Juneteenth | M. E. Murray

Dear Readers,

It is about time that Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday. Today, I celebrate Juneteenth with as much happiness as I can muster. I will explain why. My Readers know that I am a Mexican American who grew up in an impoverished neighborhood. I didn’t suffer as much as my colored friends did, but I was shunned in classrooms, retail stores. and often refused service in restaurants. I didn’t make a big issue out of not being served a meal, but after twenty minutes of waiting for a waitress to bring me and my sister a menu, we just got up and left.

Having been raised a Catholic, I went to church every Sunday to hear mass. Well, I didn’t know that in this town, the churches were divided. I happened to make a mistake and went to Sunday Mass in the “White” Church. I was surprised because the Catholics didn’t tell me to leave. However, I noticed some weird stares. When I mentioned the episode to my friends, they told me that the churches and the town were separated into dark and white areas, and that I wasn’t supposed to attend Mass in the section designated for whites.

I didn’t realize that I was part of a marginalized community until I went to college. Whenever I filled an application at college, I wrote “other” in the race area because I didn’t qualify for the designated slots. When I got married, my husband could not understand this business of separating folks according to color. Neither he nor I were prejudiced, but an incident in a restaurant in the Northwestern U. S. made him understand how I felt when I was offended throughout my life. For the first time in his life, he was refused service in a major restaurant chain because he was sitting at a table with me. After waiting 40 minutes, I convinced him that it was time to leave because I had observed that people who had entered the restaurant after we did were already eating. Needless to say, he was upset, but I calmed him down. I told him that I was used to being treated like this, that it wasn’t a big deal.

When I started this blog, I mentioned that I wasn’t too excited about celebrating Juneteenth. Why? The answer is simple. I miss my brother. He passed away August 2020. I miss him terribly. Juneteenth was his birthday, and the holiday reminds me that my brother is no longer around me. About all I can do is ask him to pray for me. I need his help to take care of my sister who has Alzheimer’s. I will end my blog by wishing him a Happy Birthday with my parents and my older brother. I’m sure they’re in Heaven.

Happy Birthday Dear brother!

Several atrocities occurred during the spring of 2020, so I chose to enrich my blog with a picture of a downy woodpecker in its nest. The picture was taken by my husband in our backyard during the spring season which will end June 20. Although many events occur in June, the most salient ones took place on June 19.

1.Juneteenth. Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19^th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863. The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance. (This information was obtained at https://www.juneteenth.com/history.htm.)

Here are other events that occurred on June 19:

2. My favorite cartoon character, Garfield, was born on June 19, 1978, the day the first Garfield strip was published. Here is a copy of my favorite strip:

3. International Box Day. If you have cats, this is the time to watch them jump in and out of a cardboard box, or hide in one.

4.National Martini Day. I don’t drink. But in case you do, June 19 is the perfect time to relax with a martini and forget the turmoil caused by the invisible enemy, COVID-19.

Have a nice day!