Labor Day: Working Folk Working Well

Over Labor Day Weekend, visitors to the Monterey Peninsula will be arriving from inland areas to relax at the beach, see the sights and luxuriate for a time.  They will be fed by line cooks, whisked to hotels by taxi drivers, awakened with coffee brewed by baristas, attended to by valets and tucked into beds made clean by launderers and housekeepers.  They will fill their gas tanks at stations manned by low-wage-earning attendants, drive on roads smoothed by city workers, and visit galleries and stores attended by clerks.  

On walks around Monterey, Pacific Grove and Carmel, tourists, themselves on holiday from their own nine-to-fives, will admire old stately homes and public buildings whose bricks and boards were mortared and hammered into place a hundred or more years ago by laborers now long gone.  They will eat fish hauled in from the sea on local boats or dine on meat raised by ranch hands and farmers near and far.  

There is a jackhammer pounding away about 20 yards from my ear, outside, but I am grateful.  His back and shoulders, every joint in his body has been vibrated violently by the work he is doing, a job I am glad not to have but glad he is doing well.  

Time to celebrate the blue collar workers who keep the country moving every day, the usually invisible and nameless.  Time to let them know their work does matter and does not go unappreciated.    

I salute the men and women with dirty jobs who are unknown to me.  The sewer cleaners, garbage collectors, street sweepers, sewage facility operators, cable maintenance people, plumbers, roofers, clothing assemblers, textile workers, and on.  I am glad that they have done their jobs and not let us down by doing poor work.  Today, I can sit in ease and comfort because my town has been kept safe, and my food transported safely.  

Thank you, laborers and working folk.  You are good for us all; you are our backbone as a nation, and when you shine, we all look pretty darned good.  I am grateful to drive on well-built streets in a sturdy car to places in town you have maintained and cared for.  

This is the weekend we are meant to appreciate our own two hands as well as those around us that we depend on for nearly everything we have and need.   Happy Labor Day, every worker everywhere.