Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for including us once again as part of your morning routine.
Today is June 20, 2022, but since yesterday was Sunday, today is the federally observed Juneteenth holiday. Complete transparency here: I had never heard of Juneteenth until a couple years ago. To be fair though, I am very, very white.Â
To grossly oversimplify, Juneteenth commemorates the ending of slavery in the United States, as June 19 was the day that U.S. soldiers entered Galveston, Texas to announce that the Civil War was over, and all slaves were free.Â
While Juneteenth has only recently been nationally-recognized, segments of the population (hint: not the white segments) have been celebrating it for over a century. For a stronger, more complete explanation of this holiday, check this link. There’s way better info here than I could share in my own words, so I hope everyone who is uninformed (like me) takes the time to check it out.
I was surprised—though in retrospect I should not have been, even a little bit—that this holiday has received so much backlash on social media. I just want to say here and now, though, that if this holiday bothers you to the point that it incites anger, and you don’t believe we should have any holiday or recognition of the ending of slavery, go ahead and stop reading now because we don’t need your patronage on this site. You probably don’t read very well anyway. Today is also National Vanilla Milkshake Day, so I guess that’s your alternative.
Now for today’s weather, courtesy of our trusty intern:
At 6:30 a.m., it’s currently a surprisingly cool 56 degrees just outside company headquarters in Russell Springs, though it will warm up rapidly throughout the morning. Intern correspondents in Jamestown and Columbia report thermometer readings of 57 and 58 degrees, respectively. Expect plenty of sunshine and even more heat today, with a high topping 90.
That’s all for now, but check back throughout the day for more content headed your way, always from local voices. As always, thanks for reading!
