The federal government will give employees the day off on Friday after President Biden signs a bill making Juneteenth, which marks the end of slavery in America, a federal holiday.
“Today @POTUS will sign the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, establishing June 19th as a federal holiday. As the 19th falls on a Saturday, most federal employees will observe the holiday tomorrow, June 18th,” the Office of Personnel Management tweeted on Thursday.
Biden is scheduled to sign legislation making Juneteenth a federal holiday on Thursday afternoon during an event with Vice President Harris in the East Room, during which they both will give remarks.
The House voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to pass the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in a vote of 415-14. Those who voted against the legislation were all Republicans. The legislation passed the Senate by unanimous consent earlier this week.
Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19, the day in 1865 when the remaining enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were informed of their freedom by the Emancipation Proclamation.
The vote to make Juneteenth a federal holiday — on par with Memorial Day, Veterans Day and other national holidays — punctuated a broader push for racial justice and equity in the United States following the police murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, in Minneapolis in May 2020.
“What I see here today is racial divide crumbling, being crushed this day under a momentous vote that brings together people who understand the value of freedom,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), the sponsor of the bill, said at a press conference on Wednesday before the vote in the House.
Democrats and Republicans have disagreed over how to address racism in policing and other institutions. However, the push to make Juneteenth a federal holiday was bipartisan, with several Republicans in both the House and Senate cosponsoring the legislation. Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) was the lead Republican sponsor of the bill in the Senate.
“The freedom of all Americans that Texas celebrates every Juneteenth should be celebrated all across the nation,” Cornyn said in a statement on Tuesday. “The passage of this bill represents a big step in our nation’s journey toward equality. I thank my colleagues in the Senate for their support, and my fellow Texans who have been celebrating this important holiday for more than a century.”
Some Republicans who objected to the bill said they were concerned that calling the holiday “Juneteenth National Independence Day” would cause it to be confused with Independence Day on July 4.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) criticized the bill as an “effort by the left to create a day out of whole cloth to celebrate identity politics as part of its larger efforts to make ‘critical race theory’ the reigning ideology of our country.”
Juneteenth will be the first federal holiday established by Congress since 1983 — nearly four decades ago — when lawmakers established Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to recognize the civil rights giant.
Most U.S. states already recognized Juneteenth before Wednesday’s vote. Hawaii became the 49th state to officially recognize it this week, leaving South Dakota as the only state that does not observe the day.'
metmike: So when will our politicians/government start doing things that actually HELP minorities the most, like reducing crime/making it safer to live in the big cities where most reside..............it's going in the exact opposite direction. Creat more jobs and better educational opportunities in these communities. Help nurture/encourage positive family situations with more males role models.
Go ahead and ask a black person from the inner city the following questions below and see what they say.
List the order of the importance of the items below to YOUR life. Pick the top 4 on the list.
1. A job
2. An education
3. A safe/low crime community
4. A family that cares about me and has good role models
5. A holiday to celebrate when black people were given freedom
6. Cops that must wear cameras and don't abuse power in confrontations with criminals
On #5, we all know that though this law was passed, blacks were extremely discriminated against and abused for another 100 years after that........because real world actions were moving veeeeery slowly to assist them in obtaining the American dream until Martin Luther King and the 1960's helped advance things the most.
This holiday is wonderful but it makes our politicians look like they are doing something. It's good for us to recognize a significant date and to use that to make positive changes............but where are the positive changes in items #1-4 above? That's what counts.
Crime is soaring higher in many black neighborhoods around the country right now. Educations and jobs opportunities are not getting better. A holiday does't put money in anybody's pocket or make them more educated or have better families or have safer communities.
We get to all celebrate this wonderful feel good new holiday tomorrow.............then, go back to blacks killing blacks, committing 6 times more violent crime and living in s-hole communities......keeping them from ever fully having the American dream.
The politicians and government that controls it all are more concerned with political agenda and looking good.........to get power and votes from black people............and it keeps working.
The solutions are there but the politicians apparently don't want the REAL solutions. They want to keep things the same because its working so well for them Creating false narratives and always making themselves look good but never accountable for failing at what their job really is.
