Juneteenth, the Federal Holiday!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Please allow me to begin by saying that I think that making Juneteenth a national holiday is a terrific idea and one that is long overdue, and I loudly condemn the fourteen members of the US House of representatives who voted against the measure.  (More on them later.)

Juneteenth is an abbreviated way of saying June 19th, the date in 1865 when many slaves in Texas learned that the Civil War had ended and that they were henceforth to be regarded as free individuals.   The celebrations of that announcement began in Texas two years later, and for more than a century-and-a-half some people in this country have chosen to recognize that singular event as the actual end of slavery in America.  It is a very big deal - and it should be celebrated.

This week both houses of Congress approved a measure to make Juneteenth a national holiday.  It passed by "unanimous consent" in the Senate which means that Senators, who in their heart of hearts opposed the measure - or who perhaps supported it but came from states where it would not be popular among a majority of the voters - did not have to go on record with their vote.    The House of Representatives, however, took a recorded vote, so members there did not have the opportunity of hiding in the crowd.

The following fourteen House members, all white Republican men, voted against the measure that honored the end of slavery in the United States of America.  They were:  Matt Rosendale of Montana, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona, Mo Brooks and Mike Rogers of Alabama, Tom McClintock and Doug LaMalfa of California, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Scott DeJarlis of Tennessee, Ronny Jackson and Chip Roy of Texas, and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin.  Shame on them, one and all!

All of that aside, I do have one reservation about this new, well deserved holiday.  I believe that a holiday that is attached to a specific, numbered date on the calendar - such as New Year's Day, the Fourth of July, Veteran's Day (November 11th), and Christmas, should be celebrated on that specific date, and not shuffled around to extend a holiday weekend for federal workers.  (And I believed that when I was a federal worker - if Veteran's Day fell on a Wednesday, that was the day we had off!)

But along comes this new, and well deserved holiday, Juneteenth (June 19th), and the first thing the government does is declare that it will be officially celebrated on Friday, June 18th, apparently so federal employees can have an extended weekend.  

Well, good for them, I suppose.  Everyone deserves a few long weekends after four years of the Trump insanity and a year-and-a-half of COVID, but I hope that this off-date celebration is just a calendrical and bureaucratic aberration and that next year the holiday will revert to the actual date of June 19th, a date we all need to remember and respect.  

But regardless, Happy Juneteenth, whenever you are celebrating!