In the United States, where I live, we're coming into Labor Day weekend, considered a major holiday here. The first Monday of September is a day off work for most folks, and people enjoy cookouts, picnics, playing or watching sporting events, and more.
But, like so many holidays, the meaning of the day has been lost. Labor Day may be the one which has lost it the most. A day conceived as a celebration of organized labor and its benefits to the American worker has become, in a nation which has devalued its workers, nothing more than the "end of the summer season," the last day women wear white clothes until May and men stand at a grill outside (in some cases, whether they want to or not.)
LIke Memorial Day, Labor's Day's May sibling that begins the "summer season" in the U.S., Labor Day has become something it was never intended to be. But people realize the issue more with Memorial Day, because it was intended to recall fallen soldiers and sailors who died defending the nation and its people. Is that a loftier purpose than Labor Day's? Of course. But it doesn't mean Labor Day's real meaning should be forgotten or ignored.
Take some time this Labor Day weekend to do something befitting the day. If you shop, make sure you buy something made in America, and not created with cheap, nearly-slave labor in some sweatshop in Asia. Take time to go to a museum that celebrates American-made goods. (Many communities have museums that celebrate products there in the past. Such museums are good places to start.) Thank somebody who makes something. You'll probably confuse them, but they make a valuable contribution that makes your way of life better.
If you're in the U.S., celebrate Labor Day this weekend, not just the end of the summer season. I like grilled steak as much as the next guy, but the day is supposed to be about people and what their efforts give us. We need to rem