Reply to Juneteenth a Federal holiday? What do you think?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would like it better if it wasn’t called Juneteenth. June 19th sounds good. Can we just combine it with MLK day? We are heading toward a lot of holidays. Besides the usual days, our  school system takes off Christian, Jewish and Muslim holidays. I think we should cut Presidents’ Day or Columbia Day or Easter Monday. [/quote]

Did you actually just ask if we could combine MLK Day and Juneteenth?  How about first we combine Memorial Day and Veterans Day?[/quote]

Okay you are right - I was being flippant.  But I’m generally okay with dumping holidays. So fine, cut either the may holiday or the nov holiday. We should honor the vets on more than just one day anyway. [/quote]

Honor vets more?  Are you trying to turn us into North Korea?  The fetishizing of people who decided to pursue employment in the military is completely out of hand.   Made sense when we had conscription/a draft - we took those citizens autonomy/choice away and made them serve the country.   I have no problem honoring WW2 and Vietnam vets.   Since 1975 - it’s been a choice.   I’d argue nurses and school teachers make an equal service contribution to this country - again often for low pay - until people start saying “thank you for your service” to them I’m underwhelmed at the jingoistic pro-military focus of so many - and can’t help but feel it is driven by guilt (at lack of other viable opportunities for some socioeconomic groups and their own lack of “service” to country).

Black people in this country didn’t choose to “serve” or get the shaft economically and socially for centuries after.   A huge amount of wealth and privilege was literally built on their backs.   That original sin has fueled policies and systems that have set an entire race up for failure (supporting the narrative that maybe the sin wasn’t so bad).   We still haven’t properly come to terms with that legacy as a nation - as these cos-play confederate traitor worshipping fools are just one obvious demonstration.

So yeah, i would be fine merging veterans and memorial days to make room for a Juneteenth.   That’s nothing.  I’d also assign 50% of our planned military budget over next ten years (fear not - we’ll still have best funded military in the world) - to fund generational wealth (property/home ownership) and educational structures (HbCUs endowments allowing them to be tuition-free).   That won’t make things right - but it would start to level the playing field some to make the American dream possible for everyone.  Let’s start with an extra holiday though to celebrate an important step forward in the development of the USA.  American Black history is American history.   The cringe-worthy suggestion to lump Juneteenth with MLK (?“black issues day”) highlights how far we still have to go.[/quote]
I love every single thing you wrote!

But I think the PP probably meant they didn’t want to celebrate the vets on two days but had a typo.[/quote]

My husband, who is black, and retired military hates when people say thank you for your service.  So I say, thank you for those great military benefits you provide for our family.  As for Juneteenth, I don't know.  I'd rather that Americans acknowledge systemic racism.  We are still fighting about the 1619 project, CRT and other just teaching real history.  Can we start there?[/quote]

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