Juneteenth (June 19) was officially declared a federal holiday by President Biden and the current administration. It’s about time. Black people waited a long while for Martin Luther King to get recognized with his birthday becoming a holiday, and the day all enslaved ancestors learned of their freedom was bound to follow, but our country has been notoriously slow in doing these things. I’m glad to see it happen in my lifetime.
Then I keep reading about all the other non-inclusive stuff going on, and I get depressed again.
This is supposed to be Pride Month, when everybody celebrates their place in the universe, or at least in this country. However, we’re still dealing with the idea that some people don’t get included, and others run the risk of being totally disenfranchised because of how things used to be.
We can’t rewrite history. The past is ugly and primitive and ignorant, but it’s impossible to make it seem as if everybody has always been enlightened and smart. What we need to do is put in what was left out, while making sure we are all on the same page about who did what and why.
That will take some time, because the Internet is crammed full of misinformation. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at how a group of random people discuss where a disease comes from and how to wipe it out. Better yet, ask a group of random people what the best pizza toppings are. It’s what I have referred to in the past, and it shows how something simple can turn into a complicated argument. People will raise their blood pressure passionately proving their point, as if variety is too scary for them.
That may be part of our problem. We don’t see the fine line between things which look alike but are different beneath the surface.
As human beings, we start knowing nothing, emerging at birth at ground zero. Then it starts. We are observed for gender, size and weight to set the tone, then we get a name and some clothing, and the process begins. You are this, you aren’t that, and sometimes people go along because they’re afraid not to, or because “this is how it has always been.” Thank goodness we occasionally move past the Dark Ages and use common sense.
I heard that a school is thinking about dropping Abraham Lincoln’s name from their buildings because they feel he did not find Black lives did matter all that much! What on earth does that mean when describing the man who wrote the Emancipation Proclamation in the first place?
I read that some school systems will be dropping all holiday designations from calendars to prevent missing anybody’s dates. Well guys, that time has passed: there are so many official, religious, government and natural events every day of the year that no calendar can hold them all, but removing the most observed or general ones is not the way to fix the problem. By listing the ones in which school is closed is prudent, not non-inclusive. The families observing other holidays already know they’re coming and when. A school should have a school-themed calendar. It should have school sporting event dates, when report cards are due, when commencement is, and when the regular year starts and ends and when summer school is in session.
It looks like we’re off track if we have to say “I shouldn’t have to tell you this, but. . . .”
Every day the sun rises on something new and sets on the unresolved and finalized equally. We really need to sit down and work on this, because it will get so out of control, nobody will know what is right, wrong, or just part of life. It will require whittling life down to the truth and factual, and allow room for answering questions and putting rumors to rest.
In other words, it will take thought, dedication and decency to center our world again.
The end result will be more happiness and peace for everybody, from the most saintly to the wretch as the bottom of despair. And we all need to be together to make it work.
So every day can be recognized for itself.
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