The trades are noble work

A generation was quietly told the trades were a fallback. They are not a fallback. They are the foundation underneath every other career that depends on a building staying standing.

The people who frame, roof, wire, plumb, weld, drive, and finish are doing work that is permanent in a way most office work is not. They can point at it.

Treating tradespeople with the respect their work deserves is a small act of honesty, repeated. It is also the beginning of recruiting the next generation.

There is no version of the future of America that does not depend on this work being done well.