Juneteenth

    

 On June 19^th 1865, African American slaves in Galveston Texas learned that slavery had been abolished in the United States. The news of the end of slavery reached the Texan citizens last of all the states a whole two and a half years after the first slaves were freed. June 19^th came to be called Juneteenth and has since been celebrated in commemoration of African American freedom and emphasizes education and achievement. On the first day of celebration, citizens ran into the streets celebrating their freedom, they enjoyed picnics, and many pickup baseball games distinguished the event that marked the end of their time as slaves.

     While it is striking to me that up until only a few years ago, I had never heard of Juneteenth in a history class or in elementary school, what still shocks me most about Juneteenth is the ability for the slaves in Texas to have such important information withheld from them for such a long time. In the age of immediate communication, tweets, facebooks, texting, and dare I say the word, selfie, it is hard to imagine a world where information isn’t at our finger tips.

     But with greater reflection, I think some parallels can continue to be drawn. It is estimated that about 100 million Americans have no way of accessing internet at home. Whether it is a result of living in a rural area where access doesn’t exist, or the cost of a computer and internet service, being disconnected seems to be a function of being poor. And the implications of not having access to internet in our age are huge. Consider job applications, taking classes, or the amount of time the average person spends googling whatever small questions they may have (not to mention the fact that “googling” is a verb many of us feel comfortable with). The fact of the matter is, many of our most impoverished citizens live in a place where they are behind the rest of us in knowing what is going on in our world.

     This is not to say that the average person would have to wait two and a half years as they did in the 1860s but who are we kidding? Today two hours can be a life time. Our time is one defined by digital social movements and networking cites becoming platforms for reform. How is it that we have allowed the voiceless to remain muted when we know the repercussions? Bill Gates said, “the internet is becoming the town square for the global village of tomorrow” and I would go so far as to argue that by limiting that access to our most impoverished we have eliminated their say in participating in our town square.