Thursday, June 21, 2018
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
Juneteenth
An excerpt from Vox -
Why celebrating Juneteenth is more important now than ever
It’s time for America to truly grapple with its legacy of slavery.
By P.R. Lockhart
As the Civil War came to a close in 1865, a number of people remained enslaved, especially in remote areas. Word of slavery’s end traveled slowly, and for those who were largely isolated from Union armies, life continued as if freedom did not exist.
This was especially the case in Texas, where thousands of slaves were not made aware of freedom until June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued an order officially freeing them. Their celebration would serve as the basis of June 19 — or Juneteenth — a holiday celebrating emancipation in the US.
Ironically, while Juneteenth has become the most prominent Emancipation Day holiday in the US, it commemorates a smaller moment that remains relatively obscure. It doesn’t mark the signing of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, which technically freed slaves in the rebelling Confederate states, nor does it commemorate the December 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment, which enshrined the end of slavery into the Constitution. Instead, it marks the moment when emancipation finally reached those in the deepest parts of the former Confederacy.
In many ways, Juneteenth represents how freedom and justice in the US has always been delayed for black people.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/6/19/17476482/juneteenth-holiday-emancipation-african-american-celebration-history
Why celebrating Juneteenth is more important now than ever
It’s time for America to truly grapple with its legacy of slavery.
By P.R. Lockhart
As the Civil War came to a close in 1865, a number of people remained enslaved, especially in remote areas. Word of slavery’s end traveled slowly, and for those who were largely isolated from Union armies, life continued as if freedom did not exist.
This was especially the case in Texas, where thousands of slaves were not made aware of freedom until June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued an order officially freeing them. Their celebration would serve as the basis of June 19 — or Juneteenth — a holiday celebrating emancipation in the US.
Ironically, while Juneteenth has become the most prominent Emancipation Day holiday in the US, it commemorates a smaller moment that remains relatively obscure. It doesn’t mark the signing of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, which technically freed slaves in the rebelling Confederate states, nor does it commemorate the December 1865 ratification of the 13th Amendment, which enshrined the end of slavery into the Constitution. Instead, it marks the moment when emancipation finally reached those in the deepest parts of the former Confederacy.
In many ways, Juneteenth represents how freedom and justice in the US has always been delayed for black people.
https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/6/19/17476482/juneteenth-holiday-emancipation-african-american-celebration-history
Hostages
An excerpt form the New York Times -
Trump’s Small Hostages
By Frank Bruni
Why don’t we call the terrified children whose incarceration is riveting the country what they are at this point?
Not migrants. Not detainees. Not pawns, although that comes closest to the mark.
They’re hostages.
President Trump is using them as flesh-and-blood bargaining chips, hoping that their ordeal and reasonable Americans’ disgust with it will get him what he wants. This isn’t some theory that I’m basing on the whisperings of unnamed administration officials whose candor the president can dismiss as fake news put out by a maleficent media.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/opinion/donald-trump-immigrants-children.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Trump’s Small Hostages
By Frank Bruni
Why don’t we call the terrified children whose incarceration is riveting the country what they are at this point?
Not migrants. Not detainees. Not pawns, although that comes closest to the mark.
They’re hostages.
President Trump is using them as flesh-and-blood bargaining chips, hoping that their ordeal and reasonable Americans’ disgust with it will get him what he wants. This isn’t some theory that I’m basing on the whisperings of unnamed administration officials whose candor the president can dismiss as fake news put out by a maleficent media.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/19/opinion/donald-trump-immigrants-children.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
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