Like a mantra, we read and republish this piece each 9/11. It’s been years since it was first written. Though the children are older, adults now who have no memory of this day, the sentiment remains the same…
Photo Credit: Colin Hopkins, who was three weeks on the job as an iron worker when the towers fell, and then got to witness the new spire rise to the sky…
Continue reading
The 4th of July honors the US Declaration of Independence. Its most well-known passage is the foundation upon which the colonists’ grievances were justified and a bold declaration of human rights…
Continue reading
June 19th marks the sixth nationally-recognized Juneteenth. It commemorates that day in 1865, 2-1/2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation and over a month after the last battle of that hard, bloody war, when the last Black American slaves in Galveston, TX were finally set free. For many, the holiday celebrates our Nation’s ability to confront its immoralities and more fully realize its founding principles. For others, it’s much more personal.
The National Museum of African American History & Culture offers a rich history of the celebration. Juneteenth has been celebrated in black communities since 1866, starting as church gatherings. Prior, beginning in 1863, there were “Watch Night Services” praying for the day to come. Modern celebrations include street fairs, parades, concerts, and, yes, still lots of prayer. In 2021, Juneteenth was finally recognized as a federal holiday.
Another good way to honor this day is to study history, and to reflect on how, while Juneteenth itself recalls a moment of triumph worthy of celebration, humans remain human. We still struggle to see, learn from and honor each other. The pursuit of “a more perfect union” remains an ongoing project that requires ongoing care.
We think it’s also important to note that, even in the darkest of times, all sorts of folks have given it their best to overcome all sorts of stuff in order to make things better for everyone. This happens more than we might realize, and often in places we might not expect. None of us can heal things alone. We all have a lot to learn. May we gratefully reinforce all who give it their best to advance civil rights and otherwise endeavor to more fully realize the acknowledgment and admonishment entailed by our nation’s Declaration of Independence that, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
We are also grateful for folks who have long worked to capture and uplift stories focused on the unique history of local Black Americans. In the Town of Huntington, for example, these range from more prominent folks like the first Black American Published Poet, Jupiter Hammon and renowned author and orator Booker T. Washington, to Greenlawn’s famously entrepreneurial “Pickle King,” Samuel Ballton, to artifacts of sometimes unclear origin that share stories of life as a Black American throughout our local history. Here’s a fascinating lecture on slavery in Huntington offered here by Town Historian Robert C. Hughes, and a CBS report on an archaeological dig at the Peter Crippen House.
All testify to the determination of the human spirit to preserve culture and rise above, despite great challenges that continued well after Juneteenth and into today.
Here are a few upcoming events that endeavor to do the same:
The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation will hold its second annual Juneteenth Jubilee. The event will feature cultural entertainment, cultural food, information booths, interactive activities, children’s games, children’s inflatables, and more!
The Long Island Nets will be hosting a FREE special basketball clinic for children ages 7 to 14 on the newly upgraded basketball courts. Registration is still open. There will also be a special welcome address from Assemblywoman Michaelle C. Solages highlighting the importance of the Juneteenth Holiday and what it means to celebrate Black freedom. This year’s program is sponsored by NY Life and Sunrun.
Long Island Author Cheryl Williams is again collaborating with the Walt Whitman Birthplace Museum to Celebrate Juneteenth.
The event is free and open to the public. Come be inspired by poetry and spoken word centered on the story of Liss and enjoy beautiful saxophone renditions from Carl Bartlett as they “Celebrate History, Honor Freedom. Embrace Culture.” Enjoy a merch stand, a food truck and delicious complimentary cupcakes.
Join the Episcopal Diocese of LI in a celebration of scholarship and justice at this Juneteenth Jubilee. There, the Rt. Rev. Lawrence C. Provenzano will present scholarships to those selected for the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island’s Barbara C. Harris Scholars Program. These $5,000 awards are presented to carefully selected college and vocational/technical students who are the descendants of enslaved people and who have exhibited exceptional academic excellence and dedicated themselves to creating a more just world through to their communities.
The Diocese invites you to join us for this celebration of scholarship and justice:
In an endeavor to bring together culture, community and small business, the Black Legacy Partners and NAACP Hempstead Branch present “Long Island’s Largest Juneteenth Cultural Festival.” This will include a Father’s Day Weekend Marketplace showcasing “black-owned brands, gifts and experiences for dads.”
