What does it mean to be an American?

What does "Labor Day" mean to you? What did it once mean? How does the current GOP condemnation of American labor figure in this day?

• Today the holiday stands for little more than the end of summer and the start of school, weekend-long sales, and maybe a barbecue or parade. It is no longer political. Many politicians and commentators do their best to avoid any mention of organized labor when observing the holiday, maybe giving an obligatory nod to that abstract entity, “the American Worker.” Labor Day, though, was meant to honor not just the individual worker, but what workers accomplish together through activism and organizing. Indeed, Labor Day in the 1880s, its first decade, was in many cities more like a general strike—often with the waving red flag of socialism and radical speakers critiquing capitalism—than a leisurely day off. So to really talk about this holiday, we have to talk about those-which-must-not-be-named: unions and the labor movement. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/09/when-labor-day-meant-something/379307/?single_page=true

• Answer:

  Yeah, let's celebrate ALL of the good work that the labor unions do as they push people around: ‘Top Chef’ Host Padma Lakshmi And Crew Flambéed By Boston Teamsters The Teamsters picketers were already mad. By the time Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi’s car pulled up to the Steel & Rye restaurant in the picturesque New England town of Milton just outside Boston, one of them ran up to her car and screamed, “We’re gonna bash that pretty face in, you fucking whore!” “She was scared,” said a Top Chef crewmember who witnessed the incident, which occurred in June while filming an episode for the upcoming 12th season of Bravo’s popular skein, which premieres October 15. “He was screaming at her aggressively and violently.” Angry that the show had not signed a Teamsters contract and that the production hired local PA’s to drive cast and crew vehicles, the dozen or so picketers from Boston’s Teamsters Local 25 kept at it for hours, raining down racist, sexist and homophobic threats and slurs as staffers came to and left the set that summer day. Jenn Levy, Bravo’s SVP Production, wasn’t spared. Arriving at the restaurant in her black SUV, she soon found herself running a gauntlet of vitriol. “She got out of her car in front of the location and quickly ran through the picket line,” a source said. “They were yelling, ‘You bitch! You slut! We’re gonna get you!’ It went on like that all day.” (emphasis added) Read more at http://deadline.com/2014/08/padma-lakshmi-boston-teamsters-attack-top-chef-820137/ Remember when Wynper got all up in arms over Rush Limbaugh calling Sandra Fluke a slut.  So, Wynper, are you going to encourage a boicott against the Teamsters over this? “We’re gonna bash that pretty face in, you fucking whore!”raining down racist, sexist and homophobic threats and slurs as staffers came to and left the set that summer day.You bitch! You slut!