Labor Day 2025

I spent yesterday afternoon taking pictures of a Labor Day rally on Butler Green.  It was a sparse crowd.  There were thunderstorms all around and well, it's a holiday weekend.  People have "better" things to do than learn about starting a union, tenant's rights, letting the powers-that-be know you aren't happy and demand better or sing a song that might inspire people. 

But some showed up.  Just like they have in the past. And they are the reason we have a holiday that celebrates people who work for a living.  The reason we have a middle class. The reason we are the envy of the world.  The reason we are America.

This young lady's name is Mulan Throneberry.  (Google her.)  She volunteered that she wasn't born in America — right before she sang a slow, emotional version of Springsteen's "Born in the USA".  Then Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land", followed by a lovely original song of her's and ending with Bruce Robison's "Travelin Soldier" (made famous by the Dixie Chicks). 

"There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. 
Sign was painted, said, "Private Property". 
But on the back side, it didn't say nothing. 

This land was made for you and me."

 

 

Nikon D7500 — Nikon 18-300mm F6.3 ED VR
175mm
F6@1/500th
ISO 1,800th
White Balance on Flash
Retouched

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©Don Brown 2025