Rev. Mike Quayle
Labor Day 2011
Today we pause to reflect on the meaning of Labor Day. For many of us the arrival of Labor Day marks the end of summer, schools have resumed, vacations have been taken and the church schedule returns to a predictable rhythm.
In many places, politicians emerge during Labor Day celebrations and rally their supporters with stirring speeches and great promises of what the party will accomplish in the coming year. Those seeking office use this day as a platform to rally support and gather votes.
Families gather; picnics are held; and we all hope for a final weekend of good weather.
The first Labor Day was observed in 1878 in Boston. It became a federal holiday in 1894 following the deaths of a number of worker’s at the hands of the US Military and US Marshals during the Pullman Strike. Within six days of the end of the strike and fearing more protests, congress rushed through legislation mandating a federal holiday in hopes of avoiding more violence.
For most who gather this weekend, there will be little thought about the origins of the day or reflection on the meaning of work.
I don’t know about you, but I grew up in a time and place where there was an unspoken agreement between the employer and the worker. I still recall the days when the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company dominated the lives of my father and my uncles. Generations of Quayle’s had worked in the Iron Mines. Some had died when conditions were so unsafe that cave-ins were frequent.
Our neighborhoods were named by the mine. The mine owned all of the land and to this day homeowners hold 100 year leases on the land for the sum of $1.00.
I remember going to the company store. I can also recall when pay for the miners was in the form of “credits†at the company store with cash making up only a part of the pay.
Then the unions came in. The United Mine Workers promised that if the miners organized, they would find the good life, higher pay, freedom from intolerable work conditions and a better future for their children.
Strikes were a frequent event. Whenever the contract were about to expire, the union would present a list of demands and the Iron Company would counter. Some of the strikes went for several months and meals got very simple. When a new contract was signed, there were parties and picnics.
But, underlying all of that was a basic belief that, in the end, an agreement WOULD be reached and life would go on. We believed in the Cleveland Cliffs Iron Company and we thought they believed in us and would always be there to take care of us. Most young men who graduated from my high school had their future set. They would work in the mine as had their fathers and grandfathers. It was our way of life.
Then the bottom fell out in the mid 80’s. The mines had stripped the supplies of iron ore and slowly, mines began to close. There were massive lay-offs. Downsizing became a familiar word. The rug was literally pulled out and life was changing in ways that could not have been imagined a generation before. Sure it had happened to the copper mines before us…. but we never believed it would happen to us. There would always be iron ore and there would always be jobs in the mines.
During my childhood, the Iron Mines of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan employed some 40,000 workers. Today, they employ 4,000.
Whatever we may have believed a few decades ago about employment, we know the game had changed and all bets are off.
Few of us expect to hold the same job for our entire working career. Companies lay people off with no warning and no cause except decisions made behind closed doors in some other place. Companies can and do reduce salaries, eliminate benefits, and make no promise of a secure retirement.
In the same way, workers fully expect their jobs to be eliminated. We may not say it, but there is a feeling of vulnerability which chips away at morale and motivation.
Some of us have been seeking full time work for a good while. Employers solicit resumes and then don’t bother to acknowledge they have received them.
In reality, we are dealing with a crisis. It is a moral crisis; an ethical crisis; an economic crisis; and I believe in many ways, a spiritual crisis. When I say spiritual I am speaking of the human spirit; which is chipped away and diminished as people feel less valued and less “human†in an increasingly challenging marketplace.
The deeper crisis is the blame game we play. On the one had we flock to the major discounter in town with their yellow smiley faces and demand that they give us the lowest possible price. Then we complain about jobs being sent overseas.
We blame the immigrants who come in and “take†our jobs…. jobs which pay well below a living wage or minimum wage… most likely jobs none of us would even want.
So what do we do ? What can we, as people who talk about justice, human dignity, and the inherent worth of every person….. what can we do ? We are challenged to hold our leaders and those who hold the cards to a higher standard.
We are called to speak of a just world in the face of injustice. We are called to tell our state and national legislature that the current situation is unacceptable.
Many of us are gifted with minds and voices that can ask the hard questions about our current economic system and the direction we are moving as a nation and culture.
