My Love of History Continues

Another awesome article in the New York Times (I know - shocking that I would read the Times) about a new book by Tony Horwitz recounting completely forgotten history of the United States.

I liked being a historian. I tell myself that if I become a decent writer, perhaps I will pursue a professorship - or, more accurately, a PhD. I will reconnect with ET (initials for a friend, not the beloved fictional extraterrestrial) and see what she has to say about life as a slavish history graduate student.

Speaking of history, I just read my girlfriend's paper on Woodrow Wilson's religiosity. Apparently, his father was a big-time Presbyterian and greatly encouraged his son to be highly involved in the religion, particularly with respect to morality. Wilson's policies, though, were not focused on making the country more religious but instead on spreading morality. I don't really know how successful he was (I'm not a Wilson scholar), but I'd love to have a contemporary leader personally religious who was more interested in spreading good and improving the world than focusing his energy solely on ensuring the rise of rabid Evangelicalism.

In other news, today is May Day. My thesis research comes flying back into my head from the dark recesses of memory: this is a big holiday for workers of the world, and not just industrial ones. It commemorates the gigantic general strike in Chicago in 1886 and the Haymarket Massacre, which was a bombing that occurred at a demonstration protesting the previous day's police raid on peaceful striking workers. The demonstrators were held accountable, though anarchists always thought it was the police that framed the strikers, and four anarchists were hung. They became the "Haymarket martyrs," and the whole ugly affair gave anarchists a bad rap. They became bomb-throwing terrorists, not peaceful advocates for change through direct action. Thus, my thesis.

There were all sorts of demonstrations today in DC, the theme being immigration. Appropriate; after all, immigration really boils down to labor. Good for them; wish I could have been there. But alas... I had to work.

I think the US should celebrate workers by, I don't know, maybe NOT WORKING on May Day. I'm no day laborer, but I definitely could have used a holiday today. I think it's offensive that Americans don't celebrate their labor history the way the rest of the world does. Which brings me to the point: Americans work more days and longer hours than everyone else, and what do we have to show for it? We're fat, we're stressed, and we're a whole lot unhealthier than the rest of the developed world.