Juneteenth
Clay Middleton, Candidate for Mayor of Charleston
It is one thing to be free and another to know that you are free.
Just as it took time for news of Emancipation to travel to Texas, it took time for our country to formally recognize a holiday that speaks so much to both how far we’ve come and the work that remains. Juneteenth gives all of us a chance to do what is hard and necessary. We can reflect on our shared responsibility in the quest of forming a more perfect union and for creating a Charleston that works for everyone.
In order to be released completely from bondage, one must have a change in their mindset. Collectively, we should be working towards an opportunity shift to fully exercise the rights and privileges that come with freedom. This would enable us to be keenly focused on how we operate and solve citywide problems. Let us focus on access to business, not only access to capital. Let us focus on educational enrichment and greater exposure 365 days a year rather than a few days a year. Let us talk about race and disparities in order to remove barriers rather than feel good for a moment.
An opportunity shift would enable us to focus on wealth building and not workforce development. It would draw our attention to creating creators rather than producing better workers. And it would set the conditions for leaders to lead.
An opportunity shift would enable a special commission on equity, inclusion, and racial conciliation to have meaning, depth, budget, and accountability to create transformational changes to systems that were not designed to work for everyