Oh, Labor Day weekend!
The unofficial end of summer.
A long weekend, for many, filled with cookouts hotdogs, hamburgers, and potato salad.
Parades and celebrations.
That last trip to the beach.
Maybe some yard work.
But mainly it is that last chance to unwind and catch up on some R&R before it’s back to the routine of school, work. And is the quiet before the storm, before we run the gauntlet of holidays to come that will require more of an effort: Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah. (To name a few.)
Over the weekend, however, many people did continue to labor at businesses such as grocery stores, movie theaters, theatre theaters, retail stores and restaurants. Not to mention our emergency responders – police officers, firefighters and EMTs and of course doctors and nurses and others in the medical profession. And if you attended the Francestown Labor Day Parade in Francestown or ice cream social with Bernie Sanders in Peterborough on Monday perhaps you noticed a member of our newsroom out working as well. We take the coverage we provide to our 16 towns seriously. Our newsroom is staffed with dedicated professionals. Running a newspaper costs money. The staff needs to be paid, the rent and utility bills also need to be paid. It costs money to gather news, write stories, edit news briefs, lay out a newspaper and print it as well as build, maintain and update a web site.
Many of you know this. But we feel the need to mention this from time to time since the advent of the internet seems to have brought with it an idea that news should and must be free. So much so that it is a reoccurring theme in Facebook posts on our stories, disparaging this newspaper for daring to expect and ask for money in exchange for our hard work and expenses.
So the next time you are at work, in whatever field you labor, think how you want your time honored and dignified with an income.