Your reasoning is shoddy. 

Some people, in celebrating a symbolically important event, behaved in a criminal fashion.  From this you have concluded that the event itself is not worthy of commemoration.  This is a non-sequitor.  Your conclusion does not follow from your evidence or premises.  

All that you can demonstrate from this evidence is that some of the people at a Juneteenth celebration behaved in a criminal fashion.  Their actions say nothing whatsoever about the ethical, moral, spiritual, or civic appropriateness of celebrating emancipation.  There simply is no connection between the behaviour of the criminal elements in the crowd, on the one hand, and the symbolic importance of emancipation, on the other.

We can all agree that the people who murdered that man in the car are criminal.  That is not in dispute.  What you are alledging, however, is that emancipation itself should not be celebrated or remembered.  And for the reasons I have suggested, that represents a deep betrayal of the values of the Republican party.  Even if you can demonstrate that the vast majority of the people today who celebrate the holiday misunderstand what they are celebrating, or celebrate it in an inappropriate fashion, you will still not have demonstrated that the holiday is unworthy of celebration.  

A more nuanced argument would be to suggest that the people celebrating Juneteenth in Milwaukee have misunderstand their history, and have appropriated the holiday for political purposes that bear little relationship to the values represented by the original act of emancipation.

This would open up a discussion of contemporary politics (which is what I take you to be most interested in doing), in which you might or might not prevail.  (I might add that in as much as the event in Milwaukee does not pertain to Virginia history, it is, while interesting, inappropriate for this particular forum.)

This, however, s not the argument you have actually advanced.  And *that* argument is not only a bad argument, it is also a morally irresponsible one.  


 



---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 22:25:43 EDT
>From: [log in to unmask]  
>Subject: Re: Juneteenth  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>The victim was a passanger in the car, not the driver.  The Juneteenth  
>"celebrants" dragged him out of the car and beat him to death.  What a  celebration 
>of release from slavery.
> 
>J South
>
>
>
>************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com.
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University