Today is May First, May Day, International Workers'
Day. Communists, socialists, and sympathizers all over the world, there
must be a few left out there somewhere, are parading up and down the streets
calling for a new world order and such. Politicians are making speeches
extolling the virtue of the working classes. Labor leaders are holding
rallies to denounce the oppressive corporate bosses while
everyone sings the ballad of Joe Hill. In a former life, I was once a labor
leader, but that's another story.
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| Maypole in Sweden |
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| Gymnsium May ca. 1920 |
In many countries May Day has a long tradition predating Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels. In Norway, May Day is a national holiday with parades
and speeches, usually by Labour Party leaders. I remember relatives and
older family friends talking about May Day in 'the old country'. How girls
would dance around May Poles each holding a ribbon fastened to the
top. And then there were the may baskets. If you were "sweet on"
someone, you would put together a
special basket containing flowers and candies, hang it on that someone's front
door, ring the bell and then run. Out on the rural prairie where I grew up however,
these May Day traditions were a little impractical. On the windswept Dakota
prairie, the ribbons on a maypole would be a tangled mess in two minutes. As
for the baskets, they would see you coming a half mile away and would be
waiting on the front porch: "So nice of you to stop by, whatcha got in the
basket there then?"
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| Ethel and Julius Rosenberg |
On this May Day, retired people like me are just feeling kind of
left out. We are old enough to remember, Gus Hall, the Black List, Tail-gunner
Joe McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee, Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg; and other icons from the great struggle between capitalism and
Godless communism. Now there just doesn't seem to be much point in it anymore.
Maybe we should just be thankful that those days are in the past, find a maypole, telephone pole, or flag pole and dance around it, as best we can for a person of our age.
I would do a polka if our representatives in Washington DC would put their big boy boxers on and get something constructive done that helps middle America! I would do the limbo if the majority of that group in the Big White House in DC would just throw in their unused towel and leave town they have not accomplished anything of importance for years. I would do a pole dance if The people that can make the wealthiest people pay the majority of taxes instead of heaping it on the poor working man. I would do a lap dance if just one of them would tell the truth to the world.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see that.
ReplyDeleteThe Curmudgeon