News report: Biden signs bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday. It commemorates the day in 1865 when Black slaves in Galveston, Texas learned they had been freed. They were freed legally 2½ years earlier by the Emancipation Proclamation. And they were freed practically on April 9 when Lee surrendered at Appomattox.
But wait. Who told the slaves they were free? The Congressional Black Caucus? No, Union officers under the command of General Grant.
And who issued the Emancipation Proclamation? Maxine Waters? No, Abraham Lincoln.
And to whom did Robert E. Lee surrender? BLM led by Patrisse Cullors? No, the Union Army led by General Ulysses S. Grant.
And who was ultimately responsible for the freeing of Black slaves? Antifa? No, the Union soldiers who died to win the Civil War, including about 330,000 White men and boys.
So why did the same people who pushed the recognition of a Juneteenth holiday condone pulling down the statues of Lincoln and Grant, the very men who made Juneteenth possible? That question I cannot answer. Ingratitude is something I cannot fathom.
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