Labor Day makes me think of my father
My Father and Labor Day
Labor Day always reminds me of my father. He was a proud member of the AFL-CIO local in Cincinnati at AT&T. He inspired me to write my high school senior term paper on Walter Reuther.
I found these quotes about labor collected by Maria Vultaggio, a reporter at the International Business Times.
“Without ambition, one starts nothing. Without work, one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
“There is no substitution for hard work.” –Thomas Edison
“Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.” –Theodore Roosevelt
“Nothing will work unless you do.” –Maya Angelou
“I learned the value of hard work by working hard.” –Margaret Mead
“All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
And here are my six questions:
When did Labor Day become a federal holiday? Where was the first parade to celebrate Labor Day?
What is the largest union in the U.S. today? Do European countries celebrate a similar holiday?
Does Labor Day remind you of anyone in your life? What did you do to celebrate Labor Day?
The Department of Labor website explains the history of Labor Day. You can find some answers there. If you can’t answer all, answer the ones you know and certainly the last two!
Justice Ginsburg, photo from Todd Heisler/The New York Times
If Men Had Babies. . .
This August 4 2014 New York Times article sent by my friend, Mount Holyoke classmate, and Unitarian Universalist colleague Marion Connell makes good reading.
Gay rights are being more enthusiastically supported by the current Supreme Court than women’s rights, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says. She attributes this dichotomy to the six male members who don’t seem to comprehend that women’s rights include making choices about contraception. It reminds me of the remark I’ve heard often – if men were the ones giving birth, there would be no question!
Her article reminds me that, as with voting rights, civil rights, and other human rights, we can’t be complacent.
In the video, Ginsburg discusses the most recent Supreme Court term with Duke Law Professor Neil Siegel before an audience of alumni and students from Duke Law’s DC Summer Institute.
She says she has always been focused on, “Women’s equal chance to decide what her life’s course will be.”
