Holiday... Celebrate!

It's the 21st anniversary of my becoming an aunt!  Celebrate!

Now one thing to understand about this Juneteenth national celebration?   Like with Columbus Day, it now being a national holiday, it will be likely be rounded off to the nearest Monday, or Friday, to celebrate.  

Maybe we'll shut down the nation for the day, no matter where it falls in the week like with the 4th of July, but more likely... the date will change.  This year, for example, we would have celebrated the national holiday either yesterday (Friday) or last Monday.

What exactly is the role of white Americans today?  To remind our b/Black brothers and sisters who may not yet have gotten news of emancipation, that indeed they are free citizens of the country, same as the whites, ethnics and newcomers who have made this land our home for centuries too?

I can do that:  Black Americans?  "Free yourself... and the rest will follow!"  Confront your killers and help bring them to justice.  Pick up the trash on your streets and take pride in where you live.  Get involved in the local community schools:  work from within to shape what your children are learning, what values are being taught them, and who is in their daily lives influencing their values and perspectives...  No excuses.  Take ownership of your own lives, your families, your communites and ... your country.

You can't keep kicking the evil white slavemasters and blaming your own life outcomes, and the ongoing troubles in the lower-class black communities, on white masters once informed that you've been freed from their dominance, and have been now for years and years and years...

I suspect this Juneteenth day of liberation, falling in the newfound Pride month of American celebrations, will take on a flamboyant fever in future summertimes:  days of protest, days of recalling the past, outdoors feasts, and maybe even unity parades, if the community can organize and invite others to participate.

You're one of us, b/Black America, for better or worse. America's sins are your burden now too. America's future is yours to own, maintain, restore, defend. You're free at last, thank God Almighty, free at last!

"I looked at Life and asked:  What have you to offer?  The response came back, What have you to give?"