A Deeper Meaning
Without knowing the history, you cannot possibly understand the importance of Juneteenth. What happened after the war and the surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1864?
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It was great that the federal government recognized Juneteenth. I am empathetic to the debate about too many Federal holidays.
America is not France and we never want to be France. Maybe we shouldn’t get one of the current days off and just have it recognized. Perhaps not every recognized day needs a day off.
Juneteenth is an incredible teaching moment. Why?
Don’t Look to Centralized Authority
Jeff Carter | Points and Figures:
First of all, why were there slaves in the first place?
Because someone thought themselves so high and mighty, so much better, so much more intelligent, so more advanced in civilization they felt they had a “right” to forcibly capture someone and enslave them. The ethos behind the organization of the Holocaust is similar but not exactly the same.
We ought to recognize our human humility more. Juneteenth is a lesson in that.
Can you think of institutions and people like that today? If not, you should be able to tick off a few pretty quickly. There is plenty of evidence.
The other thing Juneteenth ought to teach us is never to look for a centralized authority to guarantee our freedom.
The state governments of the South authorized slavery. Even if they didn’t enshrine it in their governing documents and inherited it, they tolerated it. They did nothing to stop it.
At the Federal level, there was debate but not the will to ensure the freedom of everyone. Instead of taking the issue head-on, they tabled the matter for another day.
They made the conscious choice that independence from the King was of more immediate importance than independence for everyone.
Of course, less than 100 years later America fought the bloodiest war in our history to correct the “tabled matter”. While the scars of that war have healed, the marks remain on America’s body today.
Without knowing the history, you cannot possibly understand the importance of Juneteenth. What happened after the war and the surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1864?
President Lincoln, a Republican, moved quickly to re-unify the South to the rest of the United States. He visited South Carolina and other places in the South. They were doing a good job of repairing the damage that had been done the prior four years.
He was assassinated on April 14, 1865. At the time, the North was dominated by Republicans and the South by Democrats. Isn’t it interesting how it switched today?
His successor, President Andrew Johnson was a Democrat from Tennessee. Lincoln selected him because he had a tough re-election fight in 1864. It was politically expedient. Johnson was a horrible President.
This is where the schism truly began in America that we have spent trillions of dollars to try and repair.
We very much need to spread the news of Juneteenth and the meaning behind it.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash