Oh, happy happy joy joy, happy happy joy! Happy happy joy joy, happy happy joy! (I believe I am pirating this exclamation of happiness from Ren & Stimpy, a cartoon show from the 90s?)
Or
Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people!! (KJV Luke 2:10-11)
As of about five minutes ago, I am less ashamed to be a human being!
The United States Senate has unanimously approved making Juneteenth a national holiday, formally celebrating the end of chattel slavery in our nation.
Yes, there are details to be ironed out, and the House of Representatives must pass the legislation, too.
But “I pity the fool” who doesn’t see fit to honor that wonderful day when people in Texas got wind of the end of the Civil War and the end of legal human bondage in a nation that so prides itself on freedom of the individual!
I’ve been harshly critical of my own U.S. Representative in Congress for his unbending ears when anyone disagrees with his set-in-stone ideas. But I cannot fathom even one, infinitesimal little reason by which he could disapprove of marking this enormously significant milestone in U.S. history.
It is probably too much to hope that Juneteenth will join the list of paid legal holidays such as Independence Day, July 4th.
But to have a date marking the end of a brutal, inhuman practice such as slavery is a BIG F’ing DEAL in my book.
Maybe there is hope for us all as the single race on the planet after all.
Update: AZ Representative Andy Biggs, my contrarian representative, managed to find a reason to vote against the Juneteenth federal holiday bill. He objects to the name of the bill, and claims “the left” has “weaponized” this legislation to further divide the nation. So it goes.
Ms. Mandaville,
The only oppressors of African Americans were the Southern Democrats and slaveholders at the time. I know Nobody remembers, but it was Republicans and Republican ideals that freed the slaves by the Emancipation Proclimation authored by President Lincoln. We don’t need anymore reminders of slavery and it’s evil, we recognize it, even bigots realize oppression and discrimination will not work or be acceptable. When will we all be as one nation and realize we can move forward? Or do the racists in the Democrat Party need the straw man to beat the drums every 2 and 4 year election cycles to remind Africa-Americans to remain on the government plantation or suffer the consequences? Really? We are so, so over that and adding another holiday won’t change a thing. July 4 is an American holiday for liberty, freedom and independence for all. Lets’s all honor that day for what it truly meant for all people of this country. 550,000 people died in the Civil War and yet it seems like some will never let it go. I anticipate the venom responses to this comment. So be it. I’ve taken slings and arrows before. It is time to move beyond race.
Very simply stated, the 4th of July, American Independence Day, was not, as you say, “an American holiday for liberty, freedom and independence for all.” It was a day of freedom from the Britich Crown for white male landowners who had settled the land stolen from indigenous people of North America.
As to the “only oppressors of African Americans being Southern Democrats” of another time, I think you’ll find that Blacks in Civil War era America were oppressed by many others besides white Southern Democrats. Oppression occurred by northerners and Republicans as well.
The reason we cannot move forward is that “even bigots” DON’T realize oppression and discrimination will not work or be acceptable, or they wouldn’t still be writing racist policy or denying basic human rights to all people of color.
Another reason “we” cannot move forward is that most racists cannot even recognize their own racism for what it is and admit to it while working hard to become anti-racist rather than non-racist.
So how is a federal holiday celebrating the end of chattel slavery any skin off of your white nose? Why are your panties in a bunch? Really? Why?
Please edit the third line of the previous comment to read “freedom from the British Crown” instead of “freedom from Great Britain.”
Thanks.
I received the response I expected from a white privileged person. Get over your guilt.
I’m working on that. I continue to read, learn, and express myself with regard to what history has laid out for me from which to learn better.
Always fascinating to see how self-labeled “Conservatives” and identify as GOP voters latch on to the idea of “It’s the Democrats fault” failing to recognize (and admit) those Democrats in the Deep South to Pre-Civil War slavery and post Civil War Jim Crow era Democrats flipped to the GOP beginning in 1964 as part of the GOP’s Southern Strategy initiated by Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina when he changed his party affiliation to (R). That coincided with President Johnson (D) signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Before and after The Civil War, plantation owners; the families that owned the forests that supplied the lumber industry; the lumberman who owned the saw mills; the owners of iron foundries; those who owned the ports along with the bankers who arranged financing for everything including the slave trade and lawyers were nearly all Democrats.
After the Civil War the aforementioned group made up the Bourbon Democrats. Those Bourbon Democrats were the architects of the Jim Crow era. They wouldn’t support any candidate who was a Republican. It was a Republican President Lincoln who led a victorious Union defeating the Confederacy. It was a Republican who signed the Emancipation Proclamation that freed the South’s labor pool.
Today’s GOP wants to roll back the clock to the good old days of Jim Crow that was originated by their Bourbon Democrat forefathers. They aren’t interested in reviving the Tulsa Massacre. They aren’t interested in maintaining voting rights that were included in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They certainly don’t want another civil rights related holiday like Juneteenth that may energize the part of the voting base of the opposition.
Their interest is making voting, especially voting by minorities more difficult. The late conservative leader Paul Weyrich, founder of the Moral Majority and co-Founder of the Heritage Foundation said,
“I don’t everyone to vote. Elections aren’t won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the election quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down”.
That is the goal of today’s Republican and the goal Jim Crow Bourbon Democrats who flipped to become Republicans since 1964. It’s the agenda of every state that has a GOP majority legislature today to help them win in 2022 and 2024 including MI.
Mr. Couchman, you always start off with a flourish, stumble, and fall face-first it the cow pie!
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed only with Republican support. The southern Democrats almost stopped both.
Nice try, or should I say lie about changing from Democrats to Republicans. They saw how radical (or Marxist) the Democrats had become (look at Democrat Convention in Chicago turning into violence and riots) and wanted to jump parties because the Democrats left them. Democrats went to the extreme Left.
Your analysis at the end is indicative that you know Democrats can’t cheat again and get away with it. Michigan has had a Republican majority in the state house and Senate, so you are wrong again. What Republicans want is one person, one vote by THAT person having the proper identification, proving they are a citizen and are registered and eligible to vote. Why is that so hard to understand except to spoil your cheating again?
DTOM: Your poor grasp of history is showing and you are attempting to manipulate it according to your wishes. It is nothing short of despicable. As a life-long student of history who studied it seriously, I have to say you try my patience with your personal insults while hiding behind anonymity. You are an Internet troll and sniper. Don’t make me cancel you.