‘The Lord loves a working man…’
It’s Labor Day, y’all. And honestly, it’s not all that exciting of a holiday. I mean, sure, no one is going to turn down a three-day weekend (for those of you who have that regular Monday-to-Friday, 9-to-5 sort of schedule), but we don’t really have the same hoopla around Labor Day that we do around other Monday holidays.
You don’t really have any icons to put up on posters or base special presentations around like we do with Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Day or even the recently-deemed-problematic Columbus Day.
What is the icon of the “American Worker” anyway?
Maybe Rosie the Riveter? Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s cool that right at the end of the summer, we give the school kids and everyone a little “last hurrah” to get out and do something fun before hitting the long march to the holiday season. It’s just that most of us won’t really do anything “in honor” of the working class. What would that even look like? I guess to most folks, it looks like either a cookout or going shopping to tak advantage of the 2022 Labor Day Mattress Sale or whatever.
But what is this holiday really about? Well, don’t tell anyone, but it’s acutally one of the basic tenets that the American socialist movement was build around… giving recognition, beginning in the 1880s, to the rising power of
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labor unions and trade guilds. Both the American Federation of Labor and the Knights of Labor take credit for pushing for the holiday in what eventually became known as “The Unofficial Last Day of Summer” down the road.
Every time I see something about the working class, I can’t help but be reminded of the 1979 Steve Martin comedy, “The Jerk.” In the opening scene, Martin’s character, who despite being white, has been raised by a Black family in Mississippi and somehow doesn’t know he’s not Black. It’s both funny and a little awkward.
He’s getting ready to leave home and his kinfolk are giving him advice on how to get by in the world. His mother tells him “The Lord loves a working man.” It’s good advice.
His father tells him, “Don’t ever trust Whitey.” That’s also probably pretty good advice sometimes.
Then his brother tells him to be careful, to which Martin says. “I will. I know what’s out there.”
His brother then tells him.
“I do too. If you catch it, see a doctor and get rid of it.” Who knew you could pull such worldly wisdom from a 40-year-old slapstick comedy?
In any event, I hope that you are able to take advantage of this Labor Day and relax.
I, of course, will “celebrate” by laboring even more… out in the backyard.
