All holidays are "contrived."  Some were just contrived a bit longer ago than others.

But to ask the degree to which a holiday is hallowed by age is to ask the wrong question.  The correct question to ask is "what values does the holiday represent."  If the values are decent and sound, then the pedigree of the holiday is irrelevant.

As I suggested in a different post, I believe it is entirely appropriate to honor the event of emancipation, because I find the values I affirm by so doing to be honorable, decent, and civic-ly useful.  Those values are, as I suggested in a longer post in this thread, completely consonant with the very best that Reagan style Republicanism has to offer.

Indeed, I will venture to go further.  If you reject the values that Juneteenth celebrates, you are also rejecting the honorable and decent values for which Ronald Reagan stood.  

Shame on you, Mr. South.  You should be embarassed by the irresponsibility of your positions.  Note please that I affirm completely your right to make a fool of yourself in this forum.  Indeed, as Thomas Jefferson said in his first inaugural address, we can safely afford to allow irrational and foolish people to speak, just so long as reasonable and informed people are free to rebut them.


---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 21:12:34 EDT
>From: [log in to unmask]  
>Subject: Re: Juneteenth  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>Just another PC contrived "holiday" or "celebration" along the lines of  
>Kwanzaa.
> 
>J South
>
>
>
>************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University