TWO FRIENDS WITH VERY DIFFERENT PERCEPTIONS OF JUNETEENTH

 

Keith Wine on the right with possibly a daughter or granddaughter

Honestly, I have very few close friends, a wide circle of acquaintances, but just a handful that really know me.  

Keith Wine and Daniel Lenz are two of the closest.

Daniel Lenz at a German beer garden recently

Daniel, who I've known for about 12 years, walked Ana down the aisle when we married and is a man with whom I've spoken countless hours on the phone about everything, someone who would do an absolute backflip to accommodate the rights of a person of any race, ethnicity or sexual preference.

Daniel is a worldwide bus expert, working in the industry over 40 years, helped establish Egypt's bus system back in the day, and is Chairman of the Museum of Bus Transportation and Board Member of The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania which is affiliated with the Smithsonian in Washington, DC.

Keith, who I've known for over 50 years, was the only person Ana and I stopped to see last year when we drove through Arkansas on our way back home to Brownsville, is a veritable encyclopedia of information about everything from civil rights to religion, cooking, union activities and the delta blues.

What brings these two extremely forthright and outspoken men from the midwest into the same article is Juneteenth.

Daniel really doesn't get the holiday, takes umbrage with his view that Whites seem to get all the blame for slavery, when, back in those days, the Choctaw Indians and many Blacks had slaves.

We could add that African Blacks sold their brothers into slavery, so, Daniel has some points.

Knowing Keith as I do, I will venture that he'd have much to add to this discussion, not just points, but life experience, but I will not presume to speak for him here.

I do know that Keith told our mutual employer every year that he would not be reporting for work June 19 and explained why.

Since Juneteenth didn't become a national holiday until 2021, that likely meant Keith took off at least 50 days without pay during his long career to honor that day.

On the subject of teaching the accurate history of slavery in the United States, a disgraceful period of over 400 years involving millions of African men and women, I'm in favor of every inch of that period being taught fully and accurately to hopefully guarantee that it will NEVER be repeated.

I also want it known and taught that, at the time of the 1860 federal census, the Choctaw Nation owned 2,298 slaves.

And, yes, the complete holocaust story must be taught as well for the same reasons.

Oh, by the way, Ron DeSantis, I'm not a big fan.