Juneteenth

I'm not going to sit here and tell you I've celebrated Juneteenth as man and boy. I didn't even really hear about it until college. And it was only because I went to summer school (to avoid going home for the summers) that I was able celebrate it with some guys from Texas, really more as an excuse to put something on the grill than anything else. That it isn't taught in the mainstream curriculum at any level is almost a crime. Or more precisely, typical of the current state of affairs.

And although we would be sold out to end the emancipation of Reconstruction after the Civil War,  and would endure the brutality of Jim Crow, the clear disparities of the hypocritical policy of  "separate but equal" and finally just raw discrimination, this day means something.

So, we can start with a federal holiday. But that is just a start. Understand.

Barkeep. A glass of that Uncle Nearest. Neat. And a fine cigar.