Recognize Labor Day locally

Editorials

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.

comments powered by Disqus

September 4, 2010

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Sat Sep 04, 2010, 03:25 AM EDT

This editorial first ran in The Daily Star in 2004. It runs again this year in honor of Labor Day.

_______

"Labor Day differs in every essential way from the other holidays of the year in any country. All other holidays are in a more or less degree connected with conflicts and battles of man's prowess over man, of strife and discord for greed and power, of glories achieved by one nation over another. Labor Day ... is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation."

-- Samuel Gompers, American Federation of Labor founder

The phrase "Labor Day" may conjure up images of picnics, hot dogs and beaches _ a day of relaxation and, for students, one last day of freedom before going back to school.

But Labor Day once meant more than just going back to school and barbecues.

Though the actual founder of the American holiday of Labor Day remains subject to debate, it is known that a day was set aside for the celebration of a "workingmen's holiday" by the Central Labor Union of New York in the late 19th century.

The union picked Tuesday, Sept. 5, 1882, as the date for its demonstration and picnic in New York City and decided to celebrate labor in a similar fashion each September. By 1885, the idea had spread to other unions in cities around the country, and in 1894, Labor Day was established as a federal holiday by the U.S. Congress.

Today, most of us will not spend Labor Day at a union-sponsored parade or demonstration at which labor issues are at the forefront.

Participation in labor unions continues to decline throughout the nation. But Labor Day is no longer just a celebration of union members _ it is a celebration of work, of American business and of all that this nation of workers does throughout the year.

The idea of Labor Day as a political holiday, a day to honor workers rather than their bosses, is a narrow definition of a day that can be recognized in a meaningful way by everyone.

Workers and employers who work on Labor Day can honor the holiday on the job by taking time to familiarize themselves with workers' rights under the law.

We can also celebrate Labor Day by patronizing locally owned businesses throughout the weekend. By supporting our neighbors, we can contribute to the success of labor on a local level, keeping jobs close to home and keeping money flowing into the local economy.

We can't always buy everything we need in locally owned stores, but Labor Day weekend is a good time to visit local merchants. We may be pleasantly surprised by what they have to offer.