{"id":567281,"date":"2021-06-17T17:37:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-17T21:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=567281"},"modified":"2021-06-17T17:37:20","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T21:37:20","slug":"knowles-juneteenth-should-not-be-a-federal-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/knowles-juneteenth-should-not-be-a-federal-holiday\/","title":{"rendered":"KNOWLES: \u2018Juneteenth\u2019 Should Not Be A Federal Holiday"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fknowles-juneteenth-should-not-be-a-federal-holiday%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=567281&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/Joe-Biden-7.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to make \u201cJuneteenth National Independence Day\u201d a federal holiday. Until recently, few Americans had even heard of \u201cJuneteenth,\u201d and for good reason: relative to other events in history, the date does not much matter.<\/p>\n<p>On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in rebel states through his Emancipation Proclamation. On December 18, 1865, Congress and the states outlawed slavery throughout the country with the ratification and proclamation of the Thirteenth Amendment. On June 19, 1865 \u2014 or \u201cJuneteenth\u201d \u2014 a less significant event occurred: General Gordon Granger entered Texas and announced that Lincoln had freed the slaves three years earlier.<\/p>\n<p>At present our national calendar includes 10 federal holidays each year: New Year\u2019s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Washington\u2019s Birthday, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Columbus Day, and the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. The calendar excludes plenty of important events in American history, including the ratification of the Constitution, the election of 1800, Victory in Europe Day, and the Moon landing, just to name a few.<\/p>\n<p>These federal holidays have always involved some expression of gratitude. We thank God on Thanksgiving, Christmas and even Independence Day, which, in the words of John Adams, \u201cought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty.\u201d Washington\u2019s Birthday, Columbus Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day were established to express our national appreciation for great men who helped to build our country. On Veterans Day, we give thanks to our servicemen; on Memorial Day, to those servicemen no longer with us; and on Labor Day, to the ordinary workers who do their jobs day in and day out to keep our country running. Even New Year\u2019s Day involves \u201ca cup o\u2019 kindness yet for <em>auld lang syne<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But gratitude seems conspicuously absent from the recent recognition of \u201cJuneteenth.\u201d It commemorates no concrete act or particular man but rather an overdue, inconclusive episode on the never-ending march toward progress. If legislators merely wanted to mark the end of slavery, both the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment seem better candidates than a local tradition from Galveston, Texas. And both would occasion gratitude \u2014 for Lincoln, for the legislators, for the concrete acts that secured the freedom of the slaves.<\/p>\n<p>But that sort of gratitude now offends the Left. Noah Berlatsky, an editor of <em>The Atlantic<\/em>, typified this attitude in 2014 when he took to the pages of his magazine to whine about \u201cwhite savior\u201d narratives in several films, including a biopic about Abraham Lincoln, the white savior who freed the slaves. This week, <em>NPR<\/em> television critic Eric Deggans went even further, criticizing Tom Hanks for having portrayed white men in any way \u201cdoing the right thing\u201d in his historical films.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming the House of Representatives and President pass the \u201cJuneteenth\u201d holiday into law, it will have the distinction of being the only federal holiday bereft of gratitude. \u201cThis national holiday will serve as a powerful reminder that we cannot run from our past,\u201d explained Democrat representative Rashida Tlaib during debate over the bill. \u201cIt\u2019s also a recognition that we have so much work to do to rid this country of systemic racism, discrimination, and hate,\u201d added Democrat Brenda Lawrence. Barack Obama expressed the same sentiment last year, albeit in a somewhat softer tone. \u201cJuneteenth has never been a celebration of victory,\u201d Obama tweeted, \u201cor an acceptance of the way things are. It\u2019s a celebration of progress. It\u2019s an affirmation that despite the most painful parts of our history, change is possible&nbsp;\u2014 and there is still so much work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The perpetual revolution to fundamentally transform our country never acknowledges victory. The revolutionaries contend that there must always be more work to be done to emancipate ourselves, not from the tangible chains of chattel slavery, but from the more oppressive bonds of tradition and society. These radicals endeavor, in the words of the <em>New York Times<\/em>\u2019s anti-historical 1619 Project, \u201cto reframe the country\u2019s history\u201d to better accord with the progressive vision, according to which our future happiness demands that despise and overcome our past.<\/p>\n<p>The title of the bill to establish the new holiday refers, not to \u201cJuneteenth,\u201d but to \u201cJuneteenth National Independence Day,\u201d a reframing of our history and freedom. On our nation\u2019s traditional Independence Day, we have given thanks for the victory that gave us our country, imperfect though she may be. Our new National Independence Day recognizes no such victory. It refuses to enjoy or even accept our nation as she is. There will always remain too much work to be done.<\/p>\n<p><em>The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a class=\"in-cell-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">member<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously to make \u201cJuneteenth National Independence Day\u201d a federal holiday. Until recently, few Americans had even heard of \u201cJuneteenth,\u201d and for good reason: relative &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1896051,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-567281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1896051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}