Juneteenth Conversation

 Juneteenth!  Parades and celebrations across the country. Here in my small city my husband Burton and I went to a gathering at Monroe Park.  It was small.  Mason City is small.  But no matter.  What I will remember the most is the three of us, Burton, Reginald, an African American man, and I sitting on a park bench together in the shade and talking. We had not met before, but we talked about Juneteenth and our lives and, well, a wide range of topics and issues.  We listened and learned from one another.

Between Juneteenth and July 4, I can just imagine what it might mean for each person in this country to have such a meeting and conversation, with one other person we had not met before of a different race or ethnicity.  Can you just imagine, 300 million such one-on-one conversations?