If you rearrange the letters is DEPRESSION
you will get "I PRESSED ON."
I'm not in the phone book anymore. We lived in New Haven, Ct. for nine years where the phone book was invented, along with the frisbee and other things. Everywhere we traveled traveled we checked out the phone book. It's size signaled the size of the city of town. But now, with the proliferation of smart phones, those of us without a landline are no longer in the phone book. Ours is now nearly a sliver and mostly adds.
The Emancipation Proclamation was issued by President Abraham Lincoln and became official on January 1, 1863, declaring the more than three million enslaved people of Confederate states free. Yet it would take two and a half years for the order to reach Texas, where the announcement was read by Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger in Galveston on June 19, 1865.
"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer."
It’s said that the newly freed peoples “immediately began to celebrate with prayer, feasting, song, and dance.”
Why the two-year delay between when Lincoln issued the order and the news reaching Texas? There are a number of ideas: One says that a messenger was killed on his way to deliver the news; another says that the news was withheld to maintain the enslaved labor force that Texas plantations were reliant upon; and another idea surmises that the news was delayed purposely, to allow a final harvest to take place. But no matter the reason, slavery remained in Texas until the day now recognized and celebrated as Juneteenth.
Juneteenth festivities followed each year and were special gatherings, where Black communities shared meals together, donned new clothing (representing new freedoms), and sang and prayed. For years, these celebrations were highly attended, until economic factors, cultural reasons, and racism reduced education about and knowledge of the holiday. The holiday would begin to see a resurgence with the civil rights movement of the sixties, when student demonstrators wore Juneteenth buttons.
Black Texas legislator Al Edwards’s efforts prevailed in 1980, and Juneteenth was declared a state holiday, the first official state recognition of the day. Almost every state in the union officially recognized the holiday by 2021. Hawaii passed legislation recognizing the date in 2021, leaving South Dakota as the only state in the Union that did not declared Juneteenth a holiday before a Congressional bill was signed by President Joe Biden on June 17, 2021. The executive action made Juneteenth an annual federal holiday on June 19.
Ten years ago, June 17, 2015 black saints gathered for prayer and study at Mother Emanuel AME Church.
My Daddy died 75 years ago when I was still a child. I miss taking walks with my father. I don't know what we would have talked about should we have taken long walks at dawn. We live at different times in different worlds having different conversations. I don't so much miss him, as miss never having had him to talk together on early morning walks at dawn. Would we know each other now? Would we walk together? I have no idea. Yes, yes, I think so. I think we would have walked, perhaps silently together some early days at dawn.
Hundreds of people--too many to count--gathered in Central Park in Mason City, Iowa, for "No Kings" Day. After listening to speeches protesting Trump's authoritarian rule, the group marched to the highway so that people could see and hear them. Passing cars honked in approval. Today there were more than 30 "No Kings" protests in towns and cities across Iowa.
Many troublesome things are going on. However, in the midst of these issues we also must not forget the cuts to USAID. People around the world are dying and will die because of these cuts! Continue to contact the Congress to work to restore this vital work. Call 202-224-3121 and ask to speak to any U.S. Representative or Senator. Help save lives
This is what it's like to have U.S. military troops aimed at you! This was Burton's experience in 1967 in Detroit. However, then there were no deportations, no ICE raids. Today we live in a very dangerous time.
D-Day 2025, commemorating the 81st anniversary of the Normandy Landings, will be observed on June 6th, 2025. This date marks the start of the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944, a pivotal moment in World War II.
June 5th is the 65th anniversary of my consecration as a Lutheran deaconess. I am thankful for all of the people among whom I've been privileged to minister. I thank God for you! These pictures are from the time of my consecration until now. And one is of me two years ago with the statue of "Phoebe" which has stood outside Deaconess Hall and now the Lutheran Diaconal Center all these years.