Senate Unanimously Approves a Bill to Make Juneteenth a Public Holiday

Given that most Americans only get a miserable two weeks of paid leave per year, personally if I was living there I'd take any public holiday I could get.

98cwitr said:

Great! I think we should all celebrate the end of slavery.

I just don't know why we have a major faction in America simultaneously pushing this through while trying to make us all publicly owned slaves (again)

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It's not just "one faction" "pushing this through"

Pretty much all reasonable people on both sides (and even some of the unreasonable ones) had large agreement on this one.

If you know the names John Cornyn and Sheila Jackson Lee...you know they couldn't be any further apart on almost every political policy.

They're backing this one together

Along with other Co-sponsors Diane Feinstein and Marco Rubio
And Cory Booker and Richard Burr

Cosponsors - S.475 - 117th Congress (2021-2022): Juneteenth National Independence Day Act


The fact that you have people, who agree on almost nothing, actually agreeing on this one...that should be a pretty solid indicator that it has some pretty universal support.

Which is how our government was originally designed to work...slow moving as a general rule, and things only happen quickly if there's a very high level of agreement.

Trogdor the Burninator said:

Given that most Americans only get a miserable two weeks of paid leave per year, personally if I was living there I'd take any public holiday I could get.

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What's the reasonable amount of paid leave? lol
(not to derail the topic too much)

The model a lot of companies follow is to start with two, and then that increases as you build up more tenure with an organization.

For instance, with my current job...
I started with 2
At my 5-year anniversary, I got bumped to 3 weeks
Then 4-weeks after my 10-year anniversary

Last year, after 15 years, I got the 5th week of paid leave (plus the 5 sick/PTO days) which is where my company caps it.

Arcangl86 said:

It's worth remembering that juneteenth is already a widely celebrated holiday among African Americans, so it makes more sense to just give it official status then try and invent a new day to ocelebrate the same thing.

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"Widely celebrated"? I never heard of it prior to a few years ago, and I grew up in military communities with substantial numbers of black people (including one family friend who was from Houston). Just like I've only known one black family in my whole life that celebrated Kwanzaa, and we were not close to them (they were in my boy scout troop).

The only place I first heard about this was on NPR-PBS, which is a source that has alot of distinct biases of its own (East Coast liberal establishment).

durangodawood said:

There's something appropriate in the bittersweet facts of Juneteenth that make it appropriate for commemorating the transition from legal slavery to something like the legal apartheid that held sway for another 100+ years.

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What would that be? Why would it be more appropriate than the actual day that freedom from slavery became a reality.

grasping the after wind said:

What would that be? Why would it be more appropriate than the actual day that freedom from slavery became a reality.

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First of all, there is no actual day that freedom from slavery became a reality. Juneteenth recognizes one of the days this occurred

Then there's the reason I noted in the post you quoted. I guess it depends on how much you prefer blind celebration over recognition of actual history. I can see the value of both, but right now I seem to respect the latter a bit more.

FireDragon76 said:

"Widely celebrated"? I never heard of it prior to a few years ago, and I grew up in military communities with substantial numbers of black people (including one family friend who was from Houston). Just like I've only known one black family in my whole life that celebrated Kwanzaa, and we were not close to them (they were in my boy scout troop).

The only place I first heard about this was on NPR-PBS, which is a source that has alot of distinct biases of its own (East Coast liberal establishment).

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Interesting. I know a lot of folk who celebrate it, which is what I was sort of basing my statement off of.

durangodawood said:

First of all, there is no actual day that freedom from slavery became a reality. Juneteenth recognizes one of the days this occurred

Then there's the reason I noted in the post you quoted. I guess it depends on how much you prefer blind celebration over recognition of actual history. I can see the value of both, but right now I seem to respect the latter a bit more.

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There was certainly a day in which freedom from slavery became the law of the land. Dec. 6th 1865. I prefer actual history to blindly celebrating a day that had no actual historic significance other than a few people in Texas hearing that Lincoln had proclaimed something he could not deliver on. The 13th Amendment is what did away with slavery in the US. We ought to celebrate it. Lincoln proclaimed freedom for people he had no actual power to free at the time, while maintaining that slavery would continue within the borders of the country where he was recognized as President and might have had some influence to help set them free. I don't see that a few people hearing of that impotent gesture is more worthy of celebration than the actual end of slavery in the US. Nonetheless, I certainly will celebrate freedom from slavery on June 15th since that is the date the Congress chose for the national holiday.

grasping the after wind said:

There was certainly a day in which freedom from slavery became the law of the land. Dec. 6th 1865. I prefer actual history to blindly celebrating a day that had no actual historic significance other than a few people in Texas hearing that Lincoln had proclaimed something he could not deliver on. The 13th Amendment is what did away with slavery in the US. We ought to celebrate it. Lincoln proclaimed freedom for people he had no actual power to free at the time, while maintaining that slavery would continue within the borders of the country where he was recognized as President and might have had some influence to help set them free. I don't see that a few people hearing of that impotent gesture is more worthy of celebration than the actual end of slavery in the US. Nonetheless, I certainly will celebrate freedom from slavery on June 15th since that is the date the Congress chose for the national holiday.

