Today is Juneteenth, freedom day, marking the ending of the crime of slavery in the United States on June 19, 1985. This is the date when Union solders landed in Texas with news that the war had ended and those who had been enslaved were no longer (note that this is over 2 years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation).
“Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory, or an acceptance of the way things are. It's a celebration of progress. It's an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible––and there is still so much work to do.” - President Barack Obama
Both professionally and personally, I stand in solidarity with black women, men, children and people of color against overt, covert, systemic and all forms of racism in the country and world. I continue to evaluate my own assumptions, listen, learn and support. A notice from PBS recently said that our [USA] “country finds itself in a period of education and reckoning of the racism embedded in its birth.” What a painful, vile atrocity to have embedded in the birth of your nation—and to see unfolded in sickening unjust ways for hundreds of more years. How could there not be anger, hurt, turmoil, righteous indignation when this is felt or understood? But let us stay committed now, and always, to reckon with that history and its effects, and to create a strong shift from this history. Changes can occur on various levels through large movements as well as small interactions. This will go beyond our lifetime, but I think to the verse in Galatians 6:9 which I memorized as a child, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." Do not give up. Black Lives Matter.