My Juneteenth Holiday Musings

Federal holidays are typically a celebration or remembrance of important things that impacted the nation as a whole and most of the federal holidays came were created because a lot of states were already celebrating them. While designating a holiday as a federal holiday doesn’t dictate what companies do, many still use the federal holiday schedule to create the holiday schedule for their employees. So, when a new federal holiday is announced, it’s kind of a big deal. I started thinking about our other holidays and of course went down a few rabbit holes so before I get to the good stuff I'm going to share with you some of the things that I found interesting.

·In 1870 4 holidays were declared, New Year’s, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas but it wasn’t until 1885 that federal employees outside of Washington D.C. received the benefit of the holiday.

·Washington’s birthday isn’t really his birthday because it honors Washington and Lincoln. There’s been interest in adding Susan B Anthony to the list of people being celebrated that day which would really shake things up for the people who refer to that day as President’s Day. Interestingly enough, 10 states don’t observe President’s Day, some because they still honor the 2 presidents separately.

·The Federal holidays were not always paid holidays for federal employees.

·Franklin D. Roosevelt FAFO that changing Thanksgiving from the 3rd Thursday in November to help companies make more money as not a good idea so in 1941 he admitted defeat and solidified the date. And it wasn’t until late in the 19th century that the myth of Pilgrims and Native American’s holding hands around the dinner table came up because before then, it was far too obvious of a lie. This holiday became the first to completely rewrite history.

·Inauguration Day is quite possibly the most boring and limited holiday ever. Every 4 years people in DC get a holiday to celebrate the presidential inauguration. The only fun fact here, to me, is that it moved from March 4th to January 20th in 1933 because it wasn’t a great idea to wait so long to swear someone in during the depression. ?

·Columbus day is not what I would call boring. Like most things that start with a lie, it has gone downhill since the beginning. ?A man from Europe is credited with discovering America, a land that had a thriving population of people already, not because he actually discovered it, but because he paved the way for it being stolen from the people who were already there. So it isn’t just any lie, it is a doozy of a lie steeped in white supremacy. Similar to Thanksgiving which I am not getting because I don’t have enough time or energy.

·Martin Luther King, Jr’s birthday is a hot one. The bill recognizing the holiday was signed in 1983 and it was first celebrated in 1986. Federally. As I said earlier, a federal holiday doesn’t mean that states have to observe it and companies don’t have to offer it as a paid day off. And when this one came a long, many states and companies opted out. Arizona was the last holdout, and it wasn’t until an opportunity to host the Super Bowl and get 200-500M in revenue was missed out on that Arizona got on board. Additionally, there are some states that combine this holiday with a holiday honoring confederate generals. Yes, you read that right. The honor someone who fought for civil rights and was murdered for that on the same day that the honor people who murdered people because they didn’t want to end slavery.

All of this makes our newest holiday so important. Juneteenth National Independence Day was signed into federal law in 2021. Now before you point out that we already have Independence Day, let me explain. July 4th had nothing to do with personal freedom at its start. It was about removing the shackles of colonization from this country. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean that the shackles of colonization were removed within this country. And that is what Juneteenth represents, the long awaited and the end of the hard-fought battle for individual independence of each and every person in this country. And yes, this day should have been done in 1863 however withholding education and information allowed some people to continue to enslave people, forcing them to work for free for over 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. ?Which makes me wonder if they ever received back-pay. Probably not.

I digress. As our nation’s newest holiday celebrates something that everyone since citizen wants, it is disheartening to know that all 50 states didn’t immediately jump on board. While most states have, there are like 22 holdouts and that just seems deeply wrong to me. As a unified nation, shouldn’t we all celebrate the day that there was truly freedom for all? One would think. One would also think that by looking at the trouble that the re-writing of history for just our holidays would make people stop and think twice about continuing to create false narratives and call it education.

I ask myself as we head into the third Juneteenth National Independence Day, how far have we come? Unfortunately, I think that the better question would be how far back have we gone. Black people are being shot through doors in “self-defense”. ?The number of hate crimes keeps going up. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion is being turned away at companies and institutions of learning. ?Black women are dying faster than anyone else after giving birth, but we also have lost the right to control our reproductive systems.

We the people of the United States should have been overjoyed at the thought of celebrating freedom for all. The recognition of Juneteenth was a historic event that should have brought people together. So, my question to you is, what happened? How have things somehow gotten worse since we asked to honor individual freedom?

Sources:

https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/R41990.pdf