Posted on 06/19/2024 5:08:13 AM PDT by DoodleBob
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.
The Left has co-opted Juneteenth to push for radical racial policies such as reparations and exclude most Americans from its celebration. As a result, many conservatives now oppose the federal holiday.
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?
Unfortunately, the answer lies mostly on the left.
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.
Originally published by Blaze Media
?Juneteenth” is not even proper English. Let’s get rid of this “holiday”—and while we’re at it, we need to get rid of “Presidents Day.”
I understood it when it was Emancipation Day. Juneteenth sounds stupid.
that’s true. I’d never heard of it before.
My eye doctor sent an email- they are closed today for Juneteenth.
Shall we also remove “brunch” and “email” and “Brexit” and “smog” and “spork” and “webinar” from our lexicon?
Freedom finally came on June 19, 1865, when some 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas after years of fighting democrats.
The army announced that the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state, were free by executive decree of the Republican President of the USA.
This day came to be known as "Juneteenth," by the newly freed people in Texas.
It is a holiday for freedom loving Republicans of all skin shades.
Four of my Republican ancestors, 2 from NH and 2 from VT, died in the fight to free the slaves from their democrat masters.
True meaning of juneteenth:
In Texas: Emancipation day
In rest of the US: celebration of george floyd being sober another year
Save “Toyotathon” for later this year as a response to those who wish you a happy holiday.
For 2024, I will end up taking the day off on Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving Day. And the first three of those are really only because it is summer season and I have travel and/or family events planned.
The rest of my days off will be on religious holidays.
“Four of my Republican ancestors, 2 from NH and 2 from VT, died in the fight to free the slaves from their democrat masters.”
No good deed goes unpunished.
They would have been stunned if they visited American urban areas today.
The real meaning of “Juneteenth”… the day after June 18th, that’s all.
The formerly great British love to crow about how they spearheaded the world campaign against slavery by outlawing it in 1833 but this is a smokescreen and A LIE. They banned slavery, but only in the British isles and her Caribbean colonies, and a few certain others. Slavery remained in practice in British Kenya until 1904 an in Zanzibar until 1909.
The British NEVER ended an ancient form of involuntary indentured servitude practiced in Hong Kong called "Mui Tsai," impressing young unmarried girls as domestic servants (to be emancipated upon their marriage). So far as anyone knows, it's still in practice there.
And while the 1833 law banned the practice of holding slaves, it didn't prevent British shipping from getting fat transporting African slaves over the western hemisphere.
Furthermore, the American Colonies tried repeatedly to ban the practice between 1760 and the start of the American Revolution but all their efforts were overridden by King George III (and/or his minions) because Britain was getting fat from profits from colonial agriculture.
This detail was mentioned by Thomas Jefferson in his draft of the Declaration of Independence, but that passage was stricken due to objections from a small contingent from the South Carolina colony.
https://americansystemnow.com/the-american-revolutionaries-international-war-against-slavery/
So if the (formerly great) British think they have any moral high ground to stand on on this subject, they are sorely mistaken.
It’s a portmanteau.Well played!
LOLOLOL!!!!!!
A local celebration thanks everyone involved except the 2,128,948 Union soldiers who made it happen and the 360,222 Union soldiers who lost their lives due to wounds and disease.
It ain’t no good Juneteenth party without a few shootings.
I like those neologisms, although I don’t know what a “spork” is. But one neologism I would like to see removed is “prequel,” a term I refuse to use.
Trump is visiting North Philly on Saturday.
Keep Juneteenth and get rid of mlk, jr day. We should not give a whole day to a man who was commie trained.
That should be the general rule, add a fed (paid) holiday, must subtract one.
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