What Juneteenth means to me:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Juneteenth is not just a black holiday. Maybe it was\nhistorically, as most people celebrating it were the descendants of slaves and\nit has special meaning for those whose ancestors gained their freedom in that\ntime. But now\u2026it\u2019s officially a federal holiday. The federal government is by\nand for all<\/em> people of America. More importantly, the end of slavery is\nimportant to the history and very spirit of this country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you would have asked me before Juneteenth was put into\nlaw as a holiday: should it be a federal holiday? I would have said no,\nmentioning that we already have enough holidays. But, if we have to have an\nadditional one, Juneteenth is a good choice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Juneteenth is about freedom! Among reasonable choices that\ncould describe the United States in one word, liberty and freedom rank high. A\nholiday celebrating freedom is quintessential America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We are all Americans. The country\u2019s history and spirit are\npart of us all as citizens, whether or not our ancestors took part in, or\nbenefited from, slavery. Its sins are our sins. Its virtues are our virtues.\nIts progress is our progress. Like we all celebrate independence from monarchy\non the fourth of July\u2026we\u2019ll all celebrate the Juneteenth independence from\nenslavement, similar to, on the third Monday of each January, appreciating\nCivil Rights advances a hundred years later by remembering Martin Luther King. All\nthese holidays remember important historical advances in liberty, equality, and\nthe pursuit of happiness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Slavery is one of America\u2019s original sins. A country built\non liberty being dependent on enslaved peoples. A country built on equality\nbelieving steadfastly in racism. A country built on opportunity and the pursuit\nof happiness ignoring that a whole swath of brutally treated people have no\nsuch opportunity. Oh, the contradictions; oh, the hypocrisy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n However, our Constitution also mentioned forming a more <\/em>perfect\nunion. The Declaration of Independence spoke of the pursuit<\/em> of\nhappiness. Thus, overcoming our contradictions is also quintessential America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The ending of a great wrong. Or more honestly, the beginning\nof a long struggle to end that wrong, is something to celebrate. Slavery is\ndeeply ingrained in our history, and defeating that evil will forever be one of\nthe great conquests of that history. Slavery and emancipation helped form the\nnation that we are born or naturalized into today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, what does the holiday of Juneteenth mean? It is the\nrecognition of the great sin of slavery; the recognition that even\ngood-intentioned geniuses can fail to fully see great wrongs. It is the\ncelebration of the United States overcoming a great wrong, taking a step toward\na more perfect union that recognizes that all people are created equal with unalienable\nRights that include Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. It is a\ncelebration of us better-securing the Blessings of Liberty now and in the\nfuture. And a reminder that the country we live in is not free of sin, and\nalways should be looking to better perfect itself. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It is the celebration of the United States overcoming a great wrong, taking a step toward a more perfect union that recognizes that all people are created equal with unalienable Rights that include Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[616],"tags":[1315,1308,619],"class_list":["post-5409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lone-candle-video","tag-juneteenth","tag-slavery","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5410,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5409\/revisions\/5410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}