About Author: Rick King

Those of you that know me already know that I am a historian.  I look to the past for signs of tomorrow.  The wise from our past accurately left us the saying “history is destined to repeat itself” for a reason.  Many of those soothsayers or oracles from humanity’s past were simply those who understood this correlation.  So let’s look at Labor Day.  The first Labor Day celebration was on Tuesday, September 5th, 1882, and was founded in New York City itself. Although federal legislators gave emphasis to this day to celebrate the accomplishments of the working man, it was the state legislative steps that first put Labor Day on the books, starting with New York and Oregon, and eventually trailing to other states, as led by Colorado, Massachussetts, and New Jersey.

Over the years, the focus and enthusiasm for Labor Day has ebbed and flowed with the popular themes of the time.  During post-war years it was seen as an opportunity for political emphasis on restoring jobs to those who sacrificed their time in the armed services, and also to refocus our nation on the matters at hand.  During major recessions or the Great Depression it was seen as an opportunity to restore faith in the national unified effort to achieve great things by putting the work force to task, and recognizing how vital they are and were to our way of life.  Without a free market economy, and the capitalism that produces the very things we enjoy by virtue of our economic freedoms, what you see today would not exist.  Therein lies the problem.

I have been concerned in recent years.  The nation’s focus has more been a lack of focus than a precise aim at achieving greatness and preserving freedoms.  We see endless hours of news coverage regarding things like O.J. Simpson, or Britney Spears, or Casey Anthony, or God help me Lindsay Lohan.  When a nation becomes so distracted from its true purpose that it lacks the national will to avoid complacency, it begins to stagnate.  When that happens, the will of the people, which used to focus it’s political will toward a common goal, strays.

I am not saying hope doesn’t exist.  We have been here before.  In tough economic times, Americans look to lighter matters sometimes to keep from becoming downright miserable.  Sometimes that is what allows us to tread each step one at a time until we pull the wagon out of the mud.  Laughter is after all, the best medicine.  That said, what seems to be more serious in this era is our lack of drive to focus our political leaders.  What is a politician after all?  Their true purpose was our own design.  To speak for and represent the citizens.  How often do you even hear the word citizen now?  How often do the politicians we see on television actually respect and fear the will of the people?  Sadly those moments are far and few between.  In some ways we have lost our way, our true purpose in this world.

In some of the darkest moments in world history, our nation, our people stood to turn the tides when it was important to do so.  Think about this:  How would World War II have gone if nearly every single citizen of the nation had not been engaged in producing and manufacturing tanks, airplanes, jeeps, trucks, ships to move us through Europe and the Pacific?  That generation was our last to truly understand.  Back then if you asked them, it was their “DUTY” to do these things and they accepted these measures with humble ascertitude.  It was more a matter of honor.

One thing that I think truly restored us, one of the true measures of our will that was proven right after the Great Depression were the public projects undertaken.  Instead of printing off more and more currency to line the pockets of the lobbyists and bankers, who now use the guise of “QE1″ and “QE2″ to save our economy, our leaders in those years actually used the money to FUND LABOR PROJECTS.  Dams, Bridges, National Parks, National Forests, Trails, Roads, were all projects undertaken by measures we had never before seen.  We introduced the Civilian Conservation Corps.  The CCC was VITAL to our country’s restoration during a tough economic period.  Without them nearly every major historical landmark, or public project we inherited from that period would not exist.  All of which we seem to have forgotten.

So my challenge to our leaders is this:  Stop spending the life’s blood of our economy, our currency, on the banks.  Stop giving it to failed corporations.  Give it to those without jobs and fund another version of the CCC or a federally funded version of it.  Give back the power and hope to the citizens of this nation.  We haven’t failed you before, and we won’t this time.  On that same token, remember also who runs this Country.  Political Leaders are elected.  Even without a fair and balanced electoral system, politicians seem to have forgotten what happens when they stray from their intended purpose and disregard the will of the people.  I see us approaching a critical moment in our history.  Let us not go down the path of ancient Rome.