Today was celebrated in the usual fashion. I prepared a dish to bring to the barbque party being held at a friends’ home. Not to make you jealous for those of you who love my cole slaw, but that’s what I brought to the party. The crowd was diversified between relatives, friends and their children. There were teachers, musicians who work at various careers, a woman from New York who has my former career in financial services and a couple of us retirees who were able to bring our pasts up to date for the crowd. As the party dwindled I found myself in the midst of the musicians. They think so much like those of us in the visual arts. The very work that brings so much satisfaction to our lives is such a struggle to hold onto while earning a living at something else. I was thinking about the day now that I’m home and how the conversations wandered. I came to the conclusion that we actually honored the very reason we were together today, Labor day. We talked a lot about work. While we talked about music a little, someone brought up the subject of a film that was made about Wal Mart. It seems a great number of people who are regular shoppers are troubled by the reputation being portrayed of Wal Mart. Their plan is to boycott Wal Mart for their evil and greedy practices as was portryed in the film. As the conversation deepened we discussed how the company behavior affects workers on every level. We talked about the people who work for pennies in foreign lands and about how the low paid workers here in this country struggle to survive and how many people will loose jobs if the company looses money. While I don’t pay a lot of attention to corporate news, I’m aware of a number of stories regarding changes in Wal Mart’s practices and found myself defending some the accusations, which, after questioning, discovered the film is a couple of years old by now. We all agreed on one thing. Sam Walton probably had his heart in the right place when he dreamed up and started Wal Martbut somehow since his death the corporate entity took a turn to the greedy side. Personally, I think Wal Mart is trying to make amends but it sounds like the dyke is leaking in too many places to placate the new rebels. Today we talked about our work as well as concerns for low paidwage earners here and abroad. We even discussed unions. As far as I’m concerned Labor Day was honored at our party.
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