Obama Sponsors Campaign to Make Juneteenth Day a National Holiday, Uniting the Country?

obamawtf blog ^ | 4/18/08 | OxyMoran

[freespirited]

 

Senator Obama is one of key leaders in a campaign to make Juneteeth Day a National Holiday in the United States. Juneteeth Day occurs on every June 19th, the anniversary of General Granger announcing the emancipation of slaves in the South West. The Holiday would be celebrated on the third Friday in June. Here's what the NYT wrote about it on 2004:

"Most gatherings are decidedly upbeat, but the sobering reason for the holiday has also been part of Juneteenth's growth. Dr. Ronald Myers, the leader of a movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday, says June 19 should be an annual remembrance of the horrors of slavery"

"We never got our apology, so we need this holiday to remind us that we must not forget," said Dr. Myers, who spoke yesterday at a Juneteenth event at the Capitol led by Representative Danny K. Davis, Democrat of Illinois." New York Times, 6/19/04

According to the latest press release below from the organization leading the campaign, a victory for Obama will likely lead to the introduction of this holiday. Another example of the kind of "uniting" we can expect from the Senator who appears to be becoming a lightning rod for creating racial disharmony in the USA. Obama will be the keynote speaker at the campaigns annual convention this June 19 in DC. No mention of the economic cost of declaring the day a National Holiday anywhere in the campaign literature.

9th Annual WASHINGTON JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance
Returns to the Nation's Capitol

Congress Urges President Bush to Issue a Presidential Proclamation
Recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day in America


(Washington, DC) - As Senator Barack Obama makes great strides in becoming the nation's next president, Juneteenth supporters are hopeful that the "19th of June" will finally be established as a national holiday observance in America. Senator Barack Obama has been a key sponsor of Juneteenth legislation in the senate and keynote speaker at the annual Juneteenth Congressional Reception. This year, the 2008 WASHINGTON JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance will feature "Juneteenth, A Grassroots Celebration of American Values, A Music Festival with zydeco, gospel, jazz and blues!"

President George W. Bush has been urged by Congress to recognize Juneteenth Independence Day by issuing a special Presidential Proclamation. President Bush, who has declined participation in the annual WASHINGTON JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance since taking office in 2000, has perplexed national Juneteenth leaders by the lack of personal public acknowledgement and comment on Juneteenth, considered America's second Independence Day.

"President Bush is the former Governor of Texas, where Juneteenth has been observed as a paid state holiday since 1980," states Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., Chairman of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF), host of the annual WASHINGTON JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance at the nation's capitol. "With the urging of Congress through the unanimous passage of H. Con. Res. 231 by the House of Representatives and the unanimous passage of S. Res. 516 by the U.S. Senate, we are hopeful that President Bush will finally issue a Juneteenth Independence Day Proclamation. If not, we are confident that if Senator Barack Obama becomes president, he will certainly make Juneteenth a national holiday observance in America. We are also truly appreciative of the leadership Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) has provided Juneteenth supporters through legislative efforts in Congress."

Juneteenth, or the "19th of June", recognizes June 19, 1865, in Galveston, TX, when Union General Gordon Granger announced freedom for all slaves in the Southwest. This was the last major vestige of slavery in the United States following the end of the Civil War. This occurred more than two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln. Upon the reading of General Order #3 by General Granger, the former slaves celebrated jubilantly, establishing America's second Independence Day Celebration and the oldest African-American holiday observance.

Its unclear why Senator Obama believes that celebrating this Holiday will help unite the ENTIRE country as he has repeatedly promised to do throughout the campaign. Far more likely that it will be seen as payback to one demographic at the expense of another. Opponents will doubtless be demonized as racists in the same way that Senator McCain is still being for expressing opposition to instituting the MLK Holiday back in in 1983. Hardly a recipe for uniting the country.

[freespirited]

Newsflash: the RAT candidate has embraced another idea that will cost the government a huge amount of money and accomplish nothing.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Yippppeee!

I get another Fed Holiday!

[Loud Mime]

If Maxine Waters’ threat to nationalize the oil companies becomes fact, this will be funded with our gasoline purchases! Brilliant!

/sarc

[2ndDivisionVet]

I smell slavery reparations, once Senator Barack Hussein Muhammad Obama (PBUH) is elected president.

[weegee]

It’s already a state holiday.

Why not make PATRIOT DAY (a Massachusetts holiday) a national holiday INSTEAD? Damned race baiting bigot, that Obama is. And yes I doubt his patriotism.

[BenLurkin]

We already have a Holiday which unites all Americans.

It's called Columbus Day.

[weegee]

Pssshhaaaw.

Slavery reparations cannot be paid to those who were directly harmed by slavery, and cannot be paid by those who never owned slaves themselves, AND such payment would be a one time deal.

You’ll be made to pay a sin tax for the “White Privilege” you benefit from “every day”.

Whitey will pay. Haven’t you seen the t-shirt?

[cyberella]

QUOTES FROM HARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S BOOKS:

From Dreams of My Father, “ I FOUND A SOLACE IN NURSING A PERVASIVE SENSE OF GRIEVANCE AND ANIMOSITY AGAINST MY MOTHER’S RACE”.

