Biden shut down the federal government on about 12 hours notice.
In case you aren't familiar with Juneteenth, it has been around for some time and celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.
Juneteenth (short for "June Nineteenth") marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops' arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.
It falls on the 19th. That's tomorrow. Wouldn't the official holiday typically be recognized on a Monday?
Why on earth would you rush to shut down the entire federal bureaucracy with almost no notice? Was Biden afraid he was going to "get in trouble with staff" again if he didn't?
I know federal contractors (and there are legions of them) who have no idea what to do. Their contracts never took into account a president who does not know what day it is. (And, it is a big deal for them as they have to meticulously account for their time and workflow under the contract or face penalties.)
As of yesterday evening, I knew one person who had no idea if he should show up for work, having been told the firm was still trying to figure it out.
And if you had business to do with the government today (my wife is one), too bad! They're closed!
Court date? It can wait, I guess.
What if it were something really important, say a CDC "emergency meeting" you had called and upon which the lives and safety of the nation's children depended?
Too bad! What's another week?
Juneteenth!
Juneteenth as a federal holiday would normally have potential as a unifying event, marking a genuine national achievement in the eradication of slavery. It was a triumph of America and American ideals over a practice that had festered since before the country's founding, a growing anachronism from its days as a British colony. In some ways, it is symbolic of the nation throwing off the final tattered remnants of the yoke that the British empire had tethered to its colonies all those years ago.
But it won't be celebrated like that. Here's Vox:
Juneteenth is at least a start to acknowledging the harmful way America was built and the foundational contributions of the enslaved.
Everyone, save for a handful of actual white supremacists, is familiar with the legacy of slavery. I was taught it 50 years ago. They really want you to believe that they "don't teach slavery" in the schools.
Now, the meaning of Juneteenth is being seized more broadly by activists as an opportunity for the United States to come to terms with how slavery continues to affect the lives of all Americans today — it is something for everyone, of every race, to engage in.
This is how you turn an American triumph into something divisive, political, and partisan.
Stereotypes about Black people as being subhuman and lacking rationality are rooted in slavery.
Again, no one but subhuman racists believe that. Who do these people talk to? "Subhuman?" I think thou doth projecteth too much.
These harmful notions still rear themselves today as police officers disproportionately kill Black people...
That is simply fiction, and a dangerous fiction at that.
...and the health care system fails to adequately care for Black bodies.
Not exactly.
According to the Institute for Medicaid Innovation, socioeconomic and environmental factors account for 50% of overall health outcomes; 30% are tied to health behaviors. Quality healthcare services only make up 20% of health outcomes.
But why let any of that spoil a narrative useful for dividing the country?
Advocates argue that the national holiday obviously wouldn't put an end to racism but would rather help foster dialogue about the trauma that has resulted from the enslavement of 4 million people for more than 250 years.
This is what victimhood looks like. This is how you keep a people down and dependent on you. This is how the Democratic party and their progressive enablers retain power.
But what the hey, we can always use another mattress sale.
