Dear Ellen

September 11, 2009

Dear Ellen,
Why do we celebrate Labor Day?
Curious

Dear Curious,
Labor Day was established in the grand tradition of U.S. federal holidays back in the late 1800's. It's a classic story in the history of a budding America. Peter J. McGuire, an American Labor leader, went up to Toronto for vacation in 1882. During his stay he was delighted by a parade and festivities, which were part of an annual celebration in support of labor union legislation in Canada. After his trip, he returned to America and said to his friends "You guys missed a killer party! We've gotta throw one too." And so they did. The parade became an annual event. Peter's good friend, Bob, played a major role with his famed 'Labor Parade BBQ Shrimp Skewers.' Another friend, Joe, excelled in his role as Logo Baseball Cap Coordinator. The tradition continued unofficially for many years.
In 1894, Grover Cleveland was President of the United States, with a challenging political priority of 'reconciliation with Labor.' Cleveland already sensed that he was the kind of President who would not live in political infamy, and that 100 years later no one in America would know anything about him or his administration. In essense, he knew he was boring. So he pulled together the finest and brightest of popularity experts within his cabinet, and after considerable deliberation was encouraged to attend the Labor shindig. So Grover threw on his Levi's, picked up a pony keg, and rolled down to the party. By the end of the day, Grover was wearing one of Joe's hats, talking BBQ with Bob, and shotgunning brewskies with Peter. He was able to glean information to help him find the root of union disputes with the government, which all boiled down to the fact that it really sucked to have to use a vacation day to get off work for the Labor Parade. As soon as Grover got back to Washington D.C., he rushed over to Congress with the glee of his newfound popularity and dispute solution. Within six days, Labor Day was unanimously signed into law as a Federal Holiday, and the rest is history.
Obama thinks he has his legacy made in the shade, between health care, the economy, and a war. But I haven't heard anything about a new three-day weekend.
Ellen