Don’t Let the Left Ruin Juneteenth’s True Meaning

This Wednesday, America will celebrate Juneteenth as a federal holiday for the fourth time. Yet the holiday, born out of bipartisanship, is becoming more divisive each year.

But in the eyes of this Texas historian, it’s a mistake to abandon a unifying national holiday to the manipulations of the Left. We should instead do what conservatives are best at: Get back to the roots.

Until the past four years, Juneteenth was an uncontroversial celebration of American freedom and the end of slavery in Texas. The holiday commemorates the day Union Gen. Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, informing Texas of the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the state’s slaves, and marking the end of slavery under the Confederacy.

The next year, in 1866, residents of Galveston began celebrating “Jubilee Day,” which eventually became what we know as Juneteenth. In 1979, Al Edwards, a Democratic state representative from Houston, sponsored legislation to make Juneteenth a paid state holiday. Texas Gov. Bill Clements, a Republican, signed the bill into law, and the holiday was born.

The national acceptance of Juneteenth also began in a bipartisan fashion. President Donald Trump was the first president to call for its adoption as a federal holiday in 2020, although it took a year for Congress to act. When it did, the bill passed the Senate with unanimous consent and 415-14 in the House.

With that kind of history, one would expect conservatives, even those wary of the pitfalls of identity politics like me, to embrace Juneteenth’s consistency with the principles enshrined in our founding documents.

The holiday celebrates what President Abraham Lincoln called “a new birth of freedom” for America. It celebrates the completion of the work of July 4, 1776—the extension of liberty to all Americans. It also commemorates the untold numbers of young men who died in the war fighting for that freedom.

If it’s good enough for Texas, why are some conservatives beginning to oppose the holiday?

The Left has worked hard to co-opt the holiday and use it as a tool to divide their countrymen and to replace the real Independence Day. It began on the first federal Juneteenth, when Democratic leaders tied the 156-year-old holiday to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Then, the Left named the national holiday “Juneteenth National Independence Day,” setting it up in opposition to July 4.

What was once a broadly accepted state holiday celebrating a significant moment in Texas history became a pawn in the national game of identity politics and subject to the division of the 24-hour news cycle.

The Guardian published a story calling Juneteenth “the real Independence Day”—a slap in the face to both our Founders and all Americans who celebrate July 4. Activists have called for Juneteenth to be used to explore “racial trauma” and enact reparations.

Under these circumstances, it is no surprise that Americans are souring on Juneteenth. What they hear from the media and elected leaders on Juneteenth is a self-righteous, anti-American drumbeat of criticism and division. Most Americans are excluded from the celebration, as is anyone who believes in America’s founding or doesn’t buy the narrative that America is “systemically racist” today.

But it’s not too late to save the holiday from those who would abuse it. Here’s one way: Celebrate it as the first day of a two-week national celebration of independence and freedom, stretching from June 19 to July 4.

We should remember the wars in which Americans fought and died to defend our shared heritage of liberty and expand it to all Americans. We should commemorate the armies of young patriots—black and white—who fought wars against tyrannical elites, whether it was the English crown or the plantation owner. We should consider how elites today are trying to take away the very freedoms that were secured on June 19 and July 4 through the blood of our forefathers and work with our neighbors to protect our liberties.

That’s the true spirit of Juneteenth. It’s a day of building up our country, not tearing it down. We have an opportunity to reject racial divisions and the revisionist history of the ivory tower.

It’s long past time conservatives start reclaiming our institutions—let’s start this June 19.

On this Juneteenth let’s be grateful to God Almighty that the United States legally and officially ended the execrable and abhorrent practice of slavery over one hundred and fifty years ago. And let’s pray to Jesus Christ to help us in this modern era, to rid our lands of evil that still perpetuates nightmares.

Let’s hope and pray that recognizing this achievement will help the descendants of slaves heal and recognize who is truly on their side even today. Let’s pray the history lesson we should all know or learn is appreciated and understood by those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Slavery was a battle from Day 1 of our Republic. In winning the war against Democrats and their love of chained, black flesh and souls, Republicans were able to legally free and protect their black brothers and sisters from the indignity of being owned and of having their families torn apart by Democrats who only cared for their very own power and pocketbooks. Black families were able to grow and thrive in this land of opportunity. For one hundred years former slaves and their grandchildren became land owners, business owners, musicians, writers, politicians, they had success in every walk of life, even though they still fought against the discrimination and bigotry of democrats who still despised them for being free.

