From the NY Post

Labor Day was once the most blatantly political US holiday — created by the trade-union movement to celebrate the right of working people to bargain collectively and to stage strikes to press their demands.

The Post was an early and vigorous supporter of the movement. As early as 1836, editor William Cullen Bryant wrote: “Strike the right of associating for the sale of labor from the privileges of a freeman, and you may as well at once bind him to a master.”

New York hosted the nation’s first Labor Day parade when 10,000 workers marched from City Hall to Union Square. As the movement grew, so did the parades and celebrations.

But times have changed. Today, Labor Day is largely an occasion time for sales, end-of-summer cookouts and back-to-school preparations. Why? Because the movement has become as irrelevant to most Americans as the medieval guilds that preceded it — and all too often a protector of privileges rather than a force for the oppressed.

In 1954, more than one in three US workers was a union member. Now it’s barely over 6% of private-sector workers — but, in a huge shift, over a third of public-sector ones. Indeed, half America’s 14 million union members today work for government rather than the private sector, and that includes a lot of “quasi-public” jobs in sectors like health care.

And strikes by public employees, he wrote, are “unthinkable and intolerable.” The way FDR’s warning has gone by the wayside is probably a major reason why public support for unions is way down — and why huge Labor Day parades are a distant memory.

But a day of thanks and a public salute still is due to all those working men and women who — in the words of one of the holiday’s originators, AFL co-founder Peter McGuire — “from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold.”

The Workingman
Freeman Edwin Miller (1864-1951)

          God bless the brawny arms of toil,
           The noble hearts and royal hands,
           That plow the plain and seed the soil,
           And grow the grains of laughing lands!
          King in the blessed vales of life
           Where perfect pleasures first began,
          May blessings come with raptures rife
           To crown the humble workingman!

           His kingdoms wave with bannered corn
           And meadows bright with fairy bloom,
           While duties of his heart are born
            Where sylvan shadows hide the gloom;
          Sweet Nature fills his heart with health,
            While rustic warbles lead his soul
           Where rill and fountain sing by stealth
           And breezes soft with music roll.

           He lives where simple wishes throng,
           And give contentment to his breast,
           While tender lullabies of song
           Bring angel gladness to his rest;
           No praises linger o’er his name
           Where he in silence works apart,
          And honor never links with fame
           The modest glories of his heart.

           He needs no kiss of royal crown
           To wield the axe or guide the plow,
          Or woo the smiles of heaven down
           To cling in clusters on his brow;
           But in the sacred shine of love,
           With humble deeds he lives his days,
           And, drinking from the founts above,
           He scatters gladness o’er his ways
                               Proud monarch of the tattered vest,
           Thy toil is fraught with greater gains
           Than his that bleeds where warrior crest
           Slays thousands on the battled plains!
           Thy duty prompts to build, to grow,
           The forest fell, the city plan
           And scatter seeds of love below,
           Where’er thou art, O, workingman!

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FALL FOLIAGE  PREDICTION MAP

The 2022 Fall Foliage Map is the ultimate visual planning guide to the annual progressive changing of the leaves. While no tool can be 100% accurate, this tool is meant to help travelers better time their trips to have the best opportunity of catching peak color each year.

Click here to see the map and predict when foliage will hit your area.
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THIS 'N THAT
Kick off football season with Bar A's annual Pig Skin Pig Roast, September 11th! Full buffet, drink specials, and a ton of great giveaways. Specials every Sunday including our delicious NFL menu!

JSBBQ Point: The Grammatico… for their vegetarian friends!  They’ve also added a white clam pie- as a teaser for the upcoming Festival of the Sea - Point Pleasant Beach September 17!!!

Brunch at Red Horse by David Burke: Bottomless mimosas and sangria. Endless desserts. Come get your brunch on!

Weekend sushi? Yes, please! Visit any Salt Creek Grille location to try our amazing selection of sushi and of course, cocktails.

Squan Tavern is now utilizing the online ordering platform, ChowNow, to deliver your orders. All delivery orders must be placed through ChowNow. You can reach ChowNow via a link on the ST website or you can download the ordering app through the App Store or Google Play. Just search Squan Tavern on the App Store or on Google Play. Squan is now delivering lunch also, starting at 11:15am, Sundays at 12:15. Please note that any fees are imposed by the delivery service, not Squan Tavern.

The Salty Whale is open today, Labor Day, from 4pm with a limited menu.
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"The Ultimate Guide to the Jersey Shore"
Distributed to hotels, inns, B&B's, Parkway rest areas, dry cleaners, doctor's offices, car dealers, and more. See it on-line here

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UPCOMING EVENTS
September 10 - Brielle Day
September 17 - Festival of the Sea - Point Pleasant
September 17-18 - See, Hear, Now Festival - Asbury Park
October 14-23 - Man of La Mancha - Algonquin Theater
October 14 - The Spongebob Musical - Spring Lake Theater
October 20-November 20 -  Eden Prairie, 1971 at NJ Repertory Company Theater
November 3 - The Dream Dinner - A Jersey Shore Restaurant Week event
November 4 - Jersey Shore Restaurant Week begins
November 6 - Tito's Cocktail Challenge - A Jersey Shore Restaurant Week event
November 13 - Amateur Chef Competition & Wine Tasting - A Jersey Shore Restaurant Week event
November 13 - James Langton's New York All Star Big Band - Algonquin Theater
December 1 - Scrooge - Spring Lake Theater
December 13 - "It's A Wonderful Life" - Algonquin Theater
December 3-18 - A Christmas Story - Algonquin Theater
Count Basie Schedule
PNC Arts Center Schedule
Stone Pony Schedule
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SPONSORS

Jim Flynn | ShoreFoodie.com  | shorefoodie@gmail.com | www.shorefoodie.com

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Our mailing address is:
Box 352, Brielle, NJ 08730