Let me begin by saying holidays used to be nice and I looked forward to them. They also had real meaning. Especially the big ones like Christmas/ Hanukkah, Easter, 4th of July and Thanksgiving. Now the BIG ones are not so BIG and we have so many little ones that they really have little meaning or value; just some extra time off, while there are some working to make some additional little ones into Big ones plus adding more little ones.
Among these new ones would be June 19th, henceforth JUNETEENTH to all, which has been a growing Black Community celebration for many years. It actually began as a local Galveston, TX celebration, grew to become a state wide holiday and is now, thanks to President Donald J. Trump, being pushed as a national holiday. In case you wondered why I say thanks to President Trump, it is because prior to his people planning a "Trump Rally" on June 19th 2020, 85% of Americans and 99% of the World had no clue what Juneteenth is. Since then, however, Juneteenth has been all over the news and spoken of as a major and vital, historical event. It has become almost a household word and symbol of freedom or something like that. I think the Black community owes this president a huge thank you, BUT not in our lifetime or many future lifetimes would that ever happen.
In case there is someone who still does not know about Junteenth, it is stated to be a celebration of the end of slavery in America. The remembrance of June 19th, 1865, when a Union officer arrived in Galveston, TX, announced and read the Emancipation Proclamation. This proclamation was an Executive Order by President Lincoln effective January 1, 1863, ending slavery in the Confederate States of America. These States had not followed the order for the 2 1/2 years since it went into effect, and it was ignored until the end of the civil war. The people of Galveston created a celebration honoring this date. This was Independence Day for the former slaves in Galveston. Union soldiers and officials had been traveling all over the country reading the Emancipation Proclamation on plantations throughout the south.
Booker T. Washington recounts the day a man came to his plantation and read the Executive Order and the immediate aftermath as follows:
"Finally the war closed, and the day of freedom came. It was a momentous and eventful day to all upon our plantation.... The most distinct thing that I now recall in connection with the scene was that some man who seemed to be a stranger (a United States officer, I presume) made a little speech and then read a rather long paper - the Emancipation Proclamation, I think. After the reading we were all free, and could go when and where we pleased. My mother, who was standing by my side leaned over and kissed her children, while tears of joy ran down her cheeks. This was the 'moment she had been praying for.' For some minutes there was great rejoicing, and thanksgiving and wild scenes of ecstasy. While Booker spoke of the celebration he added, "This feeling lasted for only a brief period and then there was some change in feelings upon return to their cabins. The great responsibility of being free, of having charge of themselves, of having to think and plan for themselves and their children, seemed to take possession of them…These are the questions of a home, a living, the rearing of children, education, citizenship, and the establishment and support of churches."
As it is being presented today, Galveston was the last place to get word of the Executive Order and that was the end of slavery in America. Juneteenth is a celebration to mark that end of slavery and some people are now wanting to see this honored as a national holiday. But it was not the last place to get word and it did not end slavery officially. The official end to slavery was December 6th, 1865.I realize and want to say, many of those wanting to see Juneteenth as a national holiday are well meaning, Christians and other folk. I sense a sincere benevolent desire, among many, to celebrate the end of a horrible institution. I, however , disagree that this should be the celebrated occasion, on several grounds. For one, I am reminded of a skit on Mad TV, in its early days. In this skit two Black employees for a company that wore uniforms like UPS, were called into their manager's office and about to be fired because of excessive absenteeism. He told them they had missed a few hundred days of work in the last year and that could not be tolerated. They then informed him of all of the African American holidays, celebrations, marches and other events taking place in a year, they HAD TO take part in, plus time needed to travel to and from these events.
We currently have Martin Luther King's Birthday, Kwanzaa, and the entire month of February to celebrate as black holidays and events. Tell me the other race, or people group that has that many days or events to celebrate. I especially think of Native Americans. What ONE holiday do we have to celebrate them and their heritage? Name me the Native American figure that has a national holiday in their honor. Hispanics, who are now the second largest ethnic group in America have one day, "Cinco de Mayo" but it is not a national holiday. Name me the Hispanic figure whose day we celebrate. What about the Japanese? Is there a day to celebrate their release from internment camps? I know of none. Is there a day to honor any Asian personality?
I am making a point or trying to, that there is no reason to create another national holiday, especially to celebrate a local event. Next we would be celebrating "Tulsa Race Massacre Day", which was actually just a riot regardless how how they try to couch it, not to mention Barack Obama's birthday and on and on. How many is enough? On a side note, I predict we will be hearing about those as holidays soon, in this current climate. We will be told July 4th is not the true Independence Day so why not Juneteenth? We don't really need Labor Day, Memorial Day, so let's replace them with Obama's birthday.
Here is my real objection though. I see the creation of these "new" holidays as a historical replacement effort. An effort by Progressive, Leftists, Communists and others who have such a disdain for this nation. They will not stop until they erase our history and replace it with their own. The elevation of Juneteenth is just another part of that plan.
You may have noticed all of the taking down of Confederate flags, statues and other relics of the Confederacy. The stated purpose is that there is no place in this nation to honor theses disgraceful reminders. Many people of good will agree with this, however, lately, statues and monuments of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Christopher Columbus, and the most recent victim Gen. Ulysses S. Grant have been removed or damaged. In addition we have replaced Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays with a single President's Day and created room for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Was this a coincidence?
