Labor Day Letter 2024
On Labor Day, we have an opportunity to honor the men and women who risked everything to fight for the indispensable rights and privileges we enjoy as American workers.
We celebrate the working men and women of the late 1800s and early 1900s who marched, protested, and went on strike to secure safer working conditions, fairer pay, and a higher quality of life for themselves and their children. Many lost their livelihoods in the struggle; some even lost their lives. But their efforts were not in vain, as today, we enjoy far more freedoms than our grandparents and great-grandparents could have ever imagined.
While the sacrifices of the hard-working men and women of our country should always be celebrated, there are even more fundamental rights and freedoms that we enjoy as Americans - those rights afforded by our Bill of Rights and Constitution, defended generation after generation by our military.
Our founders, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, and Benjamin Franklin, brought forth an infant nation based on a truly novel idea that the rights of each individual come not from a king or emperor but are granted by God alone. And those rights are inherent in the value of each individual. No royal or imperial edict can take away the fundamental value of each human life and the right of each man and woman to pursue their own life, work, and religion as they see fit. As Thomas Jefferson so eloquently conveyed in the Declaration of Independence July 4th, 1776, we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness”.
We, as Americans, are fundamentally different from other nations. We believe in freedom of speech, honest debate, and adversarial judicial and legislative systems where the best ideas are born by conflict and disagreement, which ultimately leads to compromise. We believe that the rights of each individual, not the collective, are paramount in deterring tyranny from taking hold. We do not believe that a collective utopia is possible. Our founders knew from studying the rise and fall of great nations before us that a nation consumed by collectivism is susceptible to mob rule and the destruction of the minority and the individual.
While many nations’ militaries swear allegiance to a king or political party, the courageous men and women of our military swear allegiance to our Constitution and to the duly elected representative of the people, the President of the United States. This commitment of our military to our Constitution, which affords the rights of our citizens, is rare amongst the nations of the world. The men and women of our military are not just the protectors of our nation against foreign adversaries but also the tyranny of our own government, should it ever forget the rights of its people. This is an extraordinary commitment and honor that these men and women take on when committing their lives to the service of our great nation. Many patriots have served in our country’s military since it was founded in 1776, and for those 245 years their labor and sacrifice has afforded each of us the freedom to pursue our own careers and fortunes in relative peace, allowing our nation to prosper more than any other nation in human history.
As always, we are continually monitoring the markets and your investments. Pete and I, as well as our staff, are always here for you. Please never hesitate to reach out to us if there is anything further we can do for you. We are committed to working tirelessly to honor the trust you place in us and to provide you with the highest level of service.
On behalf of everyone at Peters Financial, we wish you a happy Labor Day weekend. We thank you for your business and the privilege of serving you.
Sincerely yours,
Lee Peters & Pete Peters
1 “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire”, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire
2 “Exploring 19th-Century Child Labor in the United States,” United States Census Bureau, https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/sis/activities/history/hh-14_teacher.pdf