Today being Labor Day it was only right and proper that my wife and I. working together harvested and stored fresh food from the garden for winter. I picked the tomatoes, green beans, and mint from our garden and husked the corn we had purchased from a farmer’s market up north. My wife peeled the tomatoes, added ingredients and made a basic tomato sauce that can be used to make salsa or pasta sauce. She blanched and froze the green beans and the corn off the cob. I dehydrated some small tomatoes and put the dehydrated mint in the freezer. My wife also took some large zucchini and made chocolate Zucchini bread. This was a lot of work, especially for her, but it was rewarding work with a sense of accomplishment attached to it.
In Milwaukee there was a parade and Labor Day festival sponsored by unions. I doubt if there were many Republican politicians present at the festival since they were responsible for taking away ‘collectivize bargaining’ rights from State Workers. The Republican Governor did not show up at any events but did issue a statement of how good private business workers are.
The President did his job and spoke to workers and unemployed in Detroit about his plan to create new jobs. The Republican presidential candidates did their job and blamed the financial and unemployment crises on the President. Both parties will blame each other and nothing will be done.
In the meanwhile unemployment and poverty reign in the USA; there is more infant mortality; the rich become richer and the poor become poorer.
These observations made me think that Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker, was on the right track when he called for the scholars, farmers and factory workers to work together for a sustainable society. Maybe we should add ‘politicians’ to this mix working together.
Gandhi called for Swaraj, self reliance, creating a sustainable community and self governance through individuals and community building. To do this we must all work together.
Now this quite a job for us: to work together. Working together, we are not liberals or conservatives, on the right or left, farmers or factory workers or poor or rich but one people working together for a sustainable community. Labor Day is a good day to start working together.
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