| The last official weekend of the summer, some say. For those of us who have to work, a chance to earn a real hourly wage for a change (time and a half!). On Memorial Day, it is fashionable anymore to order everyone to spend a minute or two remembering the honored fallen. Those are the people who've died as a result of being ordered into combat by our nation's elected civilian leadership. On Memorial Day, we make no distinction between those who've died in pursuit of genuine freedom from tyranny (World War II) and those who've died for vanity-driven fantasies dressed up as important thinking (Iraq, the second time). We remember the soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines, in between kicking off the summer season of golf, camping, fireworks, grilling, and other stuff. Let us make it our dedicated purpose that going forward, we spare a minute on Labor Day to remember the movement that it was originally created to honor. That is, if you dislike what organized labor has done for the country -- as is fashionable in one political party that shall remain nameless -- you are invited to go to work, or to not have fun. For the rest of us, the three-day weekend would be impossible without the sacrifice of labor activists (those are the people who register what might be otherwise defined as pointless demonstrations of annoyance over pay and benefits with corporate CEOs). In fact, the weekend itself wouldn't exist for most people, let alone holidays. In other words, enjoy that hot dog, because someone died or suffered horribly to make sure you could. |