At first, I tried to understand and accept the removal of confederate monuments, but I recently realized what was really going on. This is not just about removing the memory of these relics and people, as villains of American history, but removing them as reminders that the symbols and heroes of the confederacy, the villains of that period, all belonged to a single Party; the Democrat Party. I did not understand this until the monuments of heroes of United States and the liberation of African slaves in our country, who were NOT Democrats, began being destroyed.
If getting rid of monuments or reminders of a dark and bleak past were really necessary, why do the Germans, Pols and Czechs keep Nazi concentration camps around, even paying for their upkeep? Jews are good at keeping reminders of their past persecution. For some reason Americans not so much. Why??! I believe it is because if people really begin looking at the history of these reminders, they will realize they point to the Democrat Party. Every Confederate general, political figure and slavery itself points to the Democrat Party. There is an attempt to re-write history downplaying the positive role of Republicans and others in creating a free and great nation while at the same time hiding the FACT that it was the Democrat Party fighting equality and liberty, for all, at every step.
While it should have been sufficient to get rid of the Confederate Civil War monuments and other reminders of how hard the Democrats fought to keep the institution of slavery intact, and all the Democrats did to fight emancipation afterwards, "Jim Crow Laws", "The KKK", lynchings and on and on, there is a second part to this destruction of history strategy. They must also destroy knowledge and reminders of who built this land, who fought to end slavery and bring freedom to all Americans. This is why we now see attacks upon Christopher Columbus, George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant. Why we have replaced Washington and Lincoln's birthdays with Presidents Day and made room for Martin Luther King Jr Day.
I could go into detail about every step and action Republicans took on behalf of the rights of EVERY person born here, and the various efforts by Democrats to stop them, but let me just say that the Republican Party was formed for one purpose. That purpose was THE ENDING OF SLAVERY. The Democrat Party was the Party of Slavery. They want to erase that history. They have even stooped to trying to re-write history. In a draft of the 2004 Platform of the Democrat Party they had inserted a line that stated "The Democratic Party has always been the anti-slavery party." This, as the above, is an attempt to hide their true history.
Let me interject here that I am not saying rank and file hard working Americans who are member of the Democrat Party are evil and have this intent, or that all Republicans a saints and great Americans, that is far from true but the Parties have a history and the Democrats more than the GOP have changed. Today's Democrat Party is not the arty of 50 to 60 years ago. today's Party is the Democrat Socialist Party. It is precisely because there are so many well meaning, good intentioned people in the Democrat Party, people who honor the American flag, Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, etc., that they must remove these symbols of the past and create a new Party with new symbols and new holidays.
Getting back to the effort to make Juneteenth a national holiday, you may ask what does what I just shared have to do with this discussion or vice versa. It has everything to do with it. On January 1st, 1863 Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. This, while not ending slavery nationally, set it in motion. I have had arguments with several people lately that tell me the Emancipation Declaration did not apply to non-Confederate slave states and therefore did not count as freeing the salves. I have to ask then, if that is the case, why celebrate Juneteenth as the end of slavery when the thing read and making them free, that day, in Galveston, was the Emancipation Proclamation?
Saying the Emancipation Proclamation and the date of January 1, 1863 does not count, is like saying Easter is not the date Christ set men free and we need to quite celebrating Easter as the day Christ rose from the dead.. Maybe we should celebrate May 22. On that day, in 313 AD, Emperor Constantine declared Christianity legal in the Roman empire. Or let's pick another date when the word of Christ's resurrection reached a remote place. How about Oct. 12 ,1492 wen Columbus reached the "new world" with the gospel. We could also say WW2 did not end until 1972 or 1974 when Japanese soldiers Shoichi Yokoi and Hiroo Onoda surrendered, not knowing the war had ended 26 and 28 years earlier. That would of course be a silly argument, as is the one that says, the Emancipation Proclamation did not free the slaves because they had not heard of it. Actually modern historians now say that most everyone had heard about the Emancipation Proclamation, it was just un-enforceable in states under Confederate control. I can agree with that and therefore, I would say there is actually an even better date to celebrate an end to slavery in America. Without argument, that date would be December 6th 1865. On that day the 13th Amendment, signed by Abraham Lincoln prior to his assassination, and ratified by the Congress of the, once again, United States of America, per the dictates of the U.S. Constitution, ended chattel slavery forever and BY LAW.
Please believe me when I tell you there is an ongoing effort to erase and replace American history with one that emphasizes minor events, while diminishing major events according to which Party is attached. This is not a minor thing.
The Emancipation Proclamation and even more the 13th Amendment, are devalued in favor of a heretofore, obscure local holiday like Juneteenth. The Emancipation Proclamation was an Executive Order from Abraham Lincoln, essentially ending slavery and the 13th Amendment , signed by Lincoln before his assassination, made the end of chattel slavery a permanent thing. Either or both of these events should be recognized before Juneteenth.
On a final note, we really do need a Native American Holiday, I can get behind that.
