. More and more lately I have felt a sense of outrage whenever I saw a school district or college opening their doors in August. I can't believe someone would think it a good idea to take a holiday away that we all once understood. 

    Labor Day meant the summer vacation was truly over. It meant we were resuming a well honed routine where we began the education year for younger generations. Starting school in August and then taking a long Labor Day weekend makes no sense. Summer is an all or nothing proposition. It can't be stopped and started easily.

     Today in our Covid-19 world the stopping and starting is much easier because most students, if they are lucky, are being educated online. It is certainly not an ideal situation. The students are missing the valuable lessons they can learn only in the company of others, be they teachers or fellow classmates.      

     Labor Day has less significance this year. It seems all we hear about the students going back to school is the number of them contracting Covid. The pictures of parties with no social distancing or masks are disturbing. common sense appears to be on holiday, not just the usual party goers. 

     There is no vaccine. These matters take time, unless we are very fortunate and the first trials are overwhelmingly successful. I hold out hope for this to happen. It will mean we can start again to develop ordinary, unremarkable habits, instead of living in fear of one another. Labor Day could resume being the last summer holiday. A holiday where we might reflect upon our lives and attempt to think about ourselves in a more positive manner. 

 

Labor Day 2019

     Labor Day used to mean going back to school and the end of the tedium which is August. Now we have school opening in August and this divide in people's minds, between Summer and Autumn, has been shattered.

     Work is different these days, too. Less working together at a location like the top of a skyscraper, and more working solo at odd hours around the clock. The old work was more back breaking and tedious but the new work is using all our time and depriving us all of the advantages the previous generation worked so tirelessly to provide us. Ironic? Yes!

     Labor Day was created as a result of unrest and rioting by workers who were clearly being given a raw deal by the Robber Barons of the Gilded Age. Replace the words "robber barons" with the words "tech titans" if you desire historical context. History tends to go in circles, if not repeat itself. 

     The current age is a new Gilded Age with extreme income inequality and outrageous displays of wealth. Flying private is the new horse drawn carriage with a team of eight horses. The McMansions are symbols of the architecture which once signified taste and style. They don't do justice to the 19th century examples except as a means to wall people off from the dirty realities of life which are common just outside their walls.

     The Trust Busters of the previous age, who helped level the playing field and provide room for Trade Unions to organize, already have the tech giants like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple in their sights. Hopefully, we'll be spared the violence and prolonged strikes but you never know what people's breaking points will be or what miscarriage of justice will provoke them. Possibly, some reflection upon those days when the year had more visible  inflection points will soothe some of the anger. Maybe the image of our steady, societal progress which we all used to hold close will do the trick. I'll make no predictions, only offer my consolations to those working hard this Labor Day, with no time to reflect upon the day's origins or the new treadmill our technologies have tied us to.