JUNETEENTH: CELEBRATING EMANCIPATION FROM SLAVERY

Acrostic, democracy, finding common ground, JUNETEENTH, race relations 1 Minute
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Image courtesy of flickr.com

JUNETEENTH

Justifiable outrage coalesces into
Unity as we recoil from blue knee on black
Neck in this repetitive horror to which we cry
Enough!
This freedom anniversary should be one of
Elation in a land revitalizing its promised
Equality despite the backward steps—
Never forgetting Tulsa or Jim Crow or
The Klansmen et al stalking among us—we’ll
Hope/march/work/vote til we’re…

ALL FREE, PROUD, TOGETHER.

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Emancipation Day Celebration. Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

MAKE JUNETEENTH A NATIONAL HOLIDAY!

Annie

Published by annieasksyou

I've been a nonfiction writer for many years, exploring diverse topics that pique my curiosity, as noted in my first blog posting (Greetings!). I'm seeking dialogue with others committed to joining me in this exploration, sharing my conviction that different views can be exchanged in a respectful, civil discourse where we can learn from one another and be agreeable, even when we disagree. These postings depend for their enrichment on your participation: your ideas, insights, knowledge, opinions, and personal stories.

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20 thoughts on “JUNETEENTH: CELEBRATING EMANCIPATION FROM SLAVERY”

      2. I hope this doesn’t sound presumptuous, but I see us all in this together. This country’s gotta face and fix its past—I think we’ve finally reached the point where most of us realize that reality.

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  2. We must sustain this momentum until Nov. 3. Trump and Company count on many of us having short attention spans and memories, so that by election day, our passion will have faded, and voting will lose its urgency.

    I have every confidence that if the election were to be held tomorrow, Trump would be resoundingly defeated. But the election is not tomorrow, and 4 1/2 months is an eternity in politics. Let us use this eternity to build on this moment rather than let it slip passively from our grasp.

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    1. I certainly understand what you’re saying, but I’d amend it to say we must sustain the momentum indefinitely. We gotta get rid of trump et al and their corrosive effect on every aspect of our country—and we gotta keep fighting to make sure the promise of America becomes possible for everyone.

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  4. Thanks again, Annie! I have to admit that, even at my age, I’m still learning plenty of things. I’d seen the term “Juneteenth” on my iPhone calendar over the past few years, but really didn’t know what it signified. I sure don’t remember the term from my school days, though we all certainly learned about the Emancipation Proclamation. Given the times we’re living in, with the rightful calls for justice after George Floyd’s and many other African Americans’ killings over many years, I think making Juneteenth a national holiday should happen.

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    1. Thank you, George. No; I went to integrated schools and we never learned about Juneteenth or the Tulsa massacre or the many other similar massacres that have occurred in various places in the US. Kinda makes you wonder how different things might have been if we’d been better educated about our country’s actual history. At least if Juneteenth became a national holiday, for education and not just shopping, we could advance toward our ideals more rapidly.

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  5. Agreed. Make Juneteenth a national holiday. And ditch Columbus Day. Columbus never intended to “discover” a new continent, and his arrival here was disastrous for the continent’s inhabitants.

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  8. As you know, I am a natural contrarian. If someone tells me it’s raining outside, I will go look for myself, and perhaps discuss whether the amount falling is really rain, or just drizzle. 🙂

    That said, I am like you and never learned anything about Juneteenth. I think the recognition of the day is a good thing, with a couple of provisos. I am leery of jamming through another mandatory holiday – we have been celebrating MLK for quite a few years now, so I wonder how much good another Monday off work will actually do. I also dislike the idea of a virtue-signaling establishment (business, government, academia, media) trying to buy peace with activists and strut its progressive bona fides by jumping on the Juneteenth bandwagon that they have not given two figs for up until about two weeks ago.

    But enough of the curmudgeon. I am in favor of a day that all of us can celebrate – a day that recognizes an indisputably good thing. Hopefully it will be a day that, going forward, all of us will celebrate willingly, joyfully, and for the right reasons.

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    1. I understand your wariness about “just another Monday off,” and I certainly get your bandwagon-all-of-a-sudden criticism. But it’s truly astonishing how many people—and even black people, I’ve learned—were never taught more about this critical point in our history. We certainly need to redress those omissions. I share the hope you express in your last sentence.

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  9. Hear hear! I really hope this marks a sea-change in policing. One thing that really did shock me was when I read about the amount of ex-military hardware U.S. cops had bought up – not a dynamic that is conducing to policing by consent.

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    1. Yes, it is astonishing, and I’m sure contributes to the terrible gap between the police and communities they are to protect. The move seems to have been instituted because there were all these neat military armaments and vehicles lying around in disuse and–well, what could possibly go wrong???

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