Dear John,

This Labor Day we’re thinking about the future.  It’s in-person.  Our favorite spots are back: restaurants, bookstores, concert venues.  They’re all kind of the same, but also distinctly different.  It’s hard to put your finger on.  (Maybe it’s us that’s changed.)

Our public spaces are back too.  Teachers are working in-person.  The State Capitol is open.  You can wait in line at the DMV.  (What’s happened to us, when it feels oddly new and satisfying to be stuck in a crowded line?)

Our care facilities feel wide open.  You can breathe easy, and stand around and chat.  And we all still feel a little in awe of nurses and nursing assistants and PCAs and lab techs and janitors and EMTs.

And don’t get us started on the U.S. Postal Service.  The private companies still drop boxes and ring the doorbell, but the USPS uniform is like decorated service dress.  They survived a pandemic and saved our democracy.

This Labor Day we don’t have to remember sacrifices.  We just have to look around us and recognize what working people are actually doing.  

2020 is what people will remember on future Labor Days.

Take it in this weekend.  Be outside.  Wear a mask.  Notice all the folks who make your life work.  It’s a year of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

When we get back next week, it’ll be the General Election season, in full swing, with misinformation and disinformation, dog whistles and distractions.

But this weekend, take a minute to appreciate the people around you.  We got this.  We’re going to do big stuff in the next two months.

Here’s what we’re reading, watching, and listening to this week: 

1. BNC

The Black National Convention was held online last week. Watch the powerful wrap up coverage. 

2. Black Politics

Must read opinion piece published in the New York Times on the future of Black politics and movement for Black lives written by Jessica Byrd, deputy campaign manager for Stacey Abrams. Read it here.

3. Health Care

With borders closed, we are stuck in the hell of our own health care system. Change is not only necessary—it’s possible. Read this deep dive.

4. Essay

This viral essay by Jesmyn Ward is the beautiful and heartbreaking account of the novelist losing her beloved husband to Covid-19 in January. Read and share this poignant piece.

5. Ed Markey

The progressive Senator from Massachusetts delivered a clear message after winning his primary this week: The age of incrementalism is over. Now is our moment to think big, to build big, to be big. This is what this election is all about. This is what this moment demands.” Read about this incredible primary election.

6. Union Organizing

From Surly’s to Amazon, some employers will do all they can to stop working people from organizing. Read about Surly’s and Amazon going as far as hiring intelligence analyists to track “labor organizing threats.”

7. Union Love

Unions are more popular now than just about anything else in America: 65% approval. Check out this Gallup poll and watch this sweet ad from the Minnesota AFL-CIO asking, “Would Donald Trump make a good union member?”

8. Sevdaliza 

I’ve missed Chris’s music recommendations. Here’s one I just got. Listen to her new album Shabrang here.

9. Bad Ideas

Do not do this. Read about Trump in North Carolina.

10. #TooExtreme

The right-wing Fear for All campaign started arriving in mailboxes across Minnesota this week. Read about it then please, please, please watch Senator Matt Little’s viral response video—we laughed out loud.

That’s a wrap. Have a great weekend.

--Kenza Hadj-Moussa & Chris Conry