What are we celebrating this Labor Day?

To most Americans the Labor Day weekend signifies the end of summer and beginning of fall. To football fans it means the start of the season. The lakes, parks and campgrounds will be full for the last three day weekend until Thanksgiving. There will be plenty of picnics, barbeques and outdoor activities. So what exactly are we celebrating on Labor Day, a day of no labor?

Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September. It actually originated in Canada because of the “Nine-Hour Movement,” which were labor disputes in the 1870’s that led the Trade Union Act, which legalized union activity in Canada in 1872.

There is some dispute as to who first proposed the holiday for workers in the US. Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold." In 1882 American labor leader Peter J. McGuire witnessed a labor festival in Toronto. He returned to New York and organized what many claim was the first American labor day celebration on September 5, 1882.

Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many others believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

According to Wikipedia, “In the aftermath of the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the US military and US Marshals during the 1894 Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with Labor as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was introduced and passed.”

It was recently stated that because of the huge amount of National Debt that the average worker now works until August 15^th just to pay their share to fund the government. That’s seven and a half months of hard work and sweat to carry our share of the burden. So Labor Day could be a time to celebrate that the rest of the year we are actually able to freely spend our earnings.

In today’s economy a damper on the Labor Day Weekend is our current unemployment rate. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics there was a slight increase in unemployment in July from 8.1% to 8.2%. The mainstream media still continues to express optimism that the economy has rebounded and that the stimulus worked. Sorry to disappoint and rain on that parade, but we only created 86,000 jobs last month while losing over 200,000.  The total of under-employed and unemployed workers continues to grow. President Obama is boasting on the campaign trail that he has created 4 million jobs since taking the reins. What he is not telling us are the facts behind those numbers. According to economists, we have to create a minimum of 200,000 jobs per month to keep up with population growth. Obama has been in office for 44 months. Just to maintain the current workforce we would need to have created 8.8 million jobs in that amount of time. So even by his own math we have gone in the hole by 4.8 million jobs.

It is clearly evident all around society that things haven’t improved and that growth is stagnant at best. So let’s do something different this year on Labor Day. Those of us fortunate enough to be employed find someone who is not and invite them to our cookouts, picnics, etc. and pray with them and try to encourage them to not give up. The Bible says, “Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ”. – Galatians 6:2 NLT let’s all do that, at least for a day. Then let’s get engaged in determining the outcome of the upcoming elections. It is our only opportunity to take action on the direction of the country. Enjoy your last long weekend of summer.