I really wish she had been willing to get more involved in politics. Condoleezza Rice: Juneteenth Is Our Second Independence Day Toward the end of my term as Secretary of State, I had the opportunity to visit the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Permanently displayed in the Rotunda alongside the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights is the Emancipation Proclamation. As I stood reading, I felt the presence of my ancestors. I said a little prayer of thanks to them—and to God—for the great fortune of being born American. ... Every year on Juneteenth, my parents and I talked about what our ancestors must have felt the moment they found out they were free and used it as an inspiration to keep seeking a better life here in America. But even though my family has been celebrating Juneteenth since my childhood, it wasn’t until 2021 that Congress voted, almost unanimously, to make Juneteenth National Independence Day a federal holiday. Because many Americans are unfamiliar with its significance, some, perhaps understandably, wonder why it needed national recognition at all. After all, all Americans celebrate the Fourth of July—the ultimate celebration of our nation’s founding, of our independence and our liberty. ... Despite our nation’s extraordinary founding documents about equality, this country was founded as a slave-owning state. That is our birth defect. But the words in those carefully crafted documents—written by great men who were themselves flawed human beings—ultimately lit the way toward a more perfect union. In some sense, the history of the United States is a story of striving to make their soaring words—We the People—real to every American. It’s the story of becoming what we profess to be.
Her and Colin Powell are the sort of persons the Republican Party should have modeled itself after, instead of the vulgar felon currently leading it.
If Phil os a libby, sign me up. But what does that make all the people we once thought of as libbies? Because Phil sure ain't that brother. (Just look at a particular post in his homophobia thread and watch them turn on him like some "libbies" do ) Edit: both sides turned on him after review The more I look at Juneteenth, the more I celebrate it. Our company added it as a paid holiday 3 years ago and it forced me to take a closer look. Imagine if we all took closer looks...at a lot of things.
Thank you for starting this thread. Needed to be posted. I will say that while her historical message is solid, and at the all too present risk of white saviorism, Garry Wills puts together a very persuasive argument in Lincoln at Gettysburg about the transformative hingepoint of that oratory. And though it is altogether fitting and proper to strongly commemorate Juneteenth, we must remember that de facto slavery continued through practices like convict leasing and debt peonage. In fact, all of Redemption was brutal and inhumane, and that is the zeitgeist that is attempting to be brought back as American “greatness.”
I was actually being serious about Juneteenth. Now I understand it and it makes sense as an important holiday. I rated the op winner. I was also serious about Phil’s political beliefs.
I wish she had a desire to enter politics. I fully understand why anyone would not want to swim in the sewer, but I wish!
I think that's the root of the problem. No sane, rational person would want to enter the political arena. Which is how we wind up with the choices we have today...
I don't think that's true, there are plenty of sane and rational people (careerists) that don't mind a little corruption, climbing the ladder and have few deeply held principles that would require compromising. That's why so many people get into it from business or professional backgrounds, its essentially the same thing. We need less rational people in politics, probably. At least less rational in the sense that they have some convictions, ideals and actually care about things.
I struggle with this topic. Juneteenth is the emergence from a great evil. But that evil was replaced by a long and protracted vision of two Americas. I would prefer we celebrate every day wins in the progress knowing there is no absolute victory when overlapped with rugged individualism and freedom.
My only beef with it is it was a random bank holiday on a Wednesday this year, while pretty much every other business is open. I'm all for the holiday, but I feel like it needs to be a Monday or whatever.
It was certainly a struggle to get it done, and the types who vehemently opposed the struggle are still with us. Hell, they're everywhere, nor just here.
Slaves in Texas weren't effectively emancipated until June 19, 1865 although Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 and Congress passed the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery in January of 1865. For slaves in Texas actual emancipation didn't occur until a Union Army general proclaimed the end of slavery on June 19th (Juneteenth).
