Happy Juneteenth!!!
The Oxford Dictionary describes this day as: “a holiday celebrated on 19 June to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War (🖕 Confederates), slaves were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.”
Whenever I’m confronted with an issue, I try to envision the situation one year from today. Will it really be a big deal then? If so, I take a much different approach than I would to something I find insignificant.
So, I thought I would apply that thinking to the state of the world and #2020, but in a grander scale.
Before we get to the infamous #2020 that’s not even half over with (yikes), let’s take a look at some dates that came before today. Keep in mind, this is a Juneteenth-related and 2020 related post, so the subject matter was picked to correspond.
1619: First slaves landed in Virginia
1863: President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation
1865: Slavery ended as a legal practice
1905: Hester Ford was born
1964: Jim Crow Laws end
1968: MLK murdered
2020: #WTF
June 19th, 2020: “Baby J” is born
2030: Hester Ford dies* (est). (Sorry Hester!)
2072: 52 years from today, after MLK was murdered
2076: 56 years from today, Jim Crow Laws end
2145: “Baby J” dies (THE REST OF US reading this ARE DEAD, or dead A LONG ASS time ago)
2175: 155 years from today, after slavery ended as a legal practice
2177: 157 years from today, after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation
I’m more of a visual learner, so I drew (excuse my horrible handwriting) out a timeline of the dates in case that helps anyone else.
Highlighted in pink is the “hot zone” and it covers the period in time that every single living person today will exist, (w/o some miracle cure).
Hester Ford, the oldest living person in the USA was born in 1905. I don’t want to jinx him, so I gave him 125 years and passing in 2030. Rock on Hester!
“Baby J” is a fictitious infant born today, and also living 125 years until the year 2145. As I said, we’ll all be long gone by then. Just blips in time.
Fast forward through the dates equal to the time before today, to after today, and we end up at 2421, 802 years after the first slaves landed in Virginia. Hard to think that far back, or that far into the future. For some religious people, this might help: one thousand, six hundred and nineteen years After Christ, the first slaves were brought to Virginia. Assuming we don’t blow up the planet, destroy it, it kills us, aliens don’t come down and kill us, or _________, 2421 will come.
The blue zone represents the future. The boiling point we are living in today, this year, this lifetime, are also a blip in time. These are groundbreaking events, and IMO they will change the future. This is what being “on the right side of history” means to me.
Nobody likes the current events, and no matter “what side” you’re on, and how bad you feel, this is a blip in time. It’s one day, one month, one year, or one lifetime. Our country, and our people are stuck in a cycle. We are in-fighting, and we have let what our democracy stands for, be overrun. I firmly believe the events happening today will change our futures for the better, and the future of all the lifetimes that come after us.
The property will be repaired, the egos will heal, the tensions will fall, the broken systems replaced, the corrupt and divisive politicians will be replaced, we’ll all be dead, and by 2145, we’ll be into the “Blue Zone” and the future it represents.
How soon that blue arrow continues towards us, is up to us.
I hope you enjoy your blip in time, to its fullest, and may your legacy age well.