The third Monday in January is reserved to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It is the only federal holiday formally recognized as a national day of service, “a day on, not a day off.”
Continue readingLike a mantra, we read and republish this piece each 9/11. It’s been years since it was first written. Though the children are older, adults now who have no memory of this day, the sentiment remains the same…
Photo Credit: Colin Hopkins, who was three weeks on the job as an iron worker when the towers fell, and then got to witness the new spire rise to the sky…
Continue readingLike a mantra, we read and republish this piece each 9/11. It’s been years since it was first written. Though the children are older, adults now who have no memory of this day, the sentiment remains the same…
Photo Credit: Colin Hopkins, who was three weeks on the job as an iron worker when the towers fell, and then got to witness the new spire rise to the sky…
Continue reading
Come to amazing events celebrating beautiful community.
Continue readingThe third Monday in January is reserved to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. whose 95th birthday would be this year. It is the only federal holiday formally recognized as a national day of service, “a day on, not a day off.” In the spirit of listening and thinking first, people are warmly encouraged to study the works of King, and to devote time to serious reflection on how we will endeavor toward a healthier, more just world for all. Here are a few resources.
Continue readingWe Will Never Forget… Photo of the WTC memorial lights by Colin Hopkins, Local 580 Iron Workers. Colin was on week three of work when the towers fell, a day when these folks and many others who never expected to be such, came to serve as first responders and who continued working at the site for weeks after the attack. Later, Colin was also among those present at work who got to witness the Freedom Spire rise…
We Will Never Forget…
It’s been years since this was first written. The children are older…there are adults now who have no memory of this day, while those of us who lived through it will never forget. The sentiment remains the same…
Over the last two and half decades, we have learned a new rhythm….The end of summer comes, there is a flurry of activity about getting kids prepared for and off to school, and then, the moment all settles down the weight of solemn remembrance overshadows everything but the realization of how lucky we are to have that terrible event cast such a pall over our beings only once a year. Our hearts go out to so many others who lost so much…who experienced so much…who have since endured so much…
We remember the first puzzled and then stunned and horrified voices of the professionals whose job it is to tell us the bad news every day. We recall the images that replayed, the bells that rang, the world that all but stopped.
We remember the selfless bravery of firemen who went in where anyone in their “right mind” would be running out.
We remember the horrific loss of 2,977 innocent lives, including 343 of those firemen, 60 police officers and 8 EMTS. We remember the probability that anyone we encountered may have just lost someone dear. We remember how some of those who perished did so heroically apprehending hijackers and crashing their own plane.
Our hearts twist in the simultaneous gratitude for the miracle of how, despite intense confusion, so many lived to tell their tale or simply were not there.
We remember the people walking over the Brooklyn Bridge…covered in dust…the people being rescued from the end of Manhattan Island…the people desperately seeking people who would never be found.
We remember the school children who did not know. We remember the teachers who did, but could not tell them. We remember the beautiful day slowly overcast by those beautiful, yet terrible clouds. We remeber the taste. We remember the smell.
We remember the iron workers, the dock builders and the other hard working Long Islanders who heard of the disaster and raced to the scene to see if they could be of service. We remember those who spent weeks upon weeks shoveling through the twisted debris. We remember the price so many have paid for their commitment.
We give thanks to all who give so much to see them cared for. We wonder why they’ve had to fight so hard.
We remember being implored to go out and live. We remember being told it was patriotic to shop. We remember wishing there was something more meaningful to do. We remember Paul McCartney and the musicians he gathered to play for the world and those first responders. We remember Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick who were on Broadway as The Producers, and how they epitomized the notion that “the show must go on.”…how meaningful it was to simply carry on.
We remember the brave men and women who have been at war ever since that fateful day. We pray that they and all the others who bear intense burdens and indelible scars will be properly cared for. We pray for a peace that seems so very far away.
We look down at children, and now young adults, who never knew the days before then; who never wondered at those impossibly tall buildings but may have marveled at those even taller beams of light; who never felt that fateful day; who look at us in bewilderment at the ongoing challenges, both at home and abroad…who wish, sometimes loudly, other times in quiet sighs, that the adults of this world would finally grow up.
