On Labor Day 2025
The phrase “hand me downs” comes to mind as I post this.
Today is Labor Day. My life, literally, has been Labor. I am a child of two career public school teachers whose career began in the 1920s. For nine years I was a public school teacher myself; then, for 27 years, I represented public school teachers in a teachers union. After all of this has come 25 years of retirement as an activist. This blog is part of my activism.
There has never been a Labor Day more important than today, September 1, 2025. If you’re still wondering what you can do, start today by doing something constructive reaching out, and each day that follows, repeat, repeat, repeat…. You know the issues. Your issues likely will be different than mine, but you know them and you can act, one action at a time.
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If you wish, here’s a place to start: zll of my posts over the past 16 years are archived, and this day I recall one from Nov. 17, 2011, on Referent Power – by far the greatest power ordinary people like you and I have, and the power we seem to actually use the least.
Put the words “Referent Power” in the search box and there are 8 entries….
Today my favorite historian, Heather Cox Richardson, gives context to Labor Day. Here is her post dated August 31, 2025..
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In addition:
On August 25, I published two posts which you may wish to scroll through: Smithsonian and History, and The Days Ahead. The Days Ahead includes starter thoughts on the latest school shooting, Annunciation, August 27, in my own metropolitan area….
Together, we in the 99% can succeed. It makes no difference whatsoever that we live in different places, or even if we have different issues. The common element is effort beyond ourself, positive action in all of its infinite varieties.
COMMENTS:
from SAK: Thanks Mr Bernard,
Your activism over the years is sincerely highly appreciated!
By the way someone sent me a YouTube link to Heather Cox Richardson whom you have alerted me to much earlier.
Some might like listening/watching her expound her reflections, for example:
A Brittle Administration Inventing a Crime Crisis
Much food for thought, Dick! Cudos to the assembled ideas; cudos for your life’s work. A happy Labour Day to all from Northern Neighbours!
I much appreciate the comment, Jim, as I appreciated the comment of SAK (above). It is my belief that the common folk of the world have an immense amount of unrealized power, unrealized only because they don’t believe they have any power, and tend to look for some ‘savior’ who will never materialize in the temporal world at least. I think the Oligarch’s and pretenders to that status like the current President, know this, and are terrified of the prospect that they will, sometime, be found out and exposed for the frauds that they are. I plan to keep trying to empower those I can. Thank you again.
Ahyes, memoreis of Labor Day when I was growing up inb Carlton Counyt about 20 some iles from Cloquet, Minnesota. The three wood products companies there at the time, Northwest Paper Company, Diamond Match and heh Wood Conversion, were all union companies. Many men from y home town worked there as well primarily at the Wood Conversion plant.
Cloquet always held a big three day Labor Day Celebration with a big parade featuring primarily DFL elected official including the governor or the AG aka Mondale and other elected officials including my father who was in the state senate. They had a big Labor Temple in Cloquet as well, that long ago was sold for a non-union purpose along with the loss of the unions let alone the LD celebration. All of that union significance and importance for Cloquet ahs long since let the building.