Here's a few no brainer ideas from a yahoo scientist in Indiana (-:
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/53752/#53753
allow me to state an obvious idea that no one wants to address.
there will be many business owners that are against having yet another holiday, where they have to pay people for not working. this means more expense, and less productivity. but they will not come out and admit this, because they are afraid that people will call them racist.
the real effect will mean that workers might get slightly lower pay raises in the future, and it will add to the cost that consumers have to pay. (remember that expression... there is NO free lunch).
another option is that we can always get rid of some other holiday.
i have a friend/coworker who is jewish. he would rather get paid to take off for jewish holidays. but of course most employers would only do that is the feds mandate it for all businesses (and for federal workers).
so, lets take a poll... which other holiday would you get rid of so it does not hurt a businesses bottom line?
Christmas is my least favorite holiday. The commercialism and pressure to make it “the best“ really discouraging.
Thanksgiving is by far my favorite.
May as well get rid of independence day. Most poeple no longer celebrate independence. They prefer the government take care of them and tell them what to do.
“May as well get rid of independence day. Most poeple no longer celebrate independence. They prefer the government take care of them and tell them what to do.”
Nice to know some things never change. But, I guess that’s a hallmark of conservatism.
I try not to speak in broad generalities, I find I’m wrong more when I do, then folks disregard the message I’m trying to convey .
Great post Bear!
Here is a list of holidays,. a few are not Federal government holidays but I included the others to make a suggestion.
We could just combine Mothers Day and Fathers Day to have 1 day.
Caregivers Day!
You can bet that there are people that think exactly like that who may already be making plans to propose it.
https://www.officeholidays.com/countries/usa/2021
I'm with Tim in that maybe elimination Independence Day is the one that I wouldn't propose but would pick to go if required to pick.
Then, we would have only 1 Independence Day............Independence from slavery day and we could also celebrate our country's Independence Day then too (like that would happen)
Thanksgiving can be tied in with that too.
OK, those all sound like dumb ideas, so its good that I'm not deciding on the holidays (-:
To be honest, I just think of every day that I wake up still breathing as being a holiday and try to think of reasons to celebrate!!!
Mcfarmer, I hate to engage in what would likely be another silly debate. But what the heck. It's Friday, after a long week.
The founders started a war over far less oppression, regulation and taxation than most take for granted today, with many beggin for more.. If you want socialized medicine, that is the EXACT opposite of independence, the epitome of dependence. I hear more and more people begging for that. And that's just one of the more obvious examples.
We have a president telling us, just maybe, if we behave just as he tells us, that maybe we can gather in groups to celebrate independence day. And somewhere above a majority nod in gap mouthed approval. That is the EXACT opposite of independence, or laughably dependent..
Shall I go on? The list is endless and in no way anecdotal.
It’s only silly if a person makes it so.
Speaking of which, you say the colonists were less oppressed than most folks accept today ? Yet the colonists had no representation in the governing body that taxed and regulated them, they had no vote in the British parliament.
I imagine you would like to clarify such an obvious misstatement.
You can use the last word to explain how that could be.
But, we can all agree attempts to restrict the vote is a ploy of the doomed, it has seldom worked for long. Progress can be delayed, it’s hard to deny.
what is silly is we now have 44 federal holidays that our fed employees enjoy.....hell why 54? 64?...heard today that our inept gov put this new one together so badly that some fed employees missed another do nothing day today so they will now be paid double time....ok to state the obvious way big gov thinks why not triple time or quadruple time. Just build the roads and defend the country, is that asking too much?
Here is one thing that I have learned with certainty as moderator and elsewhere that applies almost everywhere.
Professing ideological/political beliefs in 2021 to somebody that disagrees with them is the surest was to get them to defend THEIR ideological belief system and both sides not hear a word that each other said.
Regardless, people will do it and think that they are making convincing statements about their ideology that are scoring points in a discussion/argument.
You are all very welcome to do it here respectfully (that's why Alex created the NTR forum) and sometimes objective points that hit the bullseye will come out but the other person will never acknowledge it because they are not objective on the topic.
This has been a conditioned behavior for decades in most people and is actually quite human but never really contributes to either party learning anything new. They are focused more on schooling the other person they disagree with, that has it all wrong on how it really is.
We also prefer to go to sites that tell us what we like to hear(which makes sense) which reinforces everything that we already thought that we knew about ideologies.
This is exactly what the politicians that we align with want us to do. This is what the media sources, that spin news to one side want us to do.
What would be really revolutionary is for us to break free of the cerebral chains that keep us in political/ideological bondage that the gatekeepers who control the narratives/messages on each side DON'T want.
Now THAT would be an authentic display of exercising an actual freedom that can NEVER be taken away, regardless of what the government does.
