Labor Day 2020

Today, in the midst of economic misery brought on by incompetent COVID Donnie's botched response to the coronavirus, the Washington Post has a few simple ways we can honor labor today:

HOW DO you honor labor on this day, in these sad and troubled times? Here are some suggestions.

Show your respect and consideration for the people who work in stores by wearing a mask. Thank them for their help and for keeping you in Kleenex and toothpaste and baked beans and sundries, whatever they are. If someone asks you to put on a mask, don’t be a jerk; these employees have enough worries already.

If you’re lucky enough to have a job, especially one you can do remotely, give a thought, plus thanks and perhaps a gift, to the people who regularly help and serve you. One trash collector interviewed on the evening news said recently that it means quite a lot just to get a bit of appreciation from people along his route.

Continue to honor and remember the health-care workers who have given their lives for us — there have been more than 1,000 now. Let their names be enshrined in the places where they served. Remember to thank the many people who keep things going and who often risk their lives doing so: rescue workers, utility workers, police, firefighters. Give a thought and perhaps some help one way or another to the people who clean houses, pick crops and provide the rest of what we eat — many of them migrants, cruelly misrepresented and maligned by commentators and politicians, many of whom do their fulminating these days from the safety of their living rooms. [snip]

There is reason to be grateful, not just for the help rendered to some but for communities large and small, urban and rural, that combine generosity with an understanding of our common humanity and how much we depend upon the labors of others.

Even better:  show your respect and consideration every day in whatever way you choose.  Never forget that we all depend on each other.