Yojsouth wrote:

> There are no slaves currently living, or have been for at least 70 years
or so.


True (although there are slaves in other parts of the world and some have
recently been held as de facto domestic slaves in the U.S., as recent
criminal convictions reveal), but all of us live with the legacy of slavery
and slaves every day.

For example, tonight the State of the Union address will be given in a
building largely built by slaves.  And if every building, road, bridge, and
railway bed in Virginia originally built by slaves were to disappear, the
state's tourist industry and much of its current infrastructure would be in
danger of collapse--and the landscapes so many of us cherish would be
unrecognizable.

Besides, commemoration is not the same as celebration.  I doubt that one
could have a meaningful celebration of Emancipation in Virginia without
including remembrance, sorrow, and gratitude for the lives of the "many
thousands gone" who lived, labored, and died before Emancipation came.

I think a holiday commemorating the end of slavery in Virginia is a terrific
idea, and an entirely suitable sequel to the General Assembly's official and
institutional apology for slavery (and that it's official and institutional
is the point: the apology isn't on behalf of individuals; it's on behalf of
the institution that did as much as any legislative body in the nation to
create and perpetuate the structures of American slavery).  

And if people think there are too many state holidays already, let's retire
Lee-Jackson Day and inaugurate Emancipation Day/Juneteenth instead.

Mr. Hargrove may have started a good thing after all.

--Jurretta Heckscher

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