Who's in?
The hard part is that you have to be able to see positives and learn something new from people that you disagree with.
The benefits are entirely to you. You WILL learn something new each time that you see a position from a different perspective.
WxFollower/Larry has demonstrated over and over that he's in!
Was watching the local news and they mentioned that Juneteenth is the first new Federal holiday since Martin Luther King day.
I admire MLK more than any other person(with my Dad up there) and think his holiday and recognition is more than well deserving of a National Holiday.
But this doesn't make sense.
In recent years, we have been told constantly that our country is systemically racist. How is it that the last 2 National Holidays were..... to honor a black man, for what he did for blacks and to recognize the act that freed blacks..............and the last president to serve 2 terms/8 years(elected, then RE elected) was a black man????
" d : fundamental to a predominant social, economic, or political practice systemic poverty "Our nation faces a fork in the road and a decision to either continue down the same path of systemic racism or to confront our past honestly.— Bree Newsome "
No question that we still have plenty of racists in America. If just 1% of the 330 million Americans were racists, that would be 3.3 million racists. That's alot of racists. It's possible there are that many racists, especially with some of the older people that grew up with it and accepted it. It's impossible to tell because the studies are too biased and flawed.
So would that be systemic racism?
Here's a source that wants to convince us that these stats prove racism.
26 simple charts to show friends and family who aren't convinced racism is still a problem in America
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-systemic-racism-in-charts-graphs-data-2020-6
The charts are all accurate and very powerful telling us the current status. However, is it because black people are discriminated against for the color of their skin and DENIED these things or is it because black people don't display the same level of skill to earn some of those things?
Obviously, they don't get the same educational opportunities which holds them back for their entire lives but is it because of their skin color that they don't have high paying jobs or because of where they grew up?(large urban areas, often poor inner cities, raised by one parent in an environment that didn't stress education).
The white people that grew up that way..............have crappy lives too. Skin color and racism didn't matter.
And is it because of their parents, many poor and uneducated? You want to predict the success of a child..........look at the parents, not the color of their skin.
I noted that they failed to mention that young black men commit violent crime at 6 times the rate of young white men. Or that 67% of black children are born into a single parent home.
Why did they leave those stats out that have EVERYTHING to do with explaining much of the bad numbers that blacks have on all of their charts.
Those are the things that need to change and it must happen early in life.
Taking tens of millions of children that grew up in bad environments and calling the very predictable consequences of that when they grow into adults "systemic racism" is totally misleading.
I've coached 3,500 children in chess and gone to many dozens of chess tournaments. There are very few blacks at these tournaments(or women in the older ages). Is it because chess is racist? Gender biased?
Absolutely not. It's based on skills. The pieces on the board are white and black but they don't know what the color of the skin is of the person moving them.
Same thing in sports. We don't squawk because blacks outnumber whites in major league sports. Or the entertainment industry. It's based on ability. Some they were born with in those professions.
Much in many professions was obtained growing up and blacks have a massively higher % of children growing up in disadvantaged environments.
The blame game starts there......not with entities that use skills or experience or education as QUALIFIERS to hire people they need to be the best that entity/company can be.
And it IS fixable but takes time............generations but the most important thing is to be honest........ hold blacks accountable for counterproductive behavior as the reason for problems and not tell them its the white world suppressing them.
Or that its because of systemic racism as this article wants you to believe:
I will repeat this again:
Here's a few no brainer ideas from a yahoo scientist in Indiana (-:
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/53752/#53753
Speaking of which, you say the colonists were less oppressed than most folks accept today ? Yet the colonists had no representation in the governing body that taxed and regulated them, they had no vote in the British parliament.
Yes, that's true. No argument. But you are missing the entire point I was making.
How much regulation/taxation did the colonists face? Nothing like today. No where near.
Independence, per the founders, looked nothng like we have today. Those same people would be staging another revolution today. I guarantee it.
Independence, to them, was freedom from tyranny. Freedom from government. Government to them, was a necassary evil and was meant to be treated as such. There are direct quotes to that effect.
Today, many of US vote for as much government as we can get. And that flies in the face of independence.
If you want the government to take care of you and tell you what to do, you are not independent and have no right to celebrate independence. You have given it up.
This is a direct quote from Thomas Jefferson.
"We must rescue ourselves from the oppression of an unrepresntative foreign government so that we may be oppressed by our own".
Oh wait....