From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “THE EMOTION BETWEEN THE RACES COULD NEVER BE PURE...THE OTHER RACE WOULD ALWAYS REMAIN JUST THAT; MENACING, ALIEN AND APART.”

From ‘Dreams of My Father’,
“I CEASED TO ADVERTISE MY MOTHER’S RACE AT THE AGE OF 12 OR 13, WHEN I BEGAN TO SUSPECT THAT BY DOING SO I WAS INGRATIATING MYSELF TO WHITES.”

From Dreams Of My Father, “NEVER EMULATE THE WHITE MEN and brown men whose fates didn’t speak to my own. IT WAS INTO MY FATHER’S IMAGE, THE BLACK MAN, SON OF AFRICA, THAT I’D PACKED ALL THE ATTRIBUTES I SOUGHT IN MYSELF”.

From Dreams Of My Father:
“THAT HATE HADN’T GONE AWAY,” he wrote, BLAMING “WHITE PEOPLE— some cruel, some IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives.”

From Dreams Of My Father;
“There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs,” he wrote. “IT REMAINED NECESSARY TO PROVE WHICH SIDE YOU WERE ON, TO SHOW YOUR LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT, AND NAME NAMES. “

From Dreams Of My Father, “I HAD GROWN ACCUSTOMED , everywhere, TO SUSPICIONS BETWEEN THE RACES.”

Quote from Barack Obama’s book, Dreams Of My Father:
“THE PERSON WHO MADE ME PROUDEST OF ALL, though, was [HALF BROTHER ] ROY .. HE CONVERTED TO ISLAM” .

From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “IN INDONESIA, I HAD SPENT TWO YEARS AT A MUSLIM SCHOOL.”
“I STUDIED THE KORAN.”

From ‘Audacity of Hope: “LOLO (Obama’s step father) FOLLOWED .. ISLAM...” “I LOOKED TO LOLO FOR GUIDANCE”.

From ‘The Audacity Of Hope, “I WILL STAND WITH THE MUSLIMS SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION.”

From The Audacity Of Hope, “WE ARE NO LONGER just A CHRISTIAN NATION..We ARE also a Jewish nation, A MUSLIM NATION, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”

.

.Check out this awesome video:
.
The same kind of terrorists who support Obama did this:
http://www.frugalsites.net/911/attack/
Never apologize for them.
Never appease them.
Never forget.

.

.

[Mr_Moonlight]

"We never got our apology, so we need this holiday to remind us that we must not forget,"

OK OK OK, I'll bite .... "I'm sorry that your ancestors were treated so badly so many years ago and that it is only now that one of your 'brothers' is in a viable position to claim the throne of most powerful person in the world"

NOW, can we please drill in ANWAR ???

Thank You,
MM

[weegee]

Memorial Day pays tribute to the veterans of America’s wars. Including the Civil War which saw the end of slavery.

But some don’t want to be grateful for the actions of another man. They’d rather manifest hatred and contempt and cling to it.

[weegee]

Obama is a white hatin’ bigot. His “mother’s race” is his own. He is screwed in the head and should seek counseling for his parental issues.

[Kakaze]

9th Annual WASHINGTON JUNETEENTH National Holiday Observance

Ninth, Ninth........this Major Holiday is so important it was invented just nine years ago/

More symbolism over substance

Obama is tiresome.

[Jet Jaguar]

obama would have to pay reparations. His white moms’ family was slave owning.

[Perseverando]

Juneteenth Day, brought to you by Conservative Republicans, - Getting people off the Democrat plantation for 145+ years.

[goodnesswins]

Wait...WAIT.....pretty soon you’ll get KWANZAA off too!

[LibFreeOrDie]

Heck, why not just take all of Black History Month off!

[Mr_Moonlight]

Now there is a slogan we can count on! /grin

For myself and my family (ancestors)? Our family surname is one which was prominent in the operation of the "Underground Railroad" circa 1850's onwards ... we have no 'guilt' about it in any way shape or manner ... heck, we're damn proud of that distinction too, no matter what the current naysayers may quip.

[swmobuffalo]

I’d support this in favor of dropping MLK day and Kwanzaa!

[Jet Jaguar]

Good point.

[Jet Jaguar]

Good point.

[celtic gal]

Oh for crap sakes...they already have black history month. What other group has a WHOLE MONTH to celebrate their history?

[celtic gal]

Now that you mention this...didn’t Michelle Obama say somewhere that in her genetic background there were those who were slaves and those who owned slaves? Which meand she also must be tainted with a drop or two of whitey blood so she too would have to pay up.....

[midnightson]

I’m in Bush Alaska- we don’t have Columbus Day- we have Chief’s day instead- usually the 2nd Friday in Dec.
A day off is a day off!

[svcw]

I will go along with it as long as it applies only to slaves.
So I propose every slave living in the USA be free on June 19 to do what they want.

[Jet Jaguar]

Kill Whitey!

Honestly, I do not know.

But, I am going to start a trend.

Anytime anything happens, it is Obamas fault.

