Juneteenth message from Mayor Ward
Press release from the City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Mayor Harvey Ward issued the following message today:
As we end Journey to Juneteenth, a month of celebration that began with Florida Emancipation Day, I’d like to focus on what newly freed Floridians experienced during those weeks in 1865.
Of that time, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote, “But slowly, continuously, the wild truth, the bitter truth, the magic truth came surging through.”
Historical records tell of people in Florida testing their freedom by leaving their former homes simply to see if they could go wherever they wanted. Families searched for loved ones sold away years earlier. Husbands and wives, long denied the privileges of citizenship, were married in large numbers in accordance with state law. Churches filled with songs, sermons and prayers of thanks.
At the same time, there were forces trying to turn back the clock. Historians write of military patrols receiving orders to stop formerly enslaved people from going into the cities from the rural countryside. The goal was to steer them back into systems of labor that looked all too familiar. Standing against those efforts, the Freedmen’s Bureau gave out food, worked for labor protections, and advocated for the civil, educational, and political rights of those who had only recently emerged from bondage.
The reality is that emancipation came, but freedom was still a fight. And history asks us to not only celebrate, but to recognize the bravery and fortitude it took to keep the faith and build a new life.
— Mayor Harvey L. Ward
And now….guess who has become the modern day’ slaves? All of us who work for a living and pay taxes to subsidize their Section 8, SNAP, healthcare, RTS, and education. When will receive our ’emancipation’ and don’t forget those reparations too!
“Standing against those efforts, the Freedmen’s Bureau gave out food,…” ~ That’s happening in downtown Gainesville and despite the generosity—or in spite of it—the homeless and vagrants still can’t find one of the multi-thousand dollar trash cans the tax-paying residents have purchased.
Liberals, still gullible lemmings who only play make-believe. They should be happy they’re keeping the vagrants addicted and the downtown ambassadors busy…sort of.
You know, I have never seen a single word, from this radical, anti Constitution mayor, much less a month long journey to celebrate either the founding of this formerly great country, or the price our armed forces have paid to ensure the freedom of ALL Americans.