Today is Juneteenth — a portmanteau for the 19th of June. On this official U.S. holiday we Americans celebrate the end of the institution of slavery in our nation, on and about June 19th 1865.
Juneteenth is, arguably, the most important of all American holidays. July 4th merely celebrates a promise — the assertion, in the words of Thomas Jefferson “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
But that assertion, initially made by a handful of wealthy landowners, was a promise left largely unfulfilled for nearly a century. It wasn’t until the abolition of slavery that the nation had found anything like a true moral compass to match its lofty claims.
To be sure, the path to realizing equality in the U.S. has been slow, uneven and inconsistent. But it has generally moved forward, as we travel a winding path toward the angels of our better nature.
Yes, the current president is clearly a racist, but then again he and his enablers are many offensive things, as well as being shockingly incompetent. I am confident that millions of patriotic Americans will realize what we can now all plainly see, and will soon collectively vote to remove that cancerous growth from our republic.
In the days leading up to our midterm elections, let Juneteenth stand as an official beginning of that collective journey back to redemption.