[TornadoAlley3]

[weegee]

The gays. They have a Pride Month too.

[weegee]

Obama wouldn’t receive any reparations, his half arab/half African dad wasn’t born or enslaved in AmeriKKKa.

Barry HAS already tried to claim his children as the “descendents of slaves” (through his wife’s side of the family tree).

[txflake]

Wait’ll you get Ramadan off! A whole month!

[DugwayDuke]

John Conyers has already stated that reparations will move to the front burner should Obama be elected.

[lonestar]

His white moms’ family was slave owning.

And his relatives are still in Africa and were never slaves.

I wonder if his relatives sold Africans to white men.

[garyhope]

“Heck, why not just take all of Black History Month off!”

Well, actually, many of “the brothers” already do. In fact many of them take the whole year off.

Not to mention the decade.

[goodnesswins]

His relatives may have sold African’s to other African’s....

[celtic gal]

Silly me..I forgot about that...

[celtic gal]

I read that in an article which I printed out and is in my “ stack of stuff” now if I could just find it to ref..where is Snerdly when I need him!

[lonestar]

That’s what I am wondering.

[txflake]

Maybe you could search the Obama Truth Files. I seem to remember this, too.

[Selmore]

good point.
his relatives were muslims.
muslims were the slave traders.

on another note....

didn’t we promise them 40 acres and a mule? I know that doesn’t sound like much, but it was more than we promised the Natives.

[Katarina]

ROTFLMAO

I LOVE your comment!

[Forward the Light Brigade]

Juneteeth is a real holiday—in Texas and reflects a real event rather than some made up Kawanza thing. Does that mean we can get rid on MLK Day now? How about a Holiday for Native Americans? Talk about a people who really suffered. Why not Victory Day—June 25th the day Native Americans beat Custer at Little Big Horn?

[peeps36]

Berry Hussien Obama will definitely fight to force non slave owning white people to pay reparation to black people who were never slaves. I guess Berry's white half could pay is non slave black half. If they ever pass this ridiculous plan I hope that all white people boycott the government and refuse to pay taxes.

[Bommer]

Juneteeth is a real holiday—in Texas and reflects a real event rather than some made up Kawanza thing

Maybe in Galveston there is a parade, but no one here that I know celebrates it! Sorry it has all the significance of Kawanza. But I say make it a Holiday. Call it "In Lew Of Slavery Reperations Day." Give all blacks the day off and tell them that since over the years the holiday will be enacted, it will have cost employers tons of money that would have been otherwise wasted in the hands of people who had nothing to do with slavery.

[Juneteenth]

The National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign efforts are for a National Holiday Observance, not a paid federal holiday, (for example: Flag Day). It amazes me that anyone can come up with the conclusion that we are asking for a paid federal holiday from any of our campaign web sites or materials. It appears that attacks on Sen. Obama concerning Juneteenth have no merit and are based upon deliberate distortions of the truth.

In 1997, during the 105th congress, it was former Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott (R-MS) and former Congressman J.C. Watts (R-OK) that sponsored and passed legislation with both houses in congress unanimously recognizing Juneteenth Independence Day in America. Similar legislation continues to be unanimously passed every year in congress.

Juneteenth is America's 2nd Independence Day celebration. 29 states recognize Juneteenth as a state holiday or state holiday observance, as well as the congress of the United States.

Together we will see Juneteenth become a national holiday in America!

“DOC”
Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
Chairman
National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC)
www.Juneteenth.us
www.19thofJune.com
www.njclc.com
www.JuneteenthJazz.com

[Juneteenth]

We are not asking for a paid federal holiday but a National Holiay Observance to recognize Juneteenth. There will be no coast to tax-payers. So, your comment concerning Congresswoman Maxine Waters has no merit.

Together we will see Juneteenth become a national holiday in America!

“DOC”
Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D.
Chairman
National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign
National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF)
National Juneteenth Christian Leadership Council (NJCLC)
www.Juneteenth.us
www.19thofJune.com
www.njclc.com
www.JuneteenthJazz.com

[metesky]

Why not make PATRIOT DAY (a Massachusetts holiday) a national holiday

And Maine. Maine was part of Massachsetts then (a colony of a colony), so all the bureaucratic deadbeats in Maine get a day off too.

[metesky]

You got you apology by way of 400,000 Union dead, sir. For any reparations for events after 1865 look to the Democrat Party and their Jim Crow laws.

It has always astounded me that the Democrats turned the tables on the Republicans on this issue and somehow became the party that most AhyphenAs associate with equality when the exact opposite is true.

[metesky]

Hey folks, be proud! It looks like the DNC and the Obama campaign are wqatching us closely.

[metesky]

Fat fingers strike again...

[freespirited]

LOL. We probably generated more traffic to their site than they have seen in months so da boss came by to see what provoked it.

What really cracked me up was the thought that we’d change our minds about this because a couple of members of the Stupid Party got behind this idea. Trent Lott, now that’s a name that carries a lot of weight around here! JC is more respected, but that doesn’t mean we always agree.

[weegee]

Looks like a post and run troll

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:juneteenth/index?tab=comments;brevity=full;options=no-change