When I was a child, every May Day (or whatever school day came closest to it) the entire population of my crowded elementary school would walk down to a nearby park – our school yard being a small black top area surrounded by chain-link fence.  The boys wore ribbons around their waists and the girls wore them in their hair.  They streamed in the breeze as we walked in double-file.  When we arrived, we set ourselves around a small center pavilion and danced.  I didn’t really understand much more about the event than that it was called the May Fete.  Today, I know more.

In our American history, May Day has been – like some many things – politicized to death.  Originally a pagan celebration turned into a day to honor the working class, May Day was a European tradition carried across the sea to America.  Eventually, it came to recognize the men and women who died fighting for labor rights or in the accidents that sparked the fray.  During the Eisenhower administration, with the nation still queasy from its McCarthy hangover, May Day was legally made a national holiday called Law Day.

Dreamed up by Ike’s legal counsel, Law Day was intended to shadow the dangerous and ugly communist sounding value of appreciating worker unions, bringing instead to the foreground a celebration of the role of law in society.  Upon its announcement to the public, Eisenhower proclaimed that “the world is no longer a choice between force and law.  If civilization is to survive it must choose the rule of law.”

Today, this politicization holds a profound and unique duality.  What Occupiers rally around, and what the American government will be forced by our hands to adhere to, is the knowledge that it is the socialist spirit of banning together balanced against the characteristic American will for individual freedoms that will preserve the promise of liberty for all.  The rule of law will only ensure the survival of civilization if the law is civilized, not wielded against the masses by special interest groups and religious fanatics for the purpose of financial, personal, and societal control.

We realize that the role of governmental law is not to limit the freedoms of the people or to create avenues of exploitation for the filthy rich, but to protect all people from said exploitation, to prevent the power of one man over another – regardless of status, and to insulate the best interest of the nation from the pillaging of thieves – even those who wear suits instead of ski-masks.

We understand that unions are not socialist regimes poised to overcome political freedoms in the name of level playing fields.  They are a necessary part of a nation that allows people in menial jobs to convey their needs and issues to corporate higher-ups who are routinely detached from and negligent of the realities on their factory floors.

We see the duty of government to ensure safety and opportunity for all Americans.  All school districts being created equal, all neighborhoods safe for all children, all doctors accessible to all who ail.  How each man chooses to take or squander these opportunities is his business and will leave him in a life that is the summation of his efforts, but no one should suffer or be denied the opportunity to earn a decent and honest living in safety and health because of the socio-economic status into which he was born.

Yesterday, the streets of our American cities were alive with the spirit of our future nation and the meaning of our historical May Day.  The people who claimed the parks and thoroughfares, sidewalks and rooftops see this balance, this vision of a dualistic and perfect America.  They celebrated both the labor unions and the rule of law, because they know that through unity we find individualism, through law we find freedom, and by rooting ourselves firmly into the moment we find the wings on which we will fly into tomorrow.  They see this balance, this duality, as that which defines America and makes her different from every other place on Earth.

True to form, this year’s May Day celebrations wore the brilliant colors it has since my days of ribbons swirling around dancing children, since its pagan founders crowned queens and wrapped poles in streamers, and since the day the sun shone on the first human flesh of varied skin tone.  Let this multitude of colors serve as a reminder to us, and to all who serve us in our political and municipal offices, that there is no such thing as a black-and-white issue… and that often there is no gray area either.

Freedom is the birthright of all humans.  Equality is the gift of all gods.  Medicine, education, and sustenance are basic human rights.  And the preservation of liberty and the law that protects it is the duty of each of us.

Happy May Day, Occupiers.

Good show!