Remember the jobless

As many of us gather for parades, barbecues and festivities in honor of the many men and women who toil day in and day out in hope of a better life, let us not forget the 31 million who will be celebrating Labor Day from the unemployment line.

Let us not forget that their burden is not theirs to carry alone. Let today serve as a reminder that the jobless are jobless through no fault of their own. They are casualties of the gravest recession since the Great Depression - and they deserve our help.

They deserve a hand in the fight to get back to work. They deserve a decent paycheck, not a meager unemployment benefit. They deserve to know where they'll be laying their head next month when the foreclosure notice shows up.

America's unemployed deserve policies like the Union of Unemployed's Hire US, America plan, a 21-point strategy for reversing the jobs crisis. Policies that discourage the outsourcing of American jobs, demand the creation of a Works Progress Administration-style jobs program and create a Tier 5 unemployment extension for those who have been out of work longer than 99 weeks are imperative to this country's future economic existence.

Lastly, they deserve victory come Election Day. On Nov. 2 incumbents better take notice. Candidates who are fixated on their own political agendas and not on economic recovery will not only be at the mercy of America's typical midterm voters, but America's 31 million jobless as well.

Many in office are betting the unemployed are too distraught, preoccupied or wearied to show up at the polls this election. In a recession where unemployed workers outnumber job openings five-to-one and it takes the Senate two months to pass an unemployment insurance extension, they'd better think again.

Today, let us remember those who want to "labor" but can't find a job. Let's get America back to work.