The appearance of a hearse in a parade momentarily brings heads scratching when they first catch a first glimpse of it as it inches down Main Street. A few chuckles of anticipation turns to a burst of cheers and applause as the funeral car reveals a sign strategically attached to the rear window, “Slavery is dead.” Similar parades commemorate Juneteenth nationwide. It is the oldest known celebration of the end of slavery. Its observance has drawn a wider following in recent years with organizers invoking its principles of self-development and respect not only for African Americans but also for all cultures.
Recent developments have added greater significance to this year’s celebration. The Senate has just passed a resolution apologizing for slavery so that “so they can move forward and seek reconciliation, justice, and harmony for all people of the United States.” The Senate apology comes belatedly, 136 years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation—that’s about three times longer than it took the government to apologize to interned Japanese Americans during World War II after their release.
The recent resolution does not include reparations, and in fact carries a disclaimer that “nothing in the resolution authorizes or supports reparations for slavery.” Considering the reparation payment for each Japanese American interned during the war amounts to a ridiculous $20,000 per individual interned, the act itself somehow serves only to devalue the cost of incarceration due to "race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership." There is no monetary value that we can justly associate with upholding the truths we now hold evident.
But of greatest significance to this year’s Juneteenth commemoration is this. We have bestowed upon a man who personifies everyone with a history of enslavement and bondage in injustice here in the greatest country in the world the job to lead us as the most powerful man in the world. Priceless!
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