Tag: juneteenth

As America Argues Over Juneteenth, Remember Slavery Didn’t End in 1865—It Was Reinvented For Everyone

On Wednesday, lawmakers voted 415-14 to pass legislation that would make Juneteenth a federally recognized holiday, meant to celebrate the end of chattel slavery in the country. The vote has stirred controversy because of the name of the holiday — Juneteenth National Independence Day. 

Critics say “independence day” was deliberately chosen to stoke divide by diminishing the actual day Americans declared independence from the crown. Those who opposed the bill said it would have been a unanimous vote had lawmakers simply named it  ‘Juneteenth National Emancipation Day.’

Indeed, calling it independence day is not fully accurate as emancipation is literally defined as “the freeing of someone from slavery” — which is what happened on that day.

While both sides continue to argue, however, they are missing the point entirely — slavery never really ended, it was merely redefined.

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“Giant Mistake” – CDC Delays Emergency Meeting On Post-Vax Heart Inflammation Due To Juneteenth

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has pushed back an emergency meeting on post-vaccination heart inflammation seen in Americans, primarily young people, because of a new federal holiday.

President Joe Biden signed a bill on Thursday making June 19 a new holiday, Juneteenth. Shortly afterwards, the CDC said its June 18 meeting “is being rescheduled due to the observation of the Juneteenth National Independence Day holiday.”

A federal office said Thursday that because June 19 falls on a Saturday this year, the observation will take place on Friday.

The meeting, which was deemed an emergency when announced last week, will now be folded into a June 23 to June 25 virtual meeting, the CDC said.

The agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

CDC officials planned to present to the agency’s vaccine advisory panel updated information on myocarditis and pericarditis in people who have received a COVID-19 vaccine.

A CDC official told members of the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee on June 10 that more than 800 reports of post-vaccination heart inflammation have been submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a passive reporting system run jointly by the administration and the CDC.

That included 475 among those 30 or younger, of which 226 have been verified as meeting the CDC’s working case definition.

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