Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Tuesday, June 19, 2018

State of Vacillation

It's difficult for me to post these days because there is too much to write about, and no one subject seems adequate. This problem of outrage fatigue is affecting a lot of people, I believe, and makes it difficult to respond appropriately to everything that is going on in the nation and the world.

I believe that all I can do is take on some bite-sized pieces. This often feels to me as though I'm ducking more urgent matters, but there are plenty of far more amplified voices to take those on.

Today is June 19th, a holiday celebrated particularly by African Americans in Texas. As I discussed in my recent post about Lee's surrender at Appomattox, the event didn't end the war. Other confederate units kept fighting. Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, following the Union victory at Antietam. It was effective as of January 1, 1863. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865.

But of course the proclamation had no effect where the slaveholders still ruled. When Union general Gordon Granger entered Galveston on June 19, he found that slavery was still practiced. In fact, word of the proclamation had never even reached Texas. Granger then issued this statement:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.
It took a while before the slaves generally became free in Texas, and then it didn't last with the rise of the Klan. But in 1866 the freed slaves began to celebrate Juneteenth, as much as a deliberate affront to their former masters as a celebration. Let us always remember the country's two irredeemable original sins, slavery and the Native American genocide. Right now, we're going backwards.

4 comments:

Don Quixote said...

Cervantes ended today's post with, "Right now we're going backwards."

That is correct.

I'm not interested in any negative rebuttals to or comments on my comment here. If what I'm about to write doesn't make sense to you, I can tell you the problem is with you because I'm just commenting on facts--which are not a matter of opinion.

Today, I was talking with someone about the atrocities being committed at our borders in the name of the asshole in the Oval Office and the Nazi attorney general. And my friend commented that it didn't matter to the Nazi and the asshole because "they [the kids being separated from parents, and caged]'re brown people."

That's where the asshole and the Nazi are coming from. Everything they do is motivated and impelled by the same sense of outrage that the South had after the "War of the Northern Aggression" (another lie perpetrated and believed to the present in much of the South, where I've lived and worked and have friends). (Anyone else see the creepy, uncanny resemblance between Jeff Sessions and Henry Gibson in "Blues Brothers"?)

Everything, everything the asshole and the Nazi and the twisted cabinet members do today--from destroying the environment, to destroying alliances, to destroying education--is based on self-hatred that is projected onto people of color.

Race always was, and still is, the biggest problem this country has never faces.

Take care of it and everything else will fall into place. Don't, and we march on toward oblivion. The racist in chief is at the top of a cult of hatred and death.

Don Quixote said...

PS To anyone who disagrees with my post above, don't write to me ... just use your disagreement as a gauge with which to measure your lack of humanity. If you can't see what I'm talking about, shut up and listen and your eyes will open eventually. If you have the urge to respond negatively, better check your premises.

Anonymous said...


Cervantes, thanks for this post. Many in this nation have never heard of Juneteenth outside of Texas. Great stuff! While I disagree about the "going backwards" opinion part, this post has been well received. Keep up the good work.

Also, I'd probably distance myself from some of the comments above that compares all her perceived political enemies to Nazis; essentially disrespecting hating Jews worldwide and shitting on the democratic election process because her political agenda is not being served.

There is no room for genuine disagreement of her ideas or you're a horrible human being (as she has stated above). This alone makes her UnAmerican.

"You don't like a particular policy or a particular president? Then argue for your position. Go out there and win an election. Push to change it," Obama said. "But don't break it. Don't break what our predecessors spent over two centuries building. That's not being faithful to what this country's about."
---Barack Obama


Don Quixote said...

The above comments by "Anonymous" are disrespectful and invalid on several levels:

1) I asked for no response. So this person has no character or respect for himself or others.

2) The above commenter refers to me--which I repeatedly asked him not to do--as "her." What an asshole and ignoramus "Anonymous" again proves himself to be. And wrong, as usual.

3) "Anonymous" once again engages in his tiresome, false practice of misquoting others and ascribing words to them they never used. Examples:

"I'd probably distance myself from some of the comments above that compares all her perceived political enemies to Nazis."

You fucking idiot. I'm calling Jeff Sessions a Nazi. He loves the Klan and has stated so. You are an ignoramus.

Example 2: "Anonymous" ascribes the term "horrible human beings" to my comment. Never used it. Never used the word "horrible."

You really are an asshole, stupid, inaccurate, ignorant, invidious, disrespectful, and your comments are worse than worthless.

Shut your fucking mouth, refrain from commenting, stop lying, stop making trouble, and get a life. Maybe one day someone will even have sex with you.

FUCK TRUMP! and FUCK "ANONYMOUS!" He has no balls, no character, no truth, no creativity, no respect, no class, NOTHING. He's just an idiot.