Juneteenth…
I might take some flak for this post, but I have three problems with this new holiday.
The first is the obvious one: Why do we need it? The Emancipation Proclamation (January 1, 1863) freed the slaves; Abraham Lincoln got the ball rolling, but that little thing called the Civil War, the deadliest war ever on American soil (unless you count Covid), got in the way. It’s no wonder that it took so long (June 19, 1865) to let everyone know about it—there were massive casualties on both sides, including the Union, so there were few soldiers to spread the word. In fact, it’s remarkable it was done so quickly with the war going on. In any case, we should be celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation, not when the last Southerners were forced to free their slaves. Of course, everyone’s still blitzed every January 1, and there’s all that football, which Blacks like to watch as well as anyone else. (And play better than most anyone else, I might add!)
Secondly, because Jim Crow policies in the South continued into the next century, what real meaning does the Emancipation Proclamation or Juneteenth really have? Why not celebrate when the Civil Rights Act was signed into law on July 2, 1964? Blacks had to suffer through one hundred years of segregation, oppression, KKK violence, and economic inequality in the South and elsewhere, waiting for even that hint of true freedom to occur. Oh yes, that suggested date would have usually interfered with the July 4th weekend, so Congress opted for MLK’s birthday, January 17, to celebrate gains in civil rights.
Thirdly, and most importantly, how can Congress be so hypocritical to pass legislation creating the Juneteenth holiday and not pass important and necessary legislation to finally seal the deal, the one that the Emancipation Proclamation, Juneteenth, the Civil Rights Act, and others have failed to seal? After 160 years of waiting, it’s high time to ensure voting rights, reform policing, and improved quality of life for Blacks and all minorities! Our representatives in Congress didn’t dare vote against the Juneteenth holiday, and probably did so for all the wrong reasons, hoping that would quiet things down a bit, especially those Good Ole Piranhas who are worried about their chances in 2022. In other words, the GOP still is still hoping with the holiday to keep Jim Crow alive, albeit in new clothes by using the excuse of promoting election integrity—everyone who’s rational sees through that ploy. They continue to call the January 6th insurrectionists just a few peaceful tourists, ignore the George Floyd Bill, and keep exploiting Blacks and other minorities while widening the income gap between that 0.1 percent and the rest of us.
This last reason corresponds to an existential problem that must be solved if this nation is to survive: We must stop promoting fascism, a fascism all too often based on racism, because fascists like to create scapegoats. Is any current member of the GOP better than a KKK member? Only a few! (Hell, even Joe Manchin should join them.) Reforms must be made, or the oligarchs and plutocrats controlling the strings of their GOP marionettes will have their way and turn us into a country that’s worse than any apartheid or autocratic state (they want it to be both!). Given the current evidence, they’re all well on their way to do just that. They must be stopped!
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Comments are always welcome.
Leonardo and the Quantum Code. Trouble again finds Esther Brookstone on her home turf. An old friend from her Oxford days is developing encoding and decoding algorithms that involve entangled quantum states and quantum computers, all motivated by some of Leonardo Da Vinci’s ideas found in a newly discovered notebook of the artist. His project is financed by MI5, but both the Americans and Russians want his results…and so does a mysterious stranger. Cloak-and-dagger suspense abound in this fifth novel of the series. Coming soon from Draft2Digital to all quality ebook retailers (but not Amazon nor Smashwords)!
Around the world and to the stars! In libris libertas!
