Happy Juneteenth!

Fellow Americans visiting Abe Lincoln on
June 19, 2023 at 8:19 AM
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Today I went on a pilgrimage to the Lincoln memorial as a Juneteenth observance. Yes I know Lincoln had issues and faults in his opinions of Black people, but even Frederick Douglass, a sometimes fierce critic of Lincoln, appreciated Lincoln - and Lincoln appreciated Douglass - as recounted in Douglass' recollection of the reception at the White House after the second inaugural:

I said, ‘Mr. Lincoln, I must not detain you with my poor opinion, when there are thousands waiting to shake hands with you.’ ‘No, no,’ he said, ‘you must stop a little, Douglass; there is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you think of it?’ I replied, ‘Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort.’

When they get around to making a Juneteenth monument, I will visit that instead.

The second inaugural is carved into the north wall of the Monument. I got a photo of that too.

I think this may be the first time I've visited Washington DC without being part of a protest.

I'm currently reading a book that analyzes the second inaugural called 

Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural by Ronald C. White that I am enjoying very much.

My Juneteenth celebration this year was more mellow than last year's, when I observed Juneteenth by offering a plan to charge patriots a fee to blast Stone Mountain with Civil War era cannons.