SEPTEMBER 7, 2026

“Pray as though everything depended on God.  Work as though everything depended on you.”

–St. Augustine.

Today I am in Chatmoss, the most lovely spot in Southside Virginia. This week is the annual Member-Guest golf tournament. My long time playing partner John Bays will be here on Wednesday. Hopefully, we will be hoisting the winners’ trophy on Saturday. Most likely, we will be hoisting martini glasses full of gin.

“There is no worse material poverty, I am keen to stress, than the poverty which prevents people from earing their bread and deprives them of the dignity of work.”–Pope Francis

“Honor lies in honest toil.”

–Grover Cleveland

“All wealth is the product of labor.”
— John Locke

“No great achievement is possible without persistent work.”
– Bertrand Russell

“There is no substitute for hard work.”

— Thomas A. Edison

Today is Labor Day.  The very notion of celebrating “Labor Day” was once envisioned as a day to advance the rise of Marxism and collectivism through the guise of celebrating the American working man.  Unfortunately for the Left, American workers have always striven to succeed, and believed [correctly!] that they could advance in the economy based upon their merits.  Thus the Left was thwarted, as the sin of envy has never taken hold amongst our citizens the way it has in other so-called “advanced” countries such as France. 

Sadly today, there are fewer American working men, and the sin of envy is rising among the indolent.  The labor force participation rate is at a historically low point.  Men in the prime working ages (25-55) are increasingly spending their time outside the workplace, living in their parents’ basements, not getting married, playing video games, watching internet porn, and living off government benefits.  This is a terrible development, which is being encouraged by the Democrats’ increased social spending which subsidizes idleness and sloth, and discourages industry.  This is a product of America’s generous and unconstitutional welfare State.  It is a trend which must be reversed.

There is dignity in being self-sufficient.  There is dignity in work.  There is dignity in providing for yourself and your family.  There is no dignity in sitting on the couch playing video games, and brushing pizza crumbs off the fabric.

We need a societal change.  In 2026 America, poverty is a choice.  That choice needs to be eliminated.  We need to make it uncomfortable to be lazy and unproductive.  We need to quit subsidizing those who wish to live in a drug and alcohol induced haze.  We need to encourage, nay, we need to demand, that every able-bodied man engage in work, and support himself and his family.  These expectations are Biblical in nature, and these expectations are what saved the Jamestown colony from extinction in 1608-09, and, similarly, the Plymouth colony, some 14 years later.

The world owes no one a living.  Socialism is a lie, a failed ideology which has caused more poverty, angst, and death in this world than all the wars combined. 

Beginning this year, let’s make Labor Day great again.  Let’s make it a rallying point for putting more men back to work, and for them to become self-sufficient.  This change alone would do more than any of Zohran Mamdani’s, Gavin Newsom’s, Elizabeth “Lieawatha” Warren’s, or Bernie Sanders’s vaunted (and flawed) government initiatives to grow our economy.  This change alone would go a long way to changing people’s hearts, in a positive and sustaining way.  The change alone would renew the promise of the American dream.

If you are going to wear white, I hope you got it done the weekend.  Come tomorrow, white is no more until Memorial Day 2027.  Yes, Frank, this includes you.  But not your golf shoes.

And please; do not send me any correspondence concerning “Winter white”.  There is no such thing.  I don’t care what your favorite fashion magazine writes.  White is white is white.  See you next May.

GFK