We remember the noble ideals that we stand for. We remember how innocent we were. We realize on how much has changed since then, including an explosion of communication that somehow seems to have opened chasms between good people of different perspectives, and tidal waves of information that seem to only muddy any sense we once had of the truth. We reflect on how much we still have to learn, and on how much we seem to have forgotten…
We remind ourselves that while the battle may rage on within our hearts and across this world, we must never let terror win. We must never let the blind hatred that enables it to win. We must overcome.
But how?
The words of many sages come to mind; visionaries and scholars of so many cultures and kinds. We keep coming back to the wisest ones; the ones who seem to have mattered the most…
Over and over they whisper from the ages the same small, powerful yet humble, healing, overcoming, uplifting light of a word…
And so…we reflect…on Love.
We Will Never Forget… Photo of the WTC memorial lights by Colin Hopkins, Local 580 Iron Workers. Colin was on week three of work when the towers fell, a day when these folks and many others who never expected to be such, came to serve as first responders and who continued working at the site for weeks after the attack. Later, Colin was also among those present at work who got to witness the Freedom Spire rise…
We Will Never Forget…
Over the last two decades, we have learned a new rhythm….The end of summer comes, there is a flurry of activity about getting kids prepared for and off to school, and then, the moment all settles down the weight of solemn remembrance overshadows everything but the realization of how lucky we are to have that terrible event cast such a pall over our beings only once a year. Our hearts go out to so many others who lost so much…who experienced so much…who have since endured so much…
We remember the first puzzled and then stunned and horrified voices of the professionals whose job it is to tell us the bad news every day. We recall the images that replayed, the bells that rang, the world that all but stopped.
We remember the selfless bravery of firemen who went in where anyone in their “right mind” would be running out.
We remember the horrific loss of 2,977 innocent lives, including 343 of those firemen, 60 police officers and 8 EMTS. We remember the probability that anyone we encountered may have just lost someone dear. We remember how some of those who perished did so heroically apprehending hijackers and crashing their own plane.
Our hearts twist in the simultaneous gratitude for the miracle of how, despite intense confusion, so many lived to tell their tale or simply were not there.
We remember the people walking over the Brooklyn Bridge…covered in dust…the people being rescued from the end of Manhattan Island…the people desperately seeking people who would never be found.
We remember the school children who did not know. We remember the teachers who did, but could not tell them. We remember the beautiful day slowly overcast by those beautiful, yet terrible clouds. We remeber the taste. We remember the smell.
We remember the iron workers, the dock builders and the other hard working Long Islanders who heard of the disaster and raced to the scene to see if they could be of service. We remember those who spent weeks upon weeks shoveling through the twisted debris. We remember the price so many have paid for their commitment.
We remember being implored to go out and live. We remember being told it was patriotic to shop. We remember wishing there was something more meaningful to do. We remember Paul McCartney and the musicians he gathered to play for the world and those first responders. We remember Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick who were on Broadway as The Producers, and how they epitomized the notion that “the show must go on.”…how meaningful it was to simply carry on.
We remember the brave men and women who have been at war ever since that fateful day. We pray that they and all the others who bear intense burdens and indelible scars will be properly cared for. We pray for a peace that seems so very far away.
We look down at children, and now young adults, who never knew the days before then; who never wondered at those impossibly tall buildings but may have marveled at those even taller beams of light; who never felt that fateful day; who look at us in bewilderment at the ongoing challenges, both at home and abroad…who wish, sometimes loudly, other times in quiet sighs, that the adults of this world would finally grow up.
We remember the noble ideals that we stand for. We remember how innocent we were. We realize on how much has changed since then, including an explosion of communication that somehow seems to have opened chasms between good people of different perspectives, and tidal waves of information that seem to only muddy any sense we once had of the truth. We reflect on how much we still have to learn, and on how much we seem to have forgotten…
We remind ourselves that while the battle may rage on within our hearts and across this world, we must never let terror win. We must never let the blind hatred that enables it to win. We must overcome.
But how?
The words of many sages come to mind; visionaries and scholars of so many cultures and kinds. We keep coming back to the wisest ones; the ones who seem to have mattered the most…
Over and over they whisper from the ages the same small, powerful yet humble, healing, overcoming, uplifting light of a word…
And so…we reflect…on Love.