Posted on 06/20/2021 5:09:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
Growing up in Texas, Juneteenth has been a holiday for me all my life. A time to BBQ, a time to pray, and a time to celebrate freedom. A time to reflect on June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops. This was two and half years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had become law on January 1, 1863.
Imagine Major General Granger walking through the streets of Galveston reading General Order No. 3 out loud in front of homes, courthouses, businesses, and churches. Freeing the last group of slaves in America, many who likely believed this day would never come.
Today, when I hear some conservatives speak out against Juneteenth, it reminds me that we have a long way to go. The hypocrisy of many who claim to be Patriots and defenders of liberty and freedom is undeniable on this issue. Even those I respect, like Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk, are taking a stand against Juneteenth in the name of American Patriotism.
Ironically, Juneteenth is a celebration grounded in the Republican ideals of equality and freedom. In fact, the Republican Party was founded upon the back of the abolitionist movement in the United States. Historic figures such as President Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Tubman were all members of the anti-slavery Republican Party. Their respective legacies and pioneering achievements continue to inform the Republican Party of today.
Just a year ago, I was working with several black conservatives to design the Platinum Plan with the Trump Administration that would bring over $500 billion into the black communities, further criminal justice reform, enhance Opportunity Zone funding, small business funding and yes, declaring Juneteenth a National Holiday. President Trump understood the importance of Juneteenth and he grasped the importance of helping to bring freedom to so many who have received excessive incarceration.
I did not hear a single conservative speak out against Juneteenth when it was announced in President Trump’s Platinum Plan. Now that it has been passed by Democrats, some conservatives have changed their minds and their rhetoric. This hypocrisy is at the core of the spirit division in our nation. We cannot define our truth based on political parties or man-made ideals. That is not patriotism.
Yes, we can celebrate the abolition of slavery in America and still celebrate our nation’s independence, they are not mutually exclusive. Patriotism is celebrating our country’s freedom from the tyranny of Great Britain. Patriotism is celebrating that America was one of the first major world powers to abolish both slavery and colonization. Patriotism is embracing the celebration of freedom based on righteousness, not ideals.
The 4th of July is the promise of monumental events in American history, like Juneteenth. Juneteenth is an example of the fulfillment and affirmation of our nation’s ideals promised by the Constitution and celebrated on the 4th of July. They complement each other and illustrate not only a commitment to equality, but America’s progress in pursuit of a more perfect union.
This Juneteenth I’ll be BBQing with friends and saying prayers for our Nation to continue to be the examples of freedom for the world.
Amen. We need to reclaim it.
White folk should co-opt this pseudo holiday.
It should be a day where other races. colors, and creeds give gifts and stage events in appreciation of the Anglo Saxon race and enlightened post reformation Christian culture that established, warred for and still ensures their freedoms.
“Thanks Whitey, you Bible thumping blued eyed devil cracker bastards.”
But that’s just my opinion and I do not feel strongly about it.
I’m not okay with it being designated a National Holiday.
So what’s to stop December 10th from being designated a national holiday due to Wyoming being the first state to give women the right to vote?
Juneteenth is a Texas-thing. No need to give another holiday to federal workers.
I’m lovin’ this revelation!!!
Their celebrations won’t be so celebratory.
I was talking to my friend who owns a marina. Next year he'll be celebrating Juneteenth with a boat sale - if you are a black conservative you'll get any boat at 10% off...I'm not sure if he is kidding, but it would be funny.
That could be fun
I don't think it's okay that we no longer have Washington's Birthday, Lincoln's Birthday, Patriots Day, VE or VJ Day. These are holidays that celebrate the people and events affecting our entire country, not just one group. It's strange to have a national holiday for an event that affected some people in one city two years after the real event.
“Freeing the last group of slaves in America . . .”
The imagery in that phrase is so moving I hate to say the writer doesn’t know what he is talking about.
The event on June 19 ended slavery in the defeated Confederate States.
The United States clung to slavery for another six months.
And a little longer in some of the Indian nations.
It took the 13th Amendment to free all slaves in all of the United States.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The amendment was passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified by the required 27 of the then 36 states on December 6, 1865, and proclaimed on December 18. It was the first of the three Reconstruction Amendments adopted following the American Civil War.
We should also remember the 600,000 who lost their lives in the Civil War on this holiday.
The Black American population in the USA is only about 13%. They have been held in check by the CIA's drug programs, but they are still a threat to the elites in DC.
Covid, BLM, Defund the police, Rising crime, Bogus elections, Critical Race Theory, Resegregation by dividing the races, illegal immigration...
DC is pushing hard to bring it to a boil where someone or some group - White or Black - will snap and there will be no turning back.
When the lid comes off both sides will have armed feds behind them to pick off and/or disarm the survivors.
bump
Yeah, but the more people know, the closer they get to the truth.
“The imagery in that phrase is so moving I hate to say the writer doesn’t know what he is talking about.”
Well, there you go, now. Quoting history! You should know that we’ve erased history and it no longer counts for anything.
Don’t you know it’s the image that counts — not facts!
Here’s another fact that is being ignored. Lincoln was so moved by slavery that he waited almost two years after he began the War of Northern Aggression to issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. If it was so important, why wait two years??
And after the EP, President Lincoln added yet another slave state to his nation.
Eventually, the United States - the most powerful slave-owning nation on earth - would destroy their economic and political rivals in the Confederate States (perhaps the second most powerful slave-owning nation on earth).
“Eventually, the United States - the most powerful slave-owning nation on earth - would destroy their economic and political rivals in the Confederate States (perhaps the second most powerful slave-owning nation on earth).”
Exactly. It was about destroying economic and political rivals. Slavery was just an excuse. After all, only 10% of all African Slaves were in the United States at the time.
There is nothing new under the sun. Today, it is the Russians destroying our so-called democracy or an attempted invasion on January 6, 2021. But this time around the other side is attempting to destroy all of us who don’t toe the government line.
I'm not either, If we have to have another race centric holiday shoved down our throat, can we at least name it in some language other than Ebonics?
I will check back after White History month to see if it got changed to June Nineteenth.
But is that really true?
Years ago the public schools taught that the June 19 announcement freed the slaves in Texas which was a defeated Confederate state.
And I'm under the impression the slaves in the Union slave states were freed later by the ratification of the 13th amendment which occurred in December of 1865.
In other words, the United States clung to slavery six months longer than their defeated economic and political rivals in the South.
The day the Republicans freed the slaves!
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