Juneteenth Statement

It is crucial to commemorate the achievements of those who stood against the odds to fight for right when people were made to suffer at the hands of others, as examples for what we should all stand for in our time on this earth.

But it is equally important to remember the mistakes humanity has made in the past, so we learn not to repeat them.

For centuries, human beings subjected each other to slavery - a lifetime with virtually no rights if you were harmed, your choices and opportunities lifetime taken away from you, and your family often separated from you as well by the whims of others, with nothing you could do about it.

Slavery was in existence long after it needed to be for one simple reason: it brought people money, more than paid labor would have. All of the arguments and myths perpetuating beliefs that one race had less intellectual capabilities than another, were only kept alive for this simple fact. Greed truly is the cause of most evil, sufficient to lead millions to believe outrageous claims, and even turn a blind eye to the obvious suffering of their fellow human beings - or other living things - all around them.

The Persian Empire, an empire as large as the Roman Empire five centuries before it with engineering feats no less impressive, operated with almost no slaves; all laborers were free and paid. That proved that any civilization since could have operated without slaves if they wished to.)

It was through the heroism of those who risked all to fight against indescribable dangers for their survival and the survival of their loved ones, and others who are willing to stand up and face the majority who laughed at them in disbelief to fight for what was right, that this atrocity was finally ended in our nation on the day we are celebrating today.

But was it ended completely? No, it wasn’t. According to the United Nations, although illegal 50 million human beings are still living in slavery around the world today - 400,000 of them in the United States. 25 million of these are in forced labor by private owners such as debtors or companies, 15 million are in forced marriages, 5 million are captive sex slaves, and 4 million are in state forced labor. 71% these people are women; 25% are children.

Even among those who are not slaves, in the United States today, 60,000 Americans meet the United Nations definition of torture - many of them young African-Americans who only committed petty crimes. Only a few years ago, in the 21st century, one African-American youth - formerly stable and healthy - died after three months in solitary confinement drove him insane. His crime? He stole a backpack. Many other African-Americans today or not allowed to move out of the poor neighborhoods in which they live, because they are not given home loans to relocate if it is known that they come from an African-American neighborhood - while Caucasians for the same city are granted them. Hundreds of African-Americans, many times the number for Caucasians, die every year in our country under mysterious circumstances after arrests, such as one healthy mother who was found dead in a jail cell the morning after she was arrested on her way to a job interview. Her crime? Speeding.

As when many people claimed that slaves were ‘content’ with their lives two centuries ago to comfort themselves against having to fight the injustices occurring all around them - people only dismiss these facts when they don’t want to face the human suffering that remains to be solved, caused by the indifference or selfishness of their fellow humans. With the consequence that suffering is only left to persist unaddressed, when it could in many cases be solved so easily - if people only cared enough to do so.

As with many forms of suffering, these persist because most people don’t realize they are happening. Efforts need to continue to end slavery for good around the globe. And that begins with raising awareness of the problem.

This Juneteenth, be grateful for how far we have come since 1863. Learn from the example of those who persisted against adversity, and showed humanity that it needed to change for the sake of so many. But also, and most importantly, learned how to apply those lessons in our lives and world today - so that these others did not work in vain for a better future for our world and all of its people. Let their legacy last, and carry on.