Juneteenth, the day that commemorates the emancipation or the end of slavery, has become a federally recognized holiday. The bill, which had Bipartisan support in both the House and Senate, was signed into law on Thursday after being passed by Congress on Wednesday.
From a White House press conference, Biden said, “June 19th, 1865, the major general of the Union army arrived in Galveston, Texas, to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation and free the last enslaved Americans in Texas from bondage. That day, as you all know, I’m going to repeat some of what was said, became known as Juneteenth. You all know that…
“This is a day in profound, in my view, profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take. What I’ve long called America’s original sin…
“Today, we consecrate Juneteenth for what it out to be, what it must be. A national holiday…”
Despite bipartisan support, the bill had it’s dissenters, with fourteen Republicans in the House voting against it.
Among the House Republicans who voted against the bill, were Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who said, “I fully support creating a day to celebrate the abolition of slavery, , a dark portion of our nation’s history. However, naming this day, ‘National Independence Day,” will create confusion and push Americans to pick one of those two days as their independence day based on their racial identity.”
According to Massive, black Americans celebrating a day to commemorate an end to the slavery of their ancestors, is nothing more than playing racial identity politics.
Texas Rep. Chip Roy said,”I believe it’s often referred to in our history as ‘Jubilee Day,’ as ‘Emancipation Day,’ as Freedom Day’ – I would be amendable to any of those names. I don’t believe that the title ‘National Independence Day’ works, and I would prefer that we just have a debate on that.”
Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar – who has some serious issues dealing with race – said in a written statement:
“Our country is divided, and cultural and political Marxists are continuing their efforts to divide this country further.
“Juneteenth is more debunked Critical Race Theory in action. I reject racism. I reject the racial division people are promoting. I voted no because this proposed holiday does not bring us together, it tears us apart.
“I cannot support efforts that furthers racial divisions in this country. We have one Independence Day, and it applies to all people of all races.”
For someone who has no problem cozying up to white nationalists like Nick Fuentes – who is an actual Nazi – Gosar’s statement is not just ironic, but downright absurd.
It’s ironic and absurd that Gosar would claim that it’s cultural Marxists that are dividing the country, when just five months ago, Gosar and a majority of his party supported and lied about not only the election being stolen from Trump, but the insurrection at the Capitol.
The Republican party is the main reason America is so divided They’ve been promoting division for decades. They did it for eight years, portraying a centrist black president as a radical extremist Marxist, communist, socialist who was out to subvert democracy; they’ve done it continuously with Black Lives Matter, claiming it is a race war against white people; they’ve done it with immigration; they’ve done it with prioritizing policing and downplaying racism and violence against black people and other minorities; they’re currently doing it with the creation of voter suppression legislation to prevent black voters from voting Democrat; and they’re promoting division with their hysterical opposition to CRT.
Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale’s statement is just as absurd:
“Let’s call an ace an ace. This is 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. Since I believe treating everyone equally, regardless of race, and that we should be focused on what unites us rather than our differences.
“The Left has made up what was primarily a Texas holiday, which they are now acting like they recently discovered, in order to continually make Americans feel bad and convince them that our country is evil. The vast majority of Americans are good and this country is great, although there are certainly imperfections in our history, as there are with any country.
“This isn’t an effort to commemorate emancipation, it’s very clearly tied to the larger hard-left agenda to enshrine the racial history of this country as the prime aspect of our national story. They do not want to highlight all the good this country has brought to the world – flight, the Constitution, the defeat of communism and Nazism, the internet – but instead our racial sins. America is good, and efforts to cast the country as otherwise should be opposed.”
Unfortunately, the intention of the legislation is not to appease the precious feelings of conservatives who would rather not face and accept the fact that their version of America is anything less than perfect.
Get over it. Grow up. Move on. Be an adult about it, and accept reality.
Sources: The Week, NPR, Rosendal.House.gov., Gosar.House.gov, rev.com.
The Weekly News 