WHAT I’M THINKING is a new, probably infrequent, feature of my blog. In it, I shall feel free (I hope) to share my thinking about any number of topics that matter to me and may matter to my readers, whether they be regular subscribers or those who stop along the way to somewhere else.
1974-75 | My First Year of Teaching | 2nd Grade | Dupre Elementary | Lubbock, Texas
. . . what happened to Labor Day? All day on TV’s Smithsonian channel, it was World War II, time slot after time slot. While I appreciate that sort of programming on Memorial Day or Veterans Day, why on Labor Day? Not one hour concerning American’s labor movement?
Google AI defines the holiday this way: Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements in the United States. And yet what are some of those contributions?
Google AI continues our edification: The U.S. labor movement is a historic and ongoing effort by workers to gain power through collective action and unions to achieve better wages, safer working conditions, and fairer hours, starting with the Industrial Revolution and evolving through key legislative acts and events. Despite declines in membership since its 1950s peak, the movement has influenced the establishment of the weekend, the 40-hour workweek, public schools, and benefits like pensions and paid leave, and is currently seeing a resurgence with organizing efforts at major companies.
If the Smithsonian and other relevant broadcast stations, even MSNBC, were to consider honoring the true spirit of American labor, they might add to our understanding through some meaningful programming. How about at least an hour on the history of the movement: how it began in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the country moved from a rural to a more urban society (a transition we might still be making)? Perhaps a program or two about the very first unions, their successes, their failures? What about an hour on labor’s major accomplishments over the last 250 years: the forty-hour workweek? How about at least an hour each on key legislative events concerning labor, including the Haymarket Riot (1886), the National Labor Relations Act (1935), or the Great Postal Strike of 1970? Perhaps these programs already exist, and I just haven’t seen them.
When I taught public school in Texas, I joined the Federation of Teachers, even though, because of Texas’s right-to-work laws, the organization didn’t have much influence. Why join? For one, it offered a million-dollar liability insurance policy in case a parent or administrator or district took legal action against me. And why might they have done that? Because I am gay, and not long before I began teaching it was possible for teachers across this nation to be fired for being gay. You bet I belonged to the strongest teacher’s union in the nation. I never had to call on that insurance policy, but it was there each year, allowing me to teach with confidence, without fear that I might lose my job just because I loved another man and lived with him openly in a conservative West Texas city. Most of all, I enjoyed being part of a strong national organization that exclusively defended teachers’ rights, unlike other Texas teacher groups that sometimes included administrators and their interests. I also joined to stand, coast-to-coast, with a much larger group of professionals. Solidarity!
Yes, we should really rethink our observance of Labor Day, include some parades sponsored by current labor union members, floats that celebrate the history, the legislative gains, the dreams that labor still has for the future. Yes, that might be a beginning for a better Labor Day holiday. Then the celebrative picnics in the backyards of Americans might mean something more than a time to down a beer or two and smoke our favorite meats outdoors one more time before summer passes. A more enlightened celebration might (gasp) guide ever younger and newer laborers to join or form a union protecting their work places. What could be more American! Oh, by the way, speaking of Google . . . nice tribute!
Google AI defines the holiday this way: Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements in the United States. And yet what are some of those contributions?
Google AI continues our edification: The U.S. labor movement is a historic and ongoing effort by workers to gain power through collective action and unions to achieve better wages, safer working conditions, and fairer hours, starting with the Industrial Revolution and evolving through key legislative acts and events. Despite declines in membership since its 1950s peak, the movement has influenced the establishment of the weekend, the 40-hour workweek, public schools, and benefits like pensions and paid leave, and is currently seeing a resurgence with organizing efforts at major companies.
If the Smithsonian and other relevant broadcast stations, even MSNBC, were to consider honoring the true spirit of American labor, they might add to our understanding through some meaningful programming. How about at least an hour on the history of the movement: how it began in the 17th and 18th centuries, when the country moved from a rural to a more urban society (a transition we might still be making)? Perhaps a program or two about the very first unions, their successes, their failures? What about an hour on labor’s major accomplishments over the last 250 years: the forty-hour workweek? How about at least an hour each on key legislative events concerning labor, including the Haymarket Riot (1886), the National Labor Relations Act (1935), or the Great Postal Strike of 1970? Perhaps these programs already exist, and I just haven’t seen them.
When I taught public school in Texas, I joined the Federation of Teachers, even though, because of Texas’s right-to-work laws, the organization didn’t have much influence. Why join? For one, it offered a million-dollar liability insurance policy in case a parent or administrator or district took legal action against me. And why might they have done that? Because I am gay, and not long before I began teaching it was possible for teachers across this nation to be fired for being gay. You bet I belonged to the strongest teacher’s union in the nation. I never had to call on that insurance policy, but it was there each year, allowing me to teach with confidence, without fear that I might lose my job just because I loved another man and lived with him openly in a conservative West Texas city. Most of all, I enjoyed being part of a strong national organization that exclusively defended teachers’ rights, unlike other Texas teacher groups that sometimes included administrators and their interests. I also joined to stand, coast-to-coast, with a much larger group of professionals. Solidarity!
Yes, we should really rethink our observance of Labor Day, include some parades sponsored by current labor union members, floats that celebrate the history, the legislative gains, the dreams that labor still has for the future. Yes, that might be a beginning for a better Labor Day holiday. Then the celebrative picnics in the backyards of Americans might mean something more than a time to down a beer or two and smoke our favorite meats outdoors one more time before summer passes. A more enlightened celebration might (gasp) guide ever younger and newer laborers to join or form a union protecting their work places. What could be more American! Oh, by the way, speaking of Google . . . nice tribute!
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