No Holiday Here
Yesterday was a national holiday, technically still called Washington’s Birthday but most now say President’s Day.
A staff member for a congressman sent me an email over the weekend about having his boss on this coming week, and he closed by saying, “enjoy the long weekend”.
I didn’t have yesterday off. Businesses were open. State of Iowa government offices were open. There was no mail service and banks and markets were closed…but for most of us, I’ll bet you only remembered it was a “national holiday” when the mail carrier didn’t leave you anything. Probably was the same for the national holiday last month.
That led me to think of the divide between those in big cities and in the federal government bubble, and the rest of us. Credit to that congressional staffer for working on Saturday…but he likely had Monday off, and presumed everyone did. Again—the mentality is very different in those big cities, and certainly within the government, as opposed to the rest of us.
But it also occurred to me that even on the holidays most of us do take off—Thanksgiving, Christmas—someone is working. Convenience stores, hotels, restaurants…many are open and someone has to staff those positions.
Then I thought of the farm families across our state. No days off there, especially when caring for animals. No calendars in the barn with dates printed in red signifying a holiday. Chores still need to be done, because the work of feeding the world can’t afford a day off.
Those folks—the men and women who provide food and fiber—deserve more credit, and more thanks. Seems like something should be done about that.
And from where we sit at KXEL, something will. Stay tuned.
