Letter to the editor: Labor Day is the time to reflect on those who keep us going

Truly essential

The doctors and nurses who care for us. The health care workers who change the bandages, empty the bed pans and clean the floor.

The food workers who package our food, the drivers who deliver it and the grocery workers who place it on the shelves in the markets where we shop.

The police and the fire department that keep us safe, and the countless others who keep our country going during this terrible time of COVID-19.

We salute them, each and every one.

Suddenly there is an awareness, perhaps for the first time, that there are so many people doing so many things every day to make our lives possible. For some in our society, it might be the first time they realize that everyone is important. That what they do has meaning, is needed and should be respected.

Those of us in the labor movement have been trying to make this point for more than 200 years in this country.

We are the people who do the work. We build the skyscrapers, houses, cars, trucks, planes and trains. We build the highways, streets, sidewalks and all those things you use every day. We build it, we repair it and we take it away in the trash when it is no longer useful.

Without us, there is no society. We are essential.

This Labor Day, look a worker in the eye and say thank you for all they do each day.

Happy Labor Day.

- Herb Johnson, Parkville