The Real Strength In America Is the Common Worker, Not the Capitalist.
Posted: Monday, May 11, 2009
by Mike Fak
http://mikefak.com
This Mother's Day the Kiwanis club of Lincoln held its second annual Mother's Day buffet at Lincoln College.
The event was created to take the place of the Christmas tree fundraiser that eventually became too small and took too much work with poor results.
We are lucky in a town our size to have several marvelous caterers. In this case, the college has a real chef and an outstanding staff and just the chef's name "Warren" brings people out knowing there will be a great meal.
In the main dining hall there was a huge fruit and dessert table will all kinds of made-on-the-spot creations. There was a huge table with a dozen fresh made breads as well and at $12.00 per person, no one who came didn't rave about the food or the price.
The Kiwanians worked the hall, cleaning tables, helping older mom's with their plates to their tables and making sure to stay out of the way of the huge catering staff who knew exactly what to do and how to do it. The workers moved about deftly, replenishing dishes and making sure everything was right: always with a smile on their faces as they worked hard.
When the event was over, 500 meals had been served and compliments were in the air like flakes of snow in a winter's storm.
As the event wound down, Chef Warren allowed all his staff to sit down and enjoy the fruits of their labor and many of us Kiwanians came over to thank them for one of the most remarkable presentations of food we had ever seen.
They all still had smiles on their faces but they all looked tired. A great meal just doesn't pop out of the microwave. It takes hours of work and preparation and organization and these people had been up since the wee hours of the morning making sure others would have the memorable holiday while they worked.
Looking at all these hard-working community members, it gave me a second-wind for my appreciation for the real workers in our community and in fact our country.
The capitalists who sit behind desks, making dumb job-losing decisions while getting paid millions isn't what this country is about. It is about the people like those at the college, and everywhere else who work hard on days when others don't to give us those special things that make America a great place to live.
So to those who work hard for a modest day's pay so that the rest of us can have the convenience and bounty of this great country, I salute you. It is all of you who are the backbone of this country. And without all of you giving so much, we wouldn't be the great country that we are: the capitalists be damned.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Well I get what you're saying, but don't lump all (capitalists) or business owners/professionals in with CEO's who jump in bed with the government and run with our grand children's tax $$$'s faster than you can blink. Someone owns that catering company that orgainized that event and manages it well. Plus many of the Kiwanis members and other charity groups and organizations are made up of business professionals who want to make positive differences in their communities as well. I'd say remove government and businesses that are too big to succeed from the equation and America is pretty darn good all the way around. But I do get what you are saying. I remember being young and working all the holidays at the grocery store to get paid time and a half. I didn't so much care in the moment about helping to provide a service for others, but I sure appreciate the people who do it now when I am cooking Easter dinner and realize something I forgot and I'm thankful that someoen is working at Kroger so I can go fix my mistake. Everyone would be happier if they remembered more often that it is the journey that is important, not so much where you end up. As long as we stay away from class envy and look to ourselves, not others to set our standards and goals, it's all good. It is capitalism (the pursuit of money) that drives most of our workng class, probably even more so than the business owners themselves at times.All good points Laura. And well said.Mike
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