Labor Day

It’s a lot more than the last unofficial day of summer and a three-day weekend for many Americans. It’s a holiday celebrating the many contributions that good, honest, hard-working Americans have made and continue to make to our country’s strength and prosperity.

Labor Day was initially recognized as a holiday by some cities when they passed municipal ordinances in the 1880s. Soon some individual states passed laws recognizing Labor Day. Finally, in 1894 the United States Congress passed a bill making the first Monday in September each year a legal holiday…and President Grover Cleveland signed it into law.

As I sit here as a lawyer in my air-conditioned office, I am so grateful that I worked labor jobs during the hot Polk County, Florida summers when I was in high school and college…new school construction, the phosphate mines and a whole sale warehouse. It has really helped me to better understand and appreciate the value of good, honest, hard-working people who keep the wheels of commerce turning in America.

If you have time over the Labor Day weekend, I recommend that you type in on the search line of your computer or mobile device the following words: “youtube forty hour week song,” push Go and listen to one of my all-time favorite Country-Western songs. It still gives me chills when I listen to it.

Happy Labor Day!