This past Friday many businesses, schools, and workers took time off in remembrance of Juneteenth. Now calls to make Juneteenth a national holiday are gaining steam. Both of these are wonderful developments! We should make time as a nation to pause, and remember the terrible history that still clings to us to this day, and the cause for celebration that occasionally we have taken small steps forward in living up to the grand aspirations of our nation's founding! If enduring the pandemics of police brutality and COVID-19 have taught us anything, however, it's that we need to be thinking more systemically about the changes we are seeking in our failing social contract. Small reforms are neither what Americans want or need right now, and at long last, the paralysis of the coronavirus quarantine and the brutal murder of George Floyd on camera have given people the space to really think about what needs to change, and the impetus to act. The most precious resource any of us have is time. Now that many have no longer been trapped in a soul destroying routine 5 days a week, they suddenly remember how precious living actually is, and they are clamoring for a better work-life balance.
Would you be willing to work more hours over 4 days instead of working fewer over 5?
Willing: 82%
Winning the weekend was one of the great achievements of the labor movement during the 20th century, one that all too many of us take for granted, and many others are starting to lose. Instead we must take this opportunity to wrest back another day from lives of drudgery, so we can spend more days family, friends, passions and community. A four day work week likely seems impossible to imagine, and doubtless the titans of industry will scream loud and long of the dangers of such a transition, and the economic ruin that lies ahead, just as they did when the unions fought for the weekend. But change is happening before our very eyes, culturally, politically, environmentally and economically. The ongoing BLM protests, and the total halt of normal life nearly all of us have experienced in recent months show, just how quickly we can change when the demand is urgent and organized enough. If we are to extract change from the elites and get not just economic prosperity for all Americans, but the time to flourish as humans and create a more socially conscious society, it's going to take an enduring collective movement of commensurate size and power, to the forces of economic oppression and bigotry we face! To create that better future will require the stamina to outlast the powers that be, and convince them that there is no choice but to change or lose everything. Don’t miss this chance as the gears of history are turning quickly to change our country for the better. Participate (safely) in the BLM protests, discuss a four day work week at your job, contact your representatives to make sure your voice is heard, give your time and money to progressives causes, and of course join us every Tuesday, in growing solidarity and power until we take back our democracy from amoral special interests, and greedy politicians: Don't Shop on Tuesdays!
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