Celebrating Juneteenth and Beyond

If you were puzzled about the meaning of the Juneteenth holiday, June 19th celebrates the end of slavery.

Juneteenth was originally celebrated in Texas on June 19, 1866. That was the day that black people there first learned of the Emancipation Proclamation, more than two years after it was initially issued.

According to Wikipedia:Juneteenth, officially Juneteenth National Independence Day, is a federal holiday in the United States. It is celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. The holiday's name, first used in the 1890s, is a portmanteau of the words June and nineteenth, referring to June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War.

The day after Juneteenth this year was also a special day. 

Northern Hemisphere · Eastern Time

        

The 2025 summer solstice fell on Friday, June 20, according to NASA and the Old Farmer's Almanac. This marks the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, when the earth's tilt positions it closest to the Sun. From now on, our daylight hours will be getting shorter. 

Wash. Post, U.K. lawmakers vote to legalize assisted dying

Has human life been extended too far in some places and for some people, especially those who may be living now without purpose, relationships, or physical wellbeing?  Some people may feel they have lived ra bit too long and are now ready to call it quits. 

Cartoonists had a field day when Mr.Trump declared himself the final arbiter of the US Constitution. 

CNN, Trump: ‘I don’t know’ if I need to uphold the Constitution

                           A US bill honoring Trump has been proposed. Is this guy a king or a president?

After his loud complaints that he had never been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, which he felt he so richly deserved, someone finally listened to Mr. Trump's repeated grievances.

The Government of Pakistan Recommends President Donald J. Trump for 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

Pakistan nominates Trump for Nobel Peace Prize, praising ‘stellar statemanship’

    If Trump should actually be awarded the Peace Prize, then that prize will no longer have any value. Donald Trump may want desperately to be loved and admired by the rest of

the world and even by generations to come, but it's not going to happen. Unfortunately for him, the harder he tries to promote himself,

the more he fails. He is a pathetic, insecure human being whom history will judge rather harshly.

 Wash. Post, 

Trump reports over $600M in income, $1.6B in assets

The President's income comes from many sources beyond his presidential salary: crypto, wallets, golfs clubs, and Bibles among numerous other goods. Trump is not shy about using the presidency to enrich himself and his family. 

He also seems to enjoy appearing on camera.

As July 4 approaches, Trump has declared that there are too many federal holidays. (Workers would disagree.)

President Trump wants reporters to only ask question that show him in a positive light. At a recent press conference, Trump raged at a reporter: “Do you ever ask a positive question at CNN? My supporters are more in love with me today, and I’m in love with them, more than they were even at election time.” (He did not answer the question.) 

And Mr. Trump also carefully avoided using the world "erected" when flagpoles were being installed outside the White House. Instead, he said he was "putting up" the flagpoles. 

Donald Trump likes posing with military hardware to show that he means business.

Israel has now struck Tehran with no end of that war in sight. 

     NY Times, Heavily Armed Man at ‘No Kings’ Protest Had 13 Bombs at Home, Police Say

        Is testosterone what makes so many men more aggressive and more dangerous than most                   women? In 2023 in the US, there were 14,327 murders by men, 1,898 by women. American                women are many times more likely to be murdered by men than men by women. 

        And men's own victims are most often other men. Even in the animal kingdom, males fight                each other physically much more often than females do, and they usually only fight other males.         Female animals fight mainly to protect their offspring. 

         NY Times, The Feminist Case for Spending Billions to Boost the Birthrate Fertility decline                         is a devilish  problem. What if the only solution is to treat parenting as a public service worth paying for?

          These countries all now pay baby bonuses: 1 Argentina · 2 Australia · 3 Canada · 4 Czech                      Republic · 5 France · 6 Italy · 7 Lithuania · 8 Luxembourg 

        Besides considering giving out baby bonuses, the US would have another easy way to boost    

        fertility and increase the working age population, that is, by simply admitting more refugees and                         immigrants, but Mr. Trump and his advisors have nixed that idea. 

        

        Guns remain the leading cause of death for American young people. It's way past the time to revise         the "right to bear arms". The NRA no longer holds sway. 

 

        We've had a whole lot of rain here recently in W Va., with many cars and homes having been                 flooded.  At least 8 people have been killed. Our own house, located on a hill, is partly raised up             on stilts, so no water came inside. 

     Women's sports are now getting their due, but haven't caught up yet in popularity with men's sports. 

        

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                 NY Times, The Senegal women's national basketball team cancelled a 10-day training                              camp after the U.S. rejected visas .

El Centro in DC's Georgetown where I have dined is closing its doors as their lease was not renewed. 

Here's a note I just sent to former Capitol Hill neighbors:

Hello Jean and Greg, 

Greetings to you and your family. I really miss everyone on Capitol Hill and wish I could still afford to live in my old house there now. Nor is anyone rushing in to buy it, as would have happened before Trump's election this time. In our present economic climate, there are many more home sellers than buyers. So these days, as a retiree and a social security recipient, I am supporting 2 houses, which is not easy. 

No doubt you have more on your mind than whether [daughter] Alison speaks unaccented Spanish. But she actually does, which is quite remarkable, especially given that she learned Spanish later in life and has never lived in--or even visited, as far as I know--a Spanish speaking country. [Alison had just stopped by to see me.] 

On my blog, I mentioned the case of Nixon adviser Henry Kissinger, who came to the US at age 15, but was never able to ditch his German accent. Most Americans I've met in Honduras, likewise speak Spanish with a gringo accent. The only reason that I do not is because I learned both Spanish and English when I was only 2 when my family went to Honduras while my dad was doing archeological work there. ​

Here above was my Dad back in 1940, putting                together a  statue in Copan, Honduras. We rode into that site on horseback. 

Here I was in Honduras back in            2022. I don't know if or when I might go back there again.

I'm passing along this next message received in Spanish regarding Haiti, even though Spanish is not a major Haitian language. (Use your Google translator.) 

Mujeres haitianas: Agentes de cambio en la reconstrucción de la gobernanza local

Aunque no estén en el foco de atención de la crisis que lleva años atravesando el Estado caribeño, diversos espacios y organizaciones se han mantenido a lo largo del tiempo trabajando para que la mujer haitiana sea el agente de cambio necesario. La resiliencia de estas mujeres es lo que ha trascendido en la historia de Haití, a pesar de los problemas sistémicos arraigados a los que se enfrentan en todas las áreas de sus vidas.

    

     Yes, folks, I've been to Africa and walked amid giraffes, and mingled with both animals and people all over the world, altogether visiting some 40 countries in every continent except  Australia, if that can be considered a continent. My international travel is over as, at age 87, I plan to stay put right now in Berkeley Springs, W Va., with enough to see and do all around here. 

                              Here are some W Va. seasonal fruits, many growing wild, just ready to be picked. 

                              There are both wild and domestic cherries in W Va.. Wild chrries are rather sour. 

    

                                      Many local fruits are ripe now, including cherries. 

  I'd still like to go back to Honduras to visit, but would need to get a new passport, as mine has expired.

 

How about having antique furniture in your home? I do love old furniture myself, with several items from my DC house now here in W Va. My son, sharing our home here, really doesn't care. If I had a place for these, I might even consider buying them. 

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I've just found out that a very good friend, someone I have known my whole life, has died in California. She was 94. 

Dearest Pat, I will miss you. 

We had kept connected thanks to a regular visitor with a cell phone, as Pat had never used a computer nor a cell phone or even looked at the internet.  

Patricia C. Ostrow

August 16, 1930 – June 5, 2025