September 6, 2010 [PROVIDENCE] Labor comes in many forms, including the exertion of one’s mind. And so it’s quite appropriate, as we celebrate Labor Day, to remember these words from perhaps the hardest working thinker of the 20th century, Albert Einstein:
“Many times a day, I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of people, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”
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My parents instilled, by example, an indelible work ethic in all nine of their children. I was ten years old when I went to work in the family plumbing business, helping my older brothers and father literally dig ditches and clean out sewer lines. When work was done we’d return to the four-bedroom tenement in which eleven tired people would then share a great meal, tell tales about the day’s events, and love and care for each other in ways that still touch my heart.
When I’m asked how my family has come to prosper, I offer a very simple answer: We worked our way to the American Dream. And a day does not pass when I don’t think about the labors on which my life and the lives of my wife Julie and son Anthony are built.
We have received so much from those who have labored on our behalf. And Julie and I make certain that young Anthony understands, even at age seven, that effort alone can bring about true reward. When I hear us using the same words to teach the same lessons to our son that our parents used to teach us, I experience happiness that is beyond expression in mere words.
I am reminded of one of John F. Kennedy’s favorite sayings. The ancient Greeks, he often would tell audiences, “defined happiness as the ‘full use of your powers along the lines of excellence.’”
If I am elected to Congress and I do my job fully and to the best of my ability, then happiness as the Greeks understood it must follow for me, my family, and the people who I would serve in Rhode Island and the United States of America.
The number one job that confronts me now, as a Democratic candidate for Congress and as a thinking, moral human being, is to break the stranglehold that joblessness is exerting on our nation. It was another heroic leader of our Party, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who said, “No Country, however rich, can afford the waste of its human resources. Demoralization caused by vast unemployment is our greatest extravagance. Morally, it is the greatest menace to our social order.”
The Democratic Party is the historical champion of Labor, and in Congress I will spare no effort to strengthen all that is positive and productive about a relationship that rightfully is at the core of the American experience.
On this Labor Day, I make the commitment to myself, to my family, and to you that I shall spare no effort to put our state and our nation to work.
Happy Labor Day!
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