9/03/2012

A Look At Labor Day


Labor Day has never really been a celebrated holiday in my life. Mainly due to the fact that in almost all of my jobs I've been required to labor on the holiday...

...that is no exception today.

In fact, I'm currently at my job composing this post because there is nothing else to do because there are no customers...they're all out celebrating. Having a BBQ and enjoying time with family.

As I'm here twiddling my thumbs I decided to look up the history of Labor Day and here are my findings:

Labor Day: How It Came About & What It Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

Labor Day Legislation

Through the years the nation gave increasing emphasis to Labor Day. The first governmental recognition came through municipal ordinances passed during 1885 and 1886. From them developed the movement to secure state legislation.

The first state bill was introduced into the New York legislature, but the first to become law was passed by Oregon on February 21, 1887. During the year four more states — Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — created the Labor Day holiday by legislative enactment.

By the end of the decade Connecticut, Nebraska, and Pennsylvania had followed suit. By 1894, 23 other states had adopted the holiday in honor of workers, and on June 28 of that year, Congress passed an act making the first Monday in September of each year a legal holiday in the District of Columbia and the territories.

A National Holiday

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take was outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

The vital force of labor added materially to the highest standard of living and the greatest production the world has ever known and has brought us closer to the realization of our traditional ideals of economic and political democracy. It is appropriate, therefore, that the nation pay tribute on Labor Day to the creator of so much of the nation's strength, freedom, and leadership — the American worker.

Source: http://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/laborday.htm

If you liked this post please comment below and share with your friends.

Remember, YOU have the CHOICE to make it a GREAT day!

evan and kristel

Evan Scoresby
Skype: evanscoresby
Email: evan@evanscoresby.com

Work With Me Personally - ONE24

P.S. Start Earning 100% Commissions!!!
CLICK TO LEARN HOW!


If you enjoyed this post about Labor Day, please comment and share with your friends.


8/30/2012

Equal Rights, NOT Equal Things


One of the most eye-opening books I have read about the founding principles of America is "The 5,000 Year Leap."

Inside you discover the 28 Principles of Freedom our Founding Fathers said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desire peace, prosperity, and freedom. You will learn how adherence to these beliefs during the past 200 years has brought about more progress than was made in the previous 5,000 years.

The 7th Principle is the Proper Role of Government is to Protect Equal Rights, Not Provide Equal Things.

In Europe, during the days of the Founders, it was very popular to proclaim that the role of government was to take from the "haves" and give to the "have nots" so that all might be truly "equal." However, the American Founders perceived that this proposition contained a huge fallacy.

In today's world, it is being proclaimed as the redistribution of wealth...and it is happening. Did you know that 50% of Americans DO NOT pay income taxes? Even so, they still get an income tax refund every year! Why? Redistribution of wealth.

The Founders recognized that the people cannot delegate to their government the power to do anything except that which they have the lawful right to do themselves.

For example, every person is entitled to protection of his life and property. Therefore it is perfectly legitimate to delegate to the government the task of setting up a police force to protect the lives and property of all the people.

The American Founders recognized that the moment the government is authorized to start leveling the material possessions of the rich in order to have an "equal distribution of good," the government thereafter has the power to deprive ANY of the people of their "equal" rights to enjoy their lives, liberties, and property.

This being said, the Founders still had a deep concern for the poor and needy. We still need to help them, but instead of giving them a handout that could make them dependent on the "system" but give them a hand-up to get them out of the trenches.

"To relieve the misfortunes of our fellow creatures is concurring with the Deity; it is godlike; but, if we provide encouragement for laziness, and supports for folly, may we not be found fighting against the order of God and Nature, which perhaps has appointed want and misery as the proper punishments for, and cautions against, as well as necessary consequences of, idleness and extravagance? Whenever we attempt to amend the scheme of Providence, and to interfere with the government of the world, we had need be very circumspect, lest we do more harm than good." -Benjamin Franklin

Nearly all of the Founders seem to have acquired deep convictions that assisting those in need had to be done through means which might be called "calculated" compassion. Highlights from their writing suggest the following:

  1. Do not help the needy completely. Merely help them to help themselves."
  2. Give the poor the satisfaction of "earned achievement" instead of rewarding them without achievement.
  3. All the poor to climb the "appreciation ladder" - from tents to cabins, cabins to cottages, cottages to comfortable houses."
  4. Where emergency help is provided, do not prolong it to the point where it becomes habitual.
  5. Strictly enforce the scale of "fixed responsibility." The first and foremost level of responsibility is with the individual himself; the second level is the family; then the church; next the community; finally the country, and, in a disaster or emergency, the state. Under no circumstances is the federal government to become involved in public welfare. The Founders felt it would corrupt the government and also the poor. No Constitutional authority exists for the federal government to participate in charity or welfare.

