Relationships & Family >
Celebrations & Holidays (Other)
RSS FeedShould Labor Day in the US honor workers or summer
Results so far:
Votes are still being tallied.
Join the Debate now.
Workers
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesYou have to look past the television and media version of what the Labor Day Weekend represents. Go beyond the end of summer time to close the cabin for the year of most non-factory working individuals in order to understand.
While most of the non-factory or manual labor workers are enjoying their weekends, most factory and manual labor workers are still laboring and sweating. These individuals are the ones who work day and night producing items, working on roads, bridges and making buildings rise from the earth just to name a few.
Most must look beyond how much they use it to celebrate the end of a great summer spent enjoying the summer lifestyle of boating, fishing, swimming, spending time the children for at least a weekend as the case may be for many. However, it is looked at is still it used to allow those who do the manual labor while others spend the summer enjoying the weather a chance to take a break too.
To be able to stop and smell the roses as it were. They get the chance for a three day weekend so many others have enjoyed most of the summer in some cases. The chance for companies to shut down so their workers can enjoy the last breath of summer to Prepare for the massive drive of fall to prepare for the winter shutdown in some cases where some manufacturing plants shut down over the Winter Holiday season for Christmas and New Years.
This is also the preparation for the manual labor that will make that big push to finish road projects, buildings, and bridges before the worst winter has to offer is brought upon them. Not too mention that many manual labor and factory workers love to hunt during the fall season causing others to pick up the slack.
As you can see there is more to consider when thinking about laborers and Labor Day than just concentrating on celebrating the end of another summer.
Learn more about this author, J. Lee Kenser.
Click here to send Author comments or questions.
Summer
Many people think Labor day is a holiday that gives kudos to the American worker by granting him or her a special Monday off from working. While this idealistic sentiment may reflect what the maker of the holiday originally had in mind, There will never be a way for every person who works a job in America to be honored by this holiday. There are people operating shops, restaurants, movie theaters, life guards working at pools and beaches, and police and fire fighters all laboring to serve the workers whom Labor day is supposedly honoring. Labor day is a holiday for those who work at the post office, bank, teach school, and basically the rest of corporate America. For millions, it is a Monday of business as usual. Do American workers, who earn more and work less than just about anyone else in the entire world, really need a day to honor themselves? It seems more like a retailers holiday, meant to release the consumers (IE workers) so that they may release their earnings a little more freely.
What Labor day is in actuality is the traditional end of the summer season. Schools used to begin the day after labor day, so labor day was a day marking the transition into another school year. Now many schools are year round or begin as early as the first week of August, so Labor day has lost some of its meaning as a last hurrah before school starts back. Most people think of bar b q's and pool parties, sales at Macy's and traveling when they think of labor day. What does this have to do with the American worker? When was the last time you thought about the American worker on Labor day? When was the last time you were thankful that you live in a land where jobs are plentiful to those who want to work, even so plentiful that there are people working still on national holidays that supposedly grant a reprieve from work?
The truth of the matter is that Labor day is really just a free Monday given to many white collar workers to kick back and enjoy the end of summer, while being served by the blue collar workers whose jobs are probably physically more difficult and who probably really need a break a lot more.
Maybe Labor day should be about the worker, but lets be honest, we usually aren't thinking of the American worker on Labor day, we're thinking, "yeah, I get to sleep in!" Perhaps this Labor day you could make it a tradition to thank in some small way those people who labor while you laze about. Giving your waitress an unusually generous tip is a great place to start. Take the idea and run with it, and that might make Labor day a day to honor laborers after all.
Learn more about this author, Tiffany Coley.
Click here to send Author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
- Celebrations & Holidays (Other)
- Should governments permit decorations for religious holidays in public squares?
