May Day

I used to have a day off on May Day when I was in China, but after 7 years of living in the United States, I have got used to it and barely remember the importance of the day. I was surprised when I noticed the origins of May Day is actually happened in the United States and it has been forgotten. Although we have a day off on the first Thursday of September, the Labour Day, I think the meaning has already got twisted. May Day is an international holiday and most countries celebrate this holiday for the hard workers from Chicago, who has struggled for the 8 hour day, which caused us to have a better life now. The holiday supposed to celebrate the great changed that the hard workers has contribute to us socially and economically. Otherwise, a lot of the workers now might have to work long hours and get less income.

The past struggle that the workers had had definitely brought us a better life and a better civilized placed to live in. Even this historical event did not happen; perhaps somebody else might have done this contribution, too. However, the workers from Chicago did it, and therefore, we have a shorter working hours. Without the sense of history and past struggle, our life might still be harsh and difficult. In my own opinion, I think the strike is necessary to live a good and meaningful life, because things have to get better and needed to have a difference in order to improve our lives. But in order to revolt, lives of the others often have to be sacrifice. Some people believe that living a good and meaningful life, is to make things better, and improve the life situations for the next generation. So then, the next generations do not have to suffer as much as they do.

Because of the struggles for a better life, therefore, now we have way better life than our ancestor. But somehow, I feel that now a day, most people have a good life and we have stopped making progress. Or perhaps, we are making progress, but in a slow motion. A lot of us feel powerless to revolt over the rules that we dislikes and we spent our time on our own personal social life and other luxuries like famous brands, nice looking clothes, computers, internets, etc… We barely struggle such harsh life like the workers from back then and we do not suffer. Even we do suffer bad things, those are small things such as can’t get the new phone or new video games, or losing our other halves. A lot of our sadness or unsatisfied emotions are coming from our love, materials, and other things that are not really necessary for us. Since our lives are so better compare to back then, we no longer struggle or even fight for our own rights. Compare to the people from back then who have to struggle for food, human rights…etc. We are definitely way better and have too much happiness that we still complain about small things. We no longer cherish the things we have, like food, clothes…etc. Even a lot of the new inventions, it has made our life way easier.

Without the Wrights brother, we might not have airplanes, without Thomas Edison, we might not have lights. Same to the workers, without their struggles, we might not have shorter working hours. Perhaps, we are still improving our lives such as trying to recycle, avoid global warning…etc. But our lives are so much better; most of us no longer take their time and contribute to the next generations. We have learned how to take care of our own selves, and processing selfishness, and we no longer think sacrificing for the others is worth its values.