The voices of Unitarian Universalists have always been willing to speak in the face of oppression and injustice and we need to speak as a united voice.
We are not just speaking about jobs and job security. We need to reframe the conversation to talk about what it means to be a just society. About doing the right thing. We need to help our politicians connect the dots and deal with the reality that poverty, hunger, crime, immigration, job outsourcing, and a sense of moral aimlessness are issues DIRECTLY IMPACTED by the economic system we have created.
Finally, we need to be truth-tellers. In the old biblical image…..it is called being the voice of a prophet. We need to tell the truth that our economy and our whole economic system is beyond propping up. We have created with our own hands a system that rewards greed and dishonesty and encourages economic violence on those who are most vulnerable.
There are those who would say the task is too big…. it is just not possible.
History does not support that kind of resignation in the face of injustice and tyranny.
I am reminded of those throughout human history who have brought corrupt power to its knees not with violence, but with truth.
Our voices matter.
As one who has been engaged in full-time job hunting, there are some lessons I have been learning. I say “Have been learning,†because on my better days I am able to remember these lessons; other days, I have to remind myself of these lessons sometimes several times daily.
First, I am not my job. We tend to equate our sense of self-worth with what we do. Think about it. we meet a new person and the first questions we are likely to ask is, “So, what do you do ?†We ask that as though what a person does to earn a living represents who that person truly is. We are more than our work. So much more.
Second, All sacred writings from all religious traditions remind us of one fundamental truth: more money and more things will not make us happy people. Happiness comes from within us, and not from exterior circumstances. Sure, When folks say, “money doesn’t buy happiness,†I am tempted to think, “Well, just let me give it a try and see for myself !†But, deep inside I know it takes more than money and stuff to be happy.
I have found the exact opposite can be true. More money and more things can make us less happy. Why ? There is always the nagging fear that things might be taken from us; the money may run out. If our happiness is dependent on money and things, it can change overnight. As a result we have all heard the stories of those who losing everything in an economic crash take their own lives. They do this because they either feel like they have failed as a person or that life is too unbearable without money and things. Life is so much more.
Third, we need to let go of the belief that every generation must have more than the last. I heard it growing up and maybe you did too; “I want you to have more than your mother and I had… I want you to be better off than we were.†The truth is that that idea is simply unsustainable. Unless we believe that the day will come when every American will be a billionaire, it is just not possible for every generation to be better off than the last. Living under that illusion creates a sense of failure and we live constantly chasing unrealistic expectations and placing painfully unrealistic demands on ourselves.
Fourth, I have learned to live on less. I used to think a budget was a good idea for some people. I contemplated giving it a try someday ! someday has come. I have had to learn to live differently and live within a budget. I had had to say no to things I once took for granted. But, living on less can also restore us to some sense of sanity. It can give us mental break and we learn to live with what we need and not always live based on what we want.
Fifth, we have to avoid the temptation to go after quick fixes as a society to our economic woes. There are no quick fixes. The fix to our economic woes will be slow, painful, and will require us to think in different and creative ways.
I am especially concerned with quick fixes such as improving our energy resources through practices like fracking. It may provide a temporary solution. But as in off shore drilling the unanticipated consequences of a system failure can cause more harm than good. As our climate continues to change because of our poor stewardship of this planet, we need to think long and hard about the long term consequences of new technology and the ultimate price we might have to pay if the technology goes bad. Our planet is ever more fragile and we simply cannot afford to make any more mistakes.
Finally, we must begin to live in ways that honor and acknowledge our connectedness. We are part of that interdependent web. When we ignore that truth we do so to our own peril.
As our congregation undertakes over the next several months a focus on Karen Armstrong’s book, “Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life,†we will be challenged and called to examine how what we do affects the lives of others. We will be asked to look within and discover together what it means to truly live as a connected people and to allow compassion and our better selves to emerge and to treat each other with true compassion and justice.
The current system will not survive. What will replace that system is a question of serious moral and ethical consequences. Something WILL replace the current and unsustainable system we have created. What that will be remains to be seen.
May we have the passion to speak, the will to act, the wisdom to act wisely, and the compassion to uphold those who are suffering and hurting.
So may it be. Amen.