I am a big celebrant of the Juneteenth holiday. I have noticed that some people don’t seem to respect or give it the importance it deserves. However, as a person of “African descent,” I acknowledge its importance and what my life would have been like if slavery had not been abolished.
I don’t love the name of the holiday, although I’m happy it exists. The name suggests that no one was clear on when “freedom” arrived. Freedom was seemingly a moving target for the enslaved. The Civil War ended on April 9th, 1865. The date of June 19, 1865, over two months later, was the date on which the Emancipation Proclamation began to be enforced in the state of Texas. Between those dates, some of the enslaved continued to be enslaved and abused and were not told about their freedom.
There is great sadness in humans’ inhumanity to humans. I find sadness in the origins of the Holiday’s name. It tells of the resistance many had to the end of slavery. It tells of the reckless disregard for the rights of the enslaved. It tells of the fact that one set of humans was okay with continuing the abuse and felt no sense of urgency to release the enslaved from suffering. This, even though the nation was supposedly founded on Christian principles.
One of the lessons I learned from a spiritual teacher many years ago is that the person who has their foot on another’s neck is just as bound as the person being held down. As I imagine what America would have been like if slavery had not ended, I’ve concluded that not only would it have been a nightmare for those enslaved, but it would have continued to be dreadful for the enslavers. If you only read or watch a movie about the beatings, lynchings, and sexual abuse of the enslaved, for many of us, it can be difficult to stomach. Most of us find these acts abhorrent and hard to digest, even in dramatizations.
As we consider the holiday of Juneteenth, perhaps we can all find something to celebrate in the fact that we don’t have to live in a country where beatings, lynchings, rape, and economic violence are normal. Most of us can usually ignore many things and continue to live in our little bubbles, but the things that happened in the U.S during slavery were simply gruesome, and in the absence of media, most cases went unreported.
Often, when I read about or see certain things happening in the U.S., given its supposedly Christian foundation, my question is: What would Yeshua Ben Yosef (known to most of us today in English as Jesus Christ), the Palestinian Jew, say about it? Also, if you have read my previous writings, you’ve probably heard me talk about what aliens would think if they were watching humans on planet Earth. This episode is certainly one that would leave them sand Yeshua scratching their heads…
Juneteenth is also known as Freedom Day. That is the name I’ll go with. Happy Freedom Day!
Olivia
For more on my journey to healing from my absent father, check out my book “For the Love of my Father: A Spiritual Guide for Women Healing From the Absence of a Father in the Age of Spiritual Evolution” here: https://www.oliviasbenson.com/for-the-love-of-my-father/
For more information on my journey to finding solutions to my work-life issues, please check out my book titled “Answers From Within: A Spiritual Guide for Finding Answers to Work-Life Issues.” You can access it by clicking here: https://www.oliviasbenson.com/answersfromwithin/