Posted on 06/15/2021 3:14:17 PM PDT by janetjanet998
CNN) The Senate unanimously passed a resolution on Tuesday establishing June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day, a US holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.
The legislation has gained momentum since the massive Black Lives Matter protests sparked by the police killing of George Floyd last year and the Democrats' takeover of the White House and Congress.
(Excerpt) Read more at amp.cnn.com ...
Celebrate the republican defeat of democrat slavery. Of course, do that and they ALL bring up “the southern strategy” that magically transformed all racist white democrats to Republicans and the democrat party the party of “people of color.”
MOST of us haven’t heard of it until last summer.
Hey, commemorate the September 2 too...that was the day on 1945 when the USA finished what the Germans started on September 1, 1939.
Me either. Now our CEO at work is sending out emails that insinuate that black Americans have celebrated this day forever and apparently all Americans have as well- it’s very dystopian. There is a newly created holiday they pretend has been an American tradition forever. It may have been a big thing in Texas or elsewhere , but not in Virginia or North Carolina. I have black Americans in my immediate direct close family/ in laws of siblings . We are all like “what”?
Wait a minute. It celebrates freeing of slaves??? Then by rights it must celebrate the two million Bily Yanks whose sacrifices on the battlefield actually resulted in the end of slavery. The freed slaves were the receivers not the actors. Those were the WHITE young men who wore The Blue. So on this Saturday I will celebrate my great great grandfather, an Irish immigrant who went to war with the 70th NY Volunteer Infantry.
Not if we let the Left frame that. We'll just have to say that the U.S. is the best country in the world and that Abraham Lincoln and thousands of Union soldiers died giving slaves their freedom.
Same. And my corp made it a holiday and now they’re scrambling to find workers, because everyone else didn’t jump on the bandwagon. LOL, I took the week off since I could get 5 for 4, so there ya go....
Unfortunately that’s not going to happen. That could have been done on Lincoln’s birthday but instead made a new holiday that only makes sense in Texas.
To replace Independence Day.
Honestly, that should have happened a long time ago.
The Democrats' view of minorities hasn't changed one iota since the day the party was founded almost 200 years ago. Only the color of the hoods has changed.
I also never heard of the term "Case Fatality Rate" until last year.
I never heard about the 1970s Detroit protopunk band "Death" until around 2013.
And I hadn't heard of the Kaiser Chiefs until I heard them on XM Underground Garage until after their fourth album was released.
That doesn't mean my arbitrary starting point of knowledge should be THE universal governor of everyone else's knowledge.
In terms of bank holidays, those that are distinctly American are MLK Day, President's Day, Independence Day, Columbus Day, and Thanksgiving Day. In each of these days I see shining examples of American Exceptionalism.
If I'm honest, I can see American Exceptionalism in Juneteenth. How, might you ask, is Exceptionalism of an American variety found in a "day that's a sop to BLM"? First, I don't see it that way: I know black folks who've celebrated Juneteenth for a long time (I just learned about it in 2020). It is BLM that is new to the game. Second, (perhaps fittingly) I must quote Condoleezza Rice who absolutely nailed this last summer:
Well, I’ve always thought that America’s greatest strength is that we are a country where you can come from humble circumstances and do great things, and where, despite our painful history, we’ve worked harder and harder every day, brick by brick, to build a more perfect union for all of us. And I would say to those, particularly in places like China and Russia and Iran, who may want to use this for propaganda, let’s not be absurd.
This is not Tiananmen Square where you’ve mowed down people who disagreed with the government. This is not the invasion of Crimea where you took land from your neighbor. This is not the Green Revolution in Iran where you killed people wantonly because they wouldn’t agree with the theocratic government.
Rice continued, “And I would even say to our friends abroad, in places like Europe, where I’m seeing demonstrations in support of what is happening here, thank you for your support, but please look in the mirror. Please ask yourself, in countries in Europe and countries all across the world, what are you doing about racial and ethnic inequality in your own circumstances? America has gotten better because we have been willing to confront our problems. And we’re going to confront our problems again. We’re confronting them now.
“But I really don’t need to be lectured by Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping about peaceful protest when they have themselves used their own force just because people wanted to criticize the government. That is not what is happening here,” she added.
In that same spirit I consider adding a federal holiday to celebrate the emancipation of slaves (I mean, we DID have a little war that sorta touched upon this scourge....it's not a holiday celebrating Elvis and James Brown though that'd be bitchin') to be prima facie evidence of what makes America Exceptional AND better than every other nation on the planet.
Yes. Agreed. A worthy holiday. But not in a wokified sense. In a patriotic sense. Hopefully one day future generations will be unable to unpack the journey of abolitionism...
These are some good starting points for me:
1) Ben Franklin’s conversion and founding of Pennsylvania Abolition Society
http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/slavery-abolition-society/
2) Angelina Grimke Appeal to the Christian Women of the South
http://americainclass.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Grimke_Appeal-to-the-Christian-Women-of-the-South-excerpts.pdf
3) Frederick Douglas’ “What to the Slave is the 4th of July” (totally taken out of context these days. When read in full, it is one do the most patriotic and faith-centered texts produced in the 19th Century!)
https://nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/nations-story-what-slave-fourth-july
I just checked mine, and Christmas is on it. (Yea!)
No doubt Wal-Mart will be closed
Now it’s time for Jubilee.
But not in a wokified sense. In a patriotic sense.
I totally agree. And I suspect, at inception, it'll largely be taken in the wokey way.
Holidays can have a weird life cycle. Labor Day doesn't mean much to me aside from a day off/the end of summer. Veterans and Memorial Day took on greater importance for me as I got older. July 4 is a bigly holiday.
Maybe when I'm 90 I'll get it all right - as Dr Rice says, we do not bury our errors but rather confront them. He is to confrontation.
July 4th is a Sunday, so Monday off. If the Senate gets this passed on Wed, we’ll get Friday off. Regardless, Biden could just declare it this year the same way Christmas Eve is done almost every year.
Yup! The day the Republicans freed the slaves!
One of them. We got a lot more we can celebrate.
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