A Peace Corps volunteers works in South America. (Photo from www.peacecorps.gov)

In October 1960, Senator John Kennedy spoke to graduates of the University of Michigan and encouraged them to “live and work in developing countries around the world, thus dedicating themselves to the cause of peace and development.”  On September 22, 1961, the culmination of the efforts Kennedy discussed at the University of Michigan the previous year were realized when Congress authorized the passage of the Peace Corps Act officially establishing the Peace Corps. 

Since the official establishment of the Peace Corps, nearly 200,000 Americans have donated their time and efforts in 139 countries toward achieving the goals set forth by Senator Kennedy in 1960.  In its earliest years, the Peace Corps focused on fundamental and vital necessities, including access to clean drinking water and literacy, which would help promote development in “interested countries.”  Today’s Peace Corps performs many of the same functions its first volunteers experienced, but as the world and its problems have evolved, so too has the Peace Corps.

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In 1907, the U.S. Army Signal Corps was created to assume responsibility over all matters pertaining to military aviation, and in its earliest days was a fledgling force of only eight aviation balloons, a dozen officers, and only slightly more enlisted men.  From that small yet effective force came the modern United States Air Force, established as a separate branch of the military services on September 18, 1947.

In the decade before its separation from the United States Army, the U.S. Army Air Corps as it was known proved its strength during the protracted battles of World War II.  By September 1939, the German army and air force had managed to defeat and occupy Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France.  It was in the wake of such worldwide conflict that the Air Force began to develop into one of the world’s most effective military forces.  Equipment and funding poured into the U.S. Army Air Corps as President Franklin Roosevelt began to realize that in order to defeat the determined Germans, the United States would need a superior military aviation force. 

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An act of Congress in 1894 made the first Monday in September a federal holiday, Labor Day, in celebration of the American worker.  The genesis of the holiday was a march on City Hall in New York City on September 5, 1882, by 10,000 workers who wanted to call attention to the issues of work conditions in America.  At the time, the average American worked a 12-hour day, 7 days a week.  The movement that culminated in the march on City Hall accelerated the birth of labor unions and the political power of workers and their unions.

In the years following the Labor Day legislation, cities and towns nationwide sponsored massive parades and events in honor of the American worker; those activities are no longer the focal point of the holiday.  Labor Day is celebrated by many in America as a symbol of the end of summer.  NCAA and NFL football traditionally kick off their seasons around Labor Day weekend and many Americans squeeze one last weekend trip into the dwindling days of summer.  There is little doubt that the American worker has made tremendous contributions to the development of our nation and as globalization of the work force continues, I think it’s important to remember their achievements.