Labor Day...For Better or Worse

To many, it was a LONG weekend..time to fire up the grill, check out ALL those SALES, and get hammered ONE last time before it's back to "the grind". To a lot fewer people, it was just simply a time to put one's feet up, relax, and think about what Labor Day means.
With all the problems we face today on a global scale, and with all the more problems each of us encounter daily in our own towns, cities and boroughs, from bad drivers to leaky roofs, we otfen fail to ponder the plight of the average guy or gal sweating their lives away, eeking out a meager living so they can *maybe* provide a better life for their offspring.
The people in the trenches that make America work...all the nameless cogs in the mighty "machine" whose job it is to do what they do, every day...monotonous as it might be, are the real unsung heroes. People who work for minimum wage, yet still do their best..the ones that protect us and come to our rescue when called..the men and women who provide needed services are the ones we should be thinking about. SO much of what goes on "behind the scenes" is what we take fro granted. Turn on the spiggot..water comes out. Turn on the TV...news, weather, sports and more comes out. Turn on the range, there's that blue flame (or red coil if it's electric). Feeling a bit warm? Just turn on the A/C to cool off....no one thinks about WHERE the power comes from, and even less about WHO is making this happen for all of us 24/7.

That working stiff...the common man (and woman)...the individuals who, by working in concert with others such as themselves, allow the rest of us to enjoy the amenitites we don't even cast a thought about. And we're not only referring to this current generation of working class, but the scores of generations preceding them who scouted, settled, and built America, timber by timber, brick by brick, and word by word...THEY are the ones we should be thinking about. So when I think of LABOR DAY....I just find a part of history that chronicles the achievements of these men and women...the ones that toiled, worked and labored their way into not only the annals of history, but into an untamed land, and an even more unknown future.

That makes this "day off" that much more noteworthy, and worthy of the recognition it rightly deserves. Labor Day is about PEOPLE...great people...people who I find more enlightening than a cookout or a shopping spree.
Of course you could always dedicate that cookout on rememberance TO them...
....in keeping with the spirit, right?