WHAT WE DO MATTERS: THE MEANING AND HISTORY OF LABOR DAY

Labor Day is a special holiday set aside to honor workers and the contributions that they make to their jobs and to society.

The History of Labor Day
There is some doubt and confusion as to when or by whom Labor Day was started. Here are some points of importance to how Labor Day Started.
 

• April 15, 1872 – Toronto Trades Assembly (TTA) (possibly the original labour body in Canada) organized the first North American “workingman’s demonstration”. Some 10,000 Torontonians turned out to watch a parade and to listen to speeches calling for abolition of the law which decreed that “trade unions were criminal conspiracies in restraint of trade”.
• September 3, 1872 – Members of seven unions in Ottawa Canada organized a parade that stretched for more than a mile long. The parade stopped at the home of Prime Minister Sir John A. MacDonald. They brought him into a carriage and marched to the Ottawa City Hall by torch light. The Prime Minister was aware of the discontent of workers with the laws which made unions illegal so he made this declaration that his party would “Sweep away all such barbarous laws from the statute books”. These laws were repealed by Parliament later that year and the tradition of holding parades and demonstrations was continued on into the early 1880’s.
• July 22, 1882 – The Toronto Trades and Labour Council (the successor to the TTA) organized the annual demonstration and parade. Peter J. McGuire of New York was invited to attend and speak at this occasion.
• 1882 – Matthew Maguire, later secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J. proposed a Holiday for Labor while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York.
• 1882 – Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a co-founder of the American Federation of Labor suggested a day to honor workers.
• September 5, 1882 – The Central Labor Union held its first Labor Day holiday in New York City. A second Labor Day was again held a year later on September 5, 1883.
• 1884 – The first Monday in September was selected as the holiday and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to also celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date.
• February 21, 1887 – Oregon passed the first bill to become law making Labor Day an official holiday.
• June 28, 1894 – The U.S.A. Congress passed an act making the first Monday of September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories including all Federal workers in all states. The individual States still had to enact their own legislation which 31 States had done already by this time.
• July 23, 1894 – The Canadian Government enacted legislation making Labour Day, the first Monday of September of each year into a national holiday.

Regardless of who, where or when Labour Day was started, it is now an important holiday which is now celebrated in many different countries. 

Even though Labour Day was born through the activities of the trade unions, which are still holding demonstrations and picnics on Labour Day, this is a holiday to be celebrated by ALL who labour and who’s efforts and skills at so many different jobs to give us the materials to fulfill all of our wants and necessities in society.

Thank you to all of you, who’s job it is to make this world go ’round.  Whether you are a soldier, a banker, a policeman, firefighter, social worker, healer, minister, teacher, maintenance worker, factory worker, cook, hotel employee, mechanic, accountant, doctor, nurse, lawyer, mail carrier, newspaper person, gas station attendent, fast food employee, grocer, baker or a candlestick maker… you make the world go ’round. 

 Babysitters, stay at home mom’s and dad’s, little league coaches and others that donate their time without much reward, you too are thanked because what we all do matters! 

God has given us ALL a purpose.  He wants us to prosper and live the life of abundance He has created for us.  It is up to us to pull the abundance in to us.  Work, prayer and giving of ourselves will indeed create prosperity and abundance for us in our lives.  Life is not lived by material things alone; however.  There are riches waiting for us in the place which God has created.  We will be rewarded for our work both here and in Heaven.

Whatever it is you do, know that you matter!  Your work matters!  Even on days when it seems like what you are doing is somehow pointless, know that it affects two more people, other than yourself.  You matter! 

There is a more important lesson to be learned here.  In Labor Day, we take a day off and BBQ, hang out with friends and enjoy the extended weekend as a means to celebrate and be rewawrded for the work we do all year long to make this world go ’round.  But when the job we do becomes less important than the title we hold or the money we make, it may be time to move on.  When you suffer burn out its impossible to do an effective job for the employer who employs you or the people you may serve. 

You matter, to someone and the job you do matters to more than one someone.  Labor Day celebrates the work we do and gives us that extra day…we owe it to our employers and to those we serve to give them each day we serve them, our possible best.  Even when we’d rather not.  What we do matters more to others than we will EVER know.

One last note:  one smile can fight off three frowns.  Make each impression of yourself a positive and lasting one.

We live in what is known as the ‘Free World’.  A land where every person has equal opportunity to live, strive to be their personal best, love, worship, work and be who they are.  Do you take that for granted? 

