Dan Rather
VACATION. SUMMER break. August recess. These are the words that columnists, correspondents, commentators and other media types reach for when referring to these hot, humid, slow days when summer hangs heavy and overripe on the vine, about to drop with a soft 'thud' onto the firm ground of autumn. And if you are like many Americans, you may ask yourself: What vacation? What recess? Just who are these people talking to and writing for?
The implication that August equals vacation is a reporter's trope, a symptom of the fact that many of the institutions and people these journalists cover do take this month off. This is the traditional time when state legislatures, the United States Congress, the Supreme Court, even the president of the United States - insofar as he is able - shut off the lights, pull the drapes close and head out of town. Since these are the bodies that generate a good deal of news, journalists also seize the opportunity to get away for a few days, while the getting's good.
Too often, perhaps, this quirk of scheduling gets translated into blanket assumptions about how the rest of America spends its days.
Yes, it's true that plenty of people unsullied by associations with any real or imagined 'political-and-media-elite-out-of-touch-with-the-concerns-of-everyday-Americans' do take time off in August, too. For those with kids still on summer break, some of the precious allotted days of annual vacation get sacrificed on the altar of spending time together as a family. But as these folks make their way to the ocean, or the lake, or wherever else people go to escape sweltering heat and stifling humidity, they are bound to encounter something at every gas station, roadside diner and shop along the way: people working.
HERE'S TO THE TOILERS
Here's to them. Here's to the toilers on the shop floor, the assembly line and the fishing boats who aren't taking time off this summer. Here's to the students for whom summer employment means waiting tables for tuition instead of a fancy internship for resume-building. Here's to the person filling in for a vacationer - for a little extra money, for the chance to get ahead. Here's to the breadwinner who add hours to their daily commute in order to spend fleeting evenings at the summer rental. Here's to the police and the fire-fighters and the EMTs, who see their workload rise with the mercury in the thermometer.
Here's to the tens of thousands of American men and women fighting overseas, many serving in places where 90 degrees means a cool day.
This is not about romanticising anyone, or the burdens on their backs. This is about recognising that not everyone is sitting on a beach right now, and that it can be unfair to talk and act as if everyone is.
Work is what we Americans do, and we do it harder and better and with more drive than any other people on Earth. It is a fact that is central to our nation's economic success, and one that Europeans are wrestling with, as they debate whether to adopt a more American work schedule. Some there view making such a change as critical to competing with America in the global marketplace. At any rate, it's a debate they'll return to in September, because much of that continent is all but shut down in the month of August.
But for the Americans who keep this country and its economy going, even while the popular culture tells them everybody's taking it easy, for those whose labour doesn't stop in the run-up to Labour Day - here's to them.
Dan Rather is an American broadcast journalist.