Black families and communities did not have it as easy as they would have without democrats, but any progress they made was eventually stolen by LBJ and the new Democrat Party, who nonetheless enslaved black flesh and souls once again in ghetto plantations. Black families were torn apart with cheap housing and welfare money, food stamps. With the indignity of not being the heads of their houses, black men were degraded again into despair and depression until drugs and gangs replaced their desire for meaning and purpose. Black women only had to have a child every year to get more money, it was no matter that there was no family, there was just Uncle Sam’s check.

And yet, today, while we rejoice in our own civilized society, let’s remember the places on earth where the uncivilized, ignorant, and animalistic scum of the earth still enslave fellow humans. And let’s ask our “Leaders” why slavery is allowed to exist at all?

Starting with American Democrats and their love of the open border, where women and children are trafficked into the slave trades of sex work and forced labor.

Not alone in their lust for perversion and cheap workers, American Democrats are joined by at least the following, hellish nightmares on earth.

We can estimate 10 million slaves in the sex, drug, and labor trades in the Americas alone.

Venezuela, Haiti, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Bolivia, Peru, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Cuba, Brazil, Trinidad, Panama, Guyana, Argentina, United States, Costa Rica, Chile, Uruguay, Canada,

Around the rest of the earth it’s estimated 50 million souls are held in slavery. These countries are the worst offenders. India, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey, Bangladesh,

Our own United States is estimated to have at least 1,091,000 souls held in darkness and anguish, suffering fates as bad as any American slave suffered 165 years ago.

But, yes, let’s remember the Americans who fought and died to free their their enslaved brothers and sisters. Let’s ask ourselves what has gone wrong since then. Let’s turn to democrats and ask if they are blind liars or just stupid. Let’s ask who is responsible for the loss of family and dignity and opportunity in the ghetto plantations today.

LR 6/19/24

I hate to be persistent but no one can understand the intent of what is now known as Juneteenth until the Galveston proclamation - issued by that white northern general - is read and understood.

GENERAL ORDERS, NUMBER 3

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them, becomes that between employer and hired labor. The Freedmen are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

These people spit on July 4 but they demand that we worship Juneteenth.

At the nation’s founding, about 15-20% of the citizenry were Loyalists. The same percentage stands today as hate America losers. They are the progeny of the milquetoast British lovers. Indeed, the far left progressives are actually lily white. Nearly seven-in-ten Progressive Left (68%) are White adults, making this group less racially and ethnically diverse than the other Democratic-oriented groups.

Yet, these Dems hold not only extremist views on race… Yet, these Dems hold views more extreme racist views than those held by more racially-diverse Dem groups....

…but views more extreme than those held by more racially-diverse Dem groups.

They live in enclaves in cities, prefer going to museums over going to the range, and think religion is sophistry. Their policies and language all reek of a Superiority Complex.

They are like the popular kids in high school…they think they’re your Overlords, and that you envy them. In reality they don’t matter and the only power they have over you, is the extent to which you let them live rent-free in your mind.

And they usually get pantsed.

When they start in, remind them that Martin Luther King was a Republican and Juneteenth arose because a Republican freed the slaves. Close with “Obama never said a word about making Juneteenth a holiday. It took a man like Trump to make that happen, and in turn Trump will win the black vote in Michigan and elsewhere in 2024. You lose, again. Good day sir.” and walk away.

I have absolutely no problem when this was being celebrated in Texas. That is wholly appropriate and at the discretion of the state.

As an example, my state celebrates (as a STATE holiday) "Evacuation Day" which is the day back in 1776 that the British, under the cannons installed overnight on Dorchester Heights under the very noses of the British, in total silence. The British garrison went to bed with NO cannons looking down at them, and woke up looking at fortifications built overnight in total silence, with the muzzles of the cannons pointed directly at them. It forced the British to concede their undefendable position and withdraw from the city, removing the boot of the British from the necks of the New England Colonials.

As the author accurately points out: "...The Left has worked hard to co-opt the holiday and use it as a tool to divide their countrymen and to replace the real Independence Day..."

Making "Juneteenth" a national holiday is a disgrace and a farce.

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