Looking at the world today, it seems that we have forgotten this principle all together. We have become so off target that the people first look to the government for help rather than their family, neighbor, community, etc.

We can rejuvenate this principle through educating the people. If you liked this post please comment below and share with your friends.



Remember, YOU have the CHOICE to make it a GREAT day!

evan and kristel

Evan Scoresby
Skype: evanscoresby
Email: evan@evanscoresby.com

Work With Me Personally - ONE24

P.S. Give yourself a hand-up and start creating
your own economy! Click here to learn more.


If you enjoyed this post about equal rights, not equal things, please comment and share with your friends.


7/08/2012

The Economy and Jobs in America

Former press secretary Robert Gibbs on the economy and jobs in America:

"We're not growing fast enough and we're not adding enough jobs."

Could it maybe be due to the increased government involvement in practically every facet of the economy? If the government would step back, cut taxes, and let the free market work, the economy and jobs would do a "180" within 12-months or less. That's why the "roaring 20's" were ROARING!

It's amazing how out of touch the current administration is with the American people and the economy. I wouldn't doubt it that President Obama is purposely dragging it out, spending us into oblivion, and collapse the system. That's for another post.

6/09/2012

4 Steps to Change the World

Fresh off the press from The Blaze

  1. COMMIT - Commit to personal responsibility: Take this pledge as a first step.
  2. ACTIVATE - Register to vote and join the Tea Party movement, the 9/12 Project, or Freedom Works. GBTV’s massive voter registration drive has already been hugely popular — see how
  3. LIVE IT - Take part in the Mercury One food drive or organize your own, and get your representatives involved. Within one hour of Beck’s announcement, GBTV viewers filled up 11 tractor trailers with food for the needy.
  4. CREATE - Create through art, music and entrepreneurship. Here are the songs on Beck’s Spotify playlist.

2/27/2012

Not Yours To Give

I received the following in an email and thought it was worth sharing...

In the early 1800's Congress was considering a bill to appropriate tax dollars for the widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in support of this bill. It seemed that everyone in the House favored it. The Speaker of the House was just about to put the question to a vote, when Davy Crockett, famous frontiersman and then Congressman from Tennessee, rose to his feet.

“Mr. Speaker, I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased and as much sympathy for the suffering of the living as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity, but as members of Congress we have no right to so appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Sir, this is no debt. We cannot without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.”

There was silence on the floor of the House as Crockett took his seat. When the bill was put to a vote, instead of passing unanimously as had been expected, it received only a few votes.
The next day a friend approached Crockett and asked why he spoken against a bill for such a worthy cause. In reply, Crockett related the following story:


Just a few years before, he had voted to spend $20,000.00 of public money to help the victims of a terrible fire in Georgetown. When the legislative session was over, Crockett made a trip back home to do some campaigning for his re-election. In his travels he encountered one of his constituents, a man by the name of Horatio Bunce. Mr. Bunce bluntly informed Crockett, “I voted for you the last time. I shall not vote for you again.”

Crockett, feeling he had served his constituents well, was stunned. He inquired as to what he had done to so offend Mr. Bunce.

Bunce replied, “You gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness to be guided by it. The Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions.”

“I take the papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings of Congress. My papers say that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000.00 to some sufferers by a fire. Well, Colonel, where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away public money in charity? No Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose.

“The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution. You have violated the Constitution in what I consider to be a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the People.”

“I could not answer him,” said Crockett. “I was so fully convinced that he was right.” I said to him, “Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. If you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law, I wish I may be shot.”

After finishing the story, Crockett said, “Now sir, you know why I made that speech yesterday. There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a weeks pay? There are in that House many very wealthy men, men who think nothing of spending a weeks pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of these same men made beautiful speeches upon the debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased, yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it.”

End of Email - Taken from Latter-day Conservative email newsletter.

2/03/2012

Separation of Church and State

Over time the meaning of words have come to know a different meaning than their original intent. The word "gay" for example thirty years ago meant "happiness", but today has a completely different meaning. The same thing has happened with the phrase "separation of church and state."

Did you know that the words "Separation of Church and State are NOT FOUND in any American Founding Document?

"[In] the Congressional Records from June 7th through September 25th, 1789 (when they framed the first amendment) the founders explained clearly and succinctly that all they wanted to preclude what they had experienced in Great Britain. They did not want the establishment by the Federal Government of one single domination and the exclusion of all others. There is not going to be, by government decree, one national denomination in America. This is why the wording in the first amendment prevents Congress from the establishment of religion, or in the words proposed by James Madison, the chief architect of the constitution, "the establishment of a national religion."[1]

The First Amendment denied Congress the power of establishing any particular religion or restricting the free exercise of any religion. The people and statesmen who gave us the First Amendment did not want a union of church and state in the sense of a national established church. But neither did they want to divorce Christianity from our national counsels, fundamental law, or laws made pursuant to the Constitution. ...they wanted a separation of church and state without a separation of Christianity and civil government, law or public life.[2]

The Separation of Church and State never meant to separate God from government — Chief Justice Roy Moore, Alabama[3]

"No religious establishment by law exists among us. The conscience is left free from all restraint, and each is permitted to worship his maker after his own judgment. The offices of government are open alike to all. The Mohammedan, if he will come to live among us would have the privilege guaranteed to him by the constitution to worship according to the Koran; and the East Indian might erect a shrine to Brahma if it so pleased him. Such is the spirit of toleration inculcated by our political institutions." — John Tyler, 10th President of the US[4]

I find it amazing that most people don't know the original intent of the Founders...they are probably turning over in their graves of how far we have gotten away from the Judean/Christian principles that guided inspired men to sign their death warrant, as an act of treason, to the Declaration of Independence to be followed by the Constitution of the United States with the First Amendment securing our religious freedom. There is a movement growing that is trying to erradicate religion and God from everything that made this country what it is today. If that day ever comes, may God help us all.

==>> Earn Extra $$$ From Home <<==

[1] 1992 Video "Separation of Church and State," Wallbuilders, Inc., PO Box 397, Aledo, TX 76008

[2] Reclaiming the Lost Legacy, various authors, Coral ridge Ministries, 2001 (P O Box 555, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33302)

[3] Coral Ridge Hour, TV Program, 10/14/2001

[4] "Our 'noble experiment' is being tested," Terry Eastland, Dallas Morning News, 11/5/2001

1/10/2012

Mitt Romney Wins New Hampshire

As I was driving home tonight I was listening to a local talk show radio host talk about the New Hampshire primary and Mitt Romney's victory. I'm not sure about Mitt and have a lot of reservations, but as I sat there listening to his victory speech - live - I couldn't turn off the ignition to my pickup and sat in my driveway for the next ten minutes listening to what he had to say. Needless to say, I was very impressed and found myself agreeing with pretty much everything he was saying. Below is the Mitt's full speech:



One of my favorite lines from the speech:

"We have to offer an alternative vision. I stand ready to lead us down a different path. Where we're lifted up by our desire to succeed, not dragged down by a resentment of success."

Lately it seems like it's evil or dirty to be successful - the "1%" if you will - but it's those one-percent that drive this economy by creating jobs. I have the desire to be successful, to have the financial security for me and my family, to be able to give generously to those in need, and help offer others an opportunity of success as well. That is true "sharing the wealth" - not just giving a handout, giving a hand up and helping and teaching others how to be successful as well.

I recently found an opportunity to make extra money online that will hopefully start me down the path to success and financial security. My first month in the business, I made a commission check and fully expect it to increase each month! CLICK HERE if you'd like to learn more and we can go down this path together.

1/08/2012

Is This the Beginning of the End of the Republic?

Compare the two videos...



And this...



The fact that President wants to bypass Congress and get things done on his own is scary in and of itself, but what is even scarier is the audience. The American people - cheering and applauding and WANTING him to do just that! "So this is how liberty dies...with thunderous applause."


LIVE THE DREAM! How would you like to make more money, be your own boss, work your own hours, improve your standard of living, and choose the lifestyle you deserve? Click here to learn more.