Before Sept. 11, 2001, many people wandered through their daily lives, just living in the moment or worrying about tomorrow.  It took a fatal and cowardly act to bestow patriotism in us.  But why?  On that one single day, we were ALL Americans.  We were ONE NATION UNDER GOD and under attack.  We all put the flags out and posted the ones our local newspaper provided for us in our windows.  We all were more attentive to many a thing.  We bought and wore anything that had to do with the flag.  We put bumper stickers on our vehicles with sayings like…’these colors don’t run’…and ‘red, white and blue-through and through’.  We all did something else.  We looked at people differently, in two separate ways.  One:  anyone who looked ‘like an American’, we looked them in the eye…said hello to passing strangers…we prayed for peace together without separation of Church and State.  We also looked at anyone who didn’t look like us as if THEY were our enemy.  We didn’t mean to.  It came out of confusion, fear and what to do next. 

Suddenly anyone who wore their clothing draped upon them, had turban-like head wear, appeared to be ‘middle eastern’ or had an accent that resembled anyone from the Desert was not of us. Again, we didn’t mean to.  We were frightened.  Untrusting.  In shock. We had questions that had no answers.  However, we know now that we still know not who our enemy IS and who it IS NOT.  We are, in our search for answers, in no different of a place than we were 6 years ago.  Possibly and hopefully, less judgmental.  See, they, who we looked at differently, had and still have their own questions and maybe if you ask them, their questions are no different than ours. 

Everyone who reads this knows exactly where they were, who they were with, what they were doing when they heard the news.  Some of us were in offices.  Some of us at home watching it unfold with loved ones.  And for some, talking with their loved ones who were aboard those planes and listening to their last words they’d ever hear from them.  Only for the deafening silence on the end of the phone as the picture on the TV was more deafening than the silence…the voice fades and becomes silent as the second plane hits the Tower and they watch in horror just realizing they just witnessed their loved one die.  Or to be having a conversation with their spouse or their child, trying to reassure them things would be OK.  And the phone conversation ends with no response on the other end as the TV confirms yet another plane has hit the Pentagon or crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.  They were there when IT happened…life as they knew it from those moments before had just ceased.  Or how about being at a bus stop in some other city in America and having the appearance of being Muslim, Islamic or Arabic.  Suddenly you find yourself being looked at in disgust as if people were saying ‘ how could you’ with their eyes.  Or being an infant child, not knowing 6 years from now when you begin Kindergarten and the life your parent or parents lead has been turned in to nothing more than an hour long documentary.  Maybe when you found out we were under attack, you were sitting idle at your desk, working a normal Tuesday work day when the roof, windows and walls of your office exploded and you found yourself and your co-workers lying under 8-10 feet of debris. 

Whoever you are…wherever you were and however you found out….you always remember and NEVER FORGET!

We were all victims that day.  Every single person here in America.  Whether citizen, visitor, immigrant or alien.  We were ALL victims.  The point is not not remain a victim.  Moving on with life does not mean forgetting.  Always remember who you are, where you were, what you felt.  If you feel, it means you are still alive to tell about it.  To learn from it and teach others what you learned.  Can we still be angry?  Yes, but if that anger consumes you and lessens the quality of your life you have left to live here, then what is the point of having those feelings at all?  Anger, when it consumes you, deadens you.  You are unable to feel anything real.  You become stuck in those moments 6 years ago, or in any trauma you have lived through, with no other purpose but to be angry.

Live THIS life.  We only get one shot at this life.  Stop worrying about how to pay this bill or that bill.  Prosperity comes because God provides.  Lift up your hearts, your burdens, your worries and discomforts to God and let Him be your ROCK. 

This year, when you remember 9-11, remember ALL of those who were here that day.  Not just the lives of the 3000 plus heroes we lost but ALL who were affected and remain affected by this tragedy.  Fly your flag proud EVERYDAY, not just in May (Memorial Day), June (Flag Day), July (Independence Day), September (Patriot Day and Labor Day), October (Columbus Day), November (Veteran’s Day) and December (D-Day)—but everyday–if you can.  If not, each day when you wake, and you thank God for giving you this new day, take a moment to reflect on what your life means to you and how you want to live it.  What will you do today to make a difference and serve your purpose?  Are you living the life you want to be remembered by?

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Enjoy and welcome.  I hope my words can help you to START LIVING THE LIFE YOU DESERVE.

Blessings!