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I dont see a problem choosing a celebration day that formerly enslaved people themselves chose.

Otoh, I do like the recognizing the 13 amdmt because its a galling reminder to all of us, and especially to constitution worshippers, that the US Const has never been this perfect document so many idolize.

Biden to sign bill making Juneteenth a national holiday after 14 House Republicans vote no

Biden to sign bill making Juneteenth a national holiday after 14 House Republicans vote no

That is good to hear.

Trogdor the Burninator said:

Given that most Americans only get a miserable two weeks of paid leave per year, personally if I was living there I'd take any public holiday I could get.

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And that's assuming we even use the vacations days we get

Trogdor the Burninator said:

Given that most Americans only get a miserable two weeks of paid leave per year, personally if I was living there I'd take any public holiday I could get.

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Point of order: companies are not legally obligated to recognize, give time off for nor offer extra compensation on federally recognized holidays if they are not contracting with the federal government in some way.

I have had zero, count them zero, paid vacation, sick or personal days since I started working construction in 2009. Most of the years from then to now I have worked for companies with billions, plural with a B billions, in market valuation and thousands to tens of thousands of employees on pay roll. I am, on paper, a normal W-2 (American tax form denoting an hourly/salary employee) who gets treated like and must conduct myself as an independent contactor in most ways.

I must temper the above bit of whingeing some as I make very good money and can afford to take time off between projects but some paid sick days at least would be nice.

I'm not really against this but I'm afraid it is nothing more than woke subpolitics in place of solving real problems, like the number of Americans with little or no access to healthcare. Perceived dignity doesn't put food on the table or pay for healthcare bills.

durangodawood said:

I dont see a problem choosing a celebration day that formerly enslaved people themselves chose.

Otoh, I do like the recognizing the 13 amdmt because its a galling reminder to all of us, and especially to constitution worshippers, that the US Const has never been this perfect document so many idolize.

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There are no formerly enslaved people currently living to choose a day.

The 13th amendment is a great reminder that the Constitution was written by people that were well aware that there is no such thing as perfection so they set up a system to improve the document whenever society was ready to make improvements in it. If you dislike the Constitution that is your prerogative but don't try to paint those of us that do like it as mindless cultists who are only idolizing a piece of paper because that is simply wildly inaccurate, childish and inappropriate name calling. The idea behind the Constitution is to have a formal document that sets out the limits of government power in order to curb government excess. I and others of like mind happen to be in favor of that idea. Not because we are mindless stooges who think something is perfect but because it is a good idea. It is a good idea because there is no such think as perfect in this world and given a chance government will tend to become increasingly oppressive over time. Limiting government even through the imperfect means the Constitution provides is the best those that fashioned it could imperfectly accomplish to slow down what they understood would be the inevitable progression toward oppressive tyranny.

Trogdor the Burninator said:

Given that most Americans only get a miserable two weeks of paid leave per year, personally if I was living there I'd take any public holiday I could get.

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Where did you get the idea Americans only get two ( miserable ? how do you purport to know whether those two weeks you mentioned were miserable for those people that only get two weeks off? ) weeks of paid leave a year? That is inaccurate, You have been misinformed. Though one would not know it by viewing media , Americans tend to value working and many do not always take their allotted vacations ( many take extra remuneration of some kind in place of vacation time ) so the average paid vacation days off actually taken in the US is about 16 days - a little over 3 weeks. added to that in many cases are paid personal time , paid parental leave, paid holidays and there is no comparison to your miserable two weeks. There is also no universal standard other than the competitive needs of employers. Depending upon what sector of the economy one is employed in or how long one has been employed one might well have many more than 6 weeks of paid time off or less than two. Below is a breakdown of sorts. As a self employed person I sometimes take one and a half weeks off a year and they are certainly anything but miserable. Last year of course I did not bother taking time off as Covid restrictions would have made taking time off more miserable by far than working.

grasping the after wind said:

There are no formerly enslaved people currently living to choose a day.

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Im talking about a day with history that goes right back to celebrations in TX right after emancipation there.

The 13th amendment is a great reminder that the Constitution was written by people that were well aware that there is no such thing as perfection so they set up a system to improve the document whenever society was ready to make improvements in it. If you dislike the Constitution that is your prerogative but don't try to paint those of us that do like it as mindless cultists who are only idolizing a piece of paper because that is simply wildly inaccurate, childish and inappropriate name calling. The idea behind the Constitution is to have a formal document that sets out the limits of government power in order to curb government excess. I and others of like mind happen to be in favor of that idea. Not because we are mindless stooges who think something is perfect but because it is a good idea. It is a good idea because there is no such think as perfect in this world and given a chance government will tend to become increasingly oppressive over time. Limiting government even through the imperfect means the Constitution provides is the best those that fashioned it could imperfectly accomplish to slow down what they understood would be the inevitable progression toward oppressive tyranny.

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I appreciate the US Constitution a lot, and it was quite a revolutionary document in its day. So I'm not chiding those who generally respect it. I'm more concerned that we've moved toward treating it as divinely revealed text.... a testament of demigods. But obviously it was massively flawed from the get go, and we need to take the notion of amendments seriously as they did in its early days.