The road to Equality is paved with the sacrifices of generations willing to defend the principles that built America.
Juneteenth was first celebrated on June 19, 1865. The Emancipation Proclamation, issued on January 1, 1863, had freed all enslaved people in states in rebellion against the United States. Two years later, with the Union victory, slavery was ended for good.
The 13th Amendment, ratified December 6, 1865, outlawed slavery in the United States and its territories.
Juneteenth does not invalidate July 4, 1776, the day the Declaration of Independence announced the American colonies’ separation from Great Britain. Nor, is Independence Day a holiday for only one portion of the country and Juneteenth reserved for another.
Rather, July 4th set in motion the series of events that would ultimately lead to Juneteenth. The document unanimously signed by the delegates to the First Continental Congress established the principles of Freedom, Liberty, and Equality, that would become the defining characteristic of our Constitution, our Republic, and ultimately America itself.
It would be those principles and the mantle accepted by each successive generation that would bring us ever closer to achieving those ideals.
Freedom and Liberty come at great cost.
The road to Equality is paved with the sacrifices of generations who were willing to defend and uphold the principles that built America, that sustain America, and that guarantee Liberty and Justice for ALL Americans.
This generation will be no different.
If the Declaration of Independence had never existed, the Revolutionary War would have never been fought.
WHAT THEN?
The Constitution and the Bill of Rights would not have been written.
The Civil War would not have been fought and the Emancipation Proclamation never issued.
The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments would not have been added. The 19th Amendment would not have been added either.
The Civil Rights Movement would not have occurred and the Civil Rights Act would not have become law.
Freedom, Liberty, and Equality would not exist anywhere on earth.
But they did happen and they do exist here, in America.
If you doubt this, our shared heritage, then ask yourself, why are so many intent on destroying it?
Because Freedom, Liberty, and Equality ensure justice, security, and prosperity. And Justice, Security, and Prosperity stand in the way of iniquity, tyranny, and oppression.
Those who seek absolute control in the service of absolute power know this. From within and from without, they relentlessly pursue it.
AT ANY COST.
The only thing standing in their way now is the same thing that stood in their way then.
WE, THE PEOPLE.
The generations of Americans who lived, sacrificed, and perished preserving, protecting, and defending Freedom, Liberty, and Equality.
FOR ALL OF US.
Because they understood that once lost, they are lost forever.
FOR ALL OF US.
Our generation is no different.
If Freedom, Liberty, and Equality are to survive, it is up to us to preserve, protect, and defend them.
FOR ALL OF US.
In this generation.
For the generation to come.
JN Fenwick (© 2023) | mothjournal14
There have been two great crises in our country’s history: first, when it was formed, and then, again, when it was perpetuated; and, in the second of these great crises–in the time of stress and strain which culminated in the Civil War, on the outcome of which depended the justification of what had been done earlier, you men of the Grand Army, you men who fought through the Civil War, not only did you justify your generation, but you justified the wisdom of Washington and Washington’s colleagues.
Theodore Roosevelt, August 31, 1910