Holidays

So, today was Labor Day.

I am lucky in that I got the day off. One of eleven paid holidays this year. A true gift.

It just makes me wonder what causes holidays to be holidays. I mean, today, I heard a report that a recent poll found more than 70% of Americans have favorable feelings towards unions. (I don’t recall where, so I can’t properly cite this, but this is a stream of consciousness blog and not an academic paper, so get off me okay!) I am not sure what is holding the other 30% back, but my whole point is that labor is not really the kind of thing that I would truly expect a country that collectively gasps at the word socialism would come to celebrate. Celebrate to the point of creating a holiday.

It makes me think that the story must be more of an appeasement. Someone said, ‘what if we give them cake, a party, a day off work every year…I mean not for everyone but for the white collar office workers and such (not a bastion of union support, I also suppose)’ and someone else was like, ‘yeah, that is genius and way better than actually improving labor conditions or pay inequities.’ And that is seriously how I imagine this one got started.

Okay deep breaths. I’m gonna go look it up. This is practically a live blog at this point.

According to the Department of Labor back in the late 1800s, a carpenter or a machinist (there is some disagreement), proposed a day to celebrate all the working peoples to celebrate all the great things that they have made. < aside: Which sounds pretty cool but also a little bold since wasn’t nearly everyone a worker at that point? Was this workers versus farmers? Was there an active non-working group…wait, is this a man holiday? Nope, not a man holiday. > Okay, so this holiday gets adopted by Oregon first and then several other states before the nation adopts it in 1894. And, I guess, we are supposed to celebrate with parades and trade shows.

I went over to read the congressional story about making this new holiday expecting some real juicy bits of argument, but alas. According to History of the House the bill passed the senate pretty much as soon as it came to the floor and also sailed through the house. An interesting tidbit here is that the Chairman of the House Labor Committee told people to consider ways to make working lives easier and submit them to their congress people each year on Labor Day. Hmm. I have never heard that instruction. I hope lots of people are submitting ideas today. While I only went for a run and hung out with my dog; I hope that others did their solemn duty of observing trade shows and sending ideas for laws to improve the lives of workers. Those people are the best. If you are one of them, congratulations. I appreciate you. (Said in earnest).

The plot thickens a little - according to this story from the History Channel, just a couple of days before this bill passed, there was a strike. There were many strikes during this period, but this one was for rail cars, and it delayed shipping and led to riots. Many people died. Just two days afterwards, congress picked up the bill that had been sitting around for 8 months and passed it. So, it was a bit of appeasement after all. I do so love being kinda a little right.

If you must know for yourself, the actual bill is exceedingly short. Less than one page. It just declares a holiday; no other things tacked on. wild, right?