06/20/2022
Our office is closed today in humble observance of Juneteenth. Please take some time to reflect on what freedom means, because none of us is free, until we are all free. If you’re not sure how to support the Black community, buy from Black owned businesses and brands, educate your children about the wonderful achievements of Black people, do not shy away from the wretched history of slavery and it’s continuation today through unequal pay, lack of equal opportunities in business, lending and homeownership and the mass, disproportionate incarceration of Black individuals today. In the cannabis industry we can support Black owned brands and find ways to elevate Black voices. Below are comments from Hon. Marqueece Harris-Dawson, reflecting on the meaning of and the continued plight of Black people in many parts of our country, particularly in Texas, as we take pause and reflect today:
Juneteenth and the fall of slavery is a reminder of what we can accomplish when we struggle. When we don't accept the status quo. When we don't accept things that are obviously wrong and seem like they will never change.
You can imagine generations of folks lived in slavery with the idea that one day we will overcome this. Juneteenth is a marker for that.
I am struck by the irony of where we are today. Just today, as we are discussing Juneteenth, a man stood twenty feet from me holding the battle-flag of the confederate army. The most deadly struggle in the history of the United States. We have not had a war where more people died than in the Civil War.
I'm reminded of the history of Juneteenth. The sanitized version says it took the army some time to get to Texas to let people know they are free. In fact, the actual history is that the White House sent not one but two emissaries to the state to give them the documentation. Those people were killed before they got there. That's why the Federal Government had to send 2,000 soldiers to notify Texans. And then you open up the paper, and you see some of the things happening in Texas today.
