Seeing Real Freedom on Juneteenth

We often hear the phrase, "freedom isn't free".  As a wife of a military veteran, it is one I take seriously and have put much thought into. I also think it is one that is mostly said as a part of holidays, often worn on t-shirts, and too often by people who have had little experience with either the sacrifice involved or with what it truly feels like to have one's freedom really threatened.

What Comes Unearned is Underappreciated

All too often, when something comes easily, we can become greedy for it and believe we are more deserving, entitled, even. On July 4, 1776, a group of men declared Independence from England and people who had decided they knew best who was entitled to freedoms and other liberties.. They eloquently wrote of the hardships that had been put upon them and how they wished to forge forward and do better.

Rightly So.

And they did do better. But they were men of a certain class, culture, and race. And yes, men.

Their words did not protect most of us at that time. Most specifically, they later cruelly decided that a good number of God's creations were not only not worthy of Constitutional protections, they only counted as 3/5 of a human.

3/5 of Freedom is not Free

 It took decades more and a bloody war to simply eradicate these words in the Constitution and provide the right to vote. A right that has always been shaky and now is at threat yet again, with accessibility and cost being the Name of the Game rather than the better-known Jim and Crow.

The official end of the Civil War is April 9, 1865, with the Emancipation Proclamation having been signed a full two years before on January 1, 1863. Even after the war was over, it took more than two months for the word to make it to Galveston, Texas, and for ALL slaves to be freed in the United States.

Almost 89 years after the Declaration of Independence.
77 years after the Constitution was ratified.
Two years, five months, and 18 days after the Emancipation Proclamation.
Two months and 10 days after General Lee surrendered.

Juneteenth is an Independence Day

For many Americans, this was the beginning. And a very inauspicious one at that. Growing up in southeast Texas, I was aware of Juneteenth, and I, for one, am happy to see it finally being seen for what it is. HISTORY.

Things don't start or stop being history because of the comfort they bring. We don't get to celebrate only heroes (or heroines), and not remember the scars that they left or brought home.

Juneteenth is History. Everyone's History.

If you don't know about Juneteenth, you should. It's not black history. It's American history. It is the real end date of the Civil War, and the day slavery began to end. Yes, I said "began" because for many years after, it existed without the name. 

I grew up in the South. I have children. Pretending history didn't happen doesn't protect them. It just ensures that mistakes will be made again. See history through empathetic eyes, and appreciate freedom through the vision of those who have not seen it come quite so easily.

Fresh History

The Civil Rights Act was signed 61 years ago. Lest one think that this is all centuries old, and people should move on. Within the lifetime of many of our parents and/or grandparents, it was legal to deny entrance, jobs, education, loans, and more to blacks. There are people who lived under Jim Crow still here. So yes, they have reason to still feel sensitive about Confederate statues, and new rules interfering with their ease of voting.

Take some time today and learn what Jim Crow was really like. You might find it surprising. In Mississippi, it was even illegal to discuss the laws. Ask yourself why a classic book like "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" was removed from the Navy library. That's not black history. That's our history. Lynchings happened. 

America can be Amazing when it lives up to its Ideals.

The Emancipation Proclamation brought us closer. The Civil Rights Act brought us closer.

Here is the thing. Freedom isn't free, but it also isn't ours to keep. The more we share it, the more we have it. 

That was the great lesson from World War II. Those who thought that they could turn an eye and allow others to lose freedom only lived longer to see their own stripped away. 

Freedom belongs to all.

We may have won a lottery of birth, but we didn't win a birthright. That was the mistake of the royals. Let it not be our mistake. Winning Freedom at the expense of others is no freedom at all. It is simply life in a snow globe waiting to be turned upside-down or worse, trapped forever as the world grows and moves without us.