As I write this, it is about 4:30AM on Juneteenth, and I am waiting in an airport terminal in Portland for the first of many flights on a trip I am taking that will have me–at least as far as my own plans go–returning to the city of Portland on the evening of July 4th. Both the beginning and the end of this trip are bookended by two holidays of liberty that are celebrated by the United States of America. This is neither an accident nor is it unrelated to the trip that I am engaged on with my mother, which is at least the third such summer trip undertaken around this time of year that has distinct relations to freedom. It is therefore appropriate that in framing my own travels, and what it is that I hope to see and hear in this trip, that freedom itself plays a significant role that is worth exploring, as it is a subject that is likely to come up in various ways along my travels.

When I say that it is not an accident that this particular trip takes place in the period between Juneteenth and July 4th, at least part of the reason that this is so is a simple matter of logistics. Having a substantial amount of holiday time that is use it or lose it, it has been my tradition for a few years now to travel during the summer months, especially in late June and early July. This may change slightly in the future due to other concerns, but it is at least the way that things have been so far. When one has paid holidays in close proximity to each other, it makes it more convenient to travel during such times, and I wonder if there are many people who travel during this time for that reason.

In a famous antebellum essay, escaped slave and noted abolitionist Frederick Douglass asked his audience what the Fourth of July meant to the black man. He said that if the principles of liberty enshrined in the Declaration of Independence were meant to apply to all people and not merely to the mostly white men (quite a few of whom, it must be admitted, are relatives of mine from British colonial stock) who signed the declaration and participated in the debates over independence, then the day would mean something to him. He also added that if the day did have meaning for him, that day was not being properly celebrated by a nation that included a great many people held in bondage at the time who could not be expected to celebrate the freedom of others that they had no share in.

My own personal feelings about Juneteenth are somewhat similar to this. While I see nothing objectionable or wrong in people celebrating the freedom that came to their own people, Juneteenth itself does not seem the ideal sort of day to celebrate freedom on a broader scale. It is not as if there are not alternative days that would express the freedom of Americans and the abolition of slavery in a fashion that would be far more inclusive than a day that was originally a local sort of holiday based on when the most remote parts of the Confederacy were informed that slavery was a dead letter, typically associated with June 19th, 1865. One could point to the preliminary or final emancipation proclamation, or more to the point, either the day that the 13th Amendment passed Congress or the day it was ratified by a sufficient number of the states later in 1865, at which slavery was prohibited in the United States except as punishment for a crime for which the person had been duly convicted.

What part does the white man have in Juneteenth? Having never been a friend of the exploitation any people anywhere, I am happy to celebrate or anticipate the freedom of others. I do not feel myself as frequently having a role other than an interested and encouraging spectator in such efforts. I do care very deeply about my own freedom and to a slightly lesser extent about the freedom of people who are like me, and to a still lesser but existing degree to all people everywhere to be free from the tyranny and oppression that harms human existence and that prevents people from being able to properly worship and obey our Lord and Creator. Frequently, my interest in freedom has led me to inquire and investigate the state of freedom of many small peoples around the world, and this particular trip includes visiting some areas that have found a degree of freedom from the larger nations around them that have threatened to dominate them completely, some areas seeking freedom for their own peoples, whether in fact or in international institutions, and some areas whose freedom has depended on the support of those willing to defend the areas from those who might conquer them by military force. All of these areas and situations will, of course, be explored in due time.

Let us return then to the original question. How should we think about the freedom of others? Depending on what sort of freedoms are being desired, we might either be friends or enemies of that freedom by nature. The freedoms that we seek for ourselves may frequently not be valued by those around us, and those who care little about our own freedom can expect to find little interest or enthusiasm in their own freedom as a proper and due response to their own hostility towards us. Yet to the extent that we value freedom for ourselves, we can be reasonably expected to have a similar hope and desire for all people to be free as we are or as we would wish to be, even if we may not be willing to take up arms and do physical battle against the tyrants of this or any evil age. To the extent that battle is to be undertaken on other fronts or realms is a matter that depends on the specific case at hand.