May Day Celebration

   The first hundred days has become a benchmark of sorts to measure the initial success of a new presidential administration.
   Whether the current president has accomplished anything so far remains an open question, and can easily become a parlor game to list successes and failures as the nation nears the day.
   May 1, a Monday, will mark 100 days in the Oval Office. It is also May Day, when people around the world celebrate the beauty of Nature and how people honor that beauty.
   In addition, May Day is a time to honor workers, especially in the several countries that have socialist or communist leaning governments.
   Oddly, the use of May Day to honor workers began in America in the 19th Century, following a nationwide strike that began May 1, 1886 as part of an effort to demand an eight-hour work day. That effort was led by a labor union known as the International Workers of the World (IWW), also called the Wobblies, which had strong socialist leanings.
   Several states and the federal government had already settled on Sept. 1 as America's Labor Day, so that leaves historians the opportunity to debate how and why socialist and communist regimes in Europe and Asia opted for May Day.
   In any case, May Day has become a show-off day for Russia and other countries to launch massive parades demonstrating their military might.
   This year, the current show-off in the White House will likely be looking for an excuse to display his accomplishments as he marks 100 days as president.
   And as North Korea this year rattles its nuclear sabers in efforts to bully other nations into giving in to its demands and threats, the Whine House Bully in Chief faces a dilemma. How does he maintain his self-image as the strongest leader the world has ever known without seeming to yield to the practicality of negotiating a peaceful settlement to whatever passes for disagreement these days.
   The world is facing a confrontation of two bullies determined to get their own way by threatening to throw bombs at each other.
   Throwing insults is one thing. That's what politicians and diplomats do all the time. Often, the only difference between trading insults in a schoolyard or in Congress or the United Nations is the vocabulary. But when verbal bombs are upgraded to nuclear bombs, the entire world is in danger.