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Category: Archive

Editorial Labor’s promise

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Labor Day is an appropriate time of year to remember the virtually boundless contribution that the Irish have made to the building of modern America. But we are standing at the start of a new century and millennium, so that while it is always tempting to cast an eye backward to past achievements, it is perhaps even more appropriate to look ahead in anticipation of outstanding days yet to be.

President Clinton recently described America as a work in progress. He was correct. If there is one thing that has made this country stand out among all others, it is that particularly American belief that tomorrow can be even better. This idea inspired countless immigrants from Ireland and other lands over the last couple of centuries, people who had barely escaped the most dire circumstances in their native lands.

The United States might not always be the fairest place, but it has been, and remains, a nation where fair reward is the rightful due of fair and honest labor. At times, yes, what was rightfully due had to be fought for. And of course the Irish were never far from the front lines.

Times have moved on and what were once considered the luxuries of life are, today, often taken for granted. And yet, as our world becomes ever more technologically complex and seemingly impersonal, there are still lessons to be learned from times that were not so good.

The habits and virtues of yesteryear — pride in one’s work, fair reward for fair labor — are as good a guide as any as we step into the next, even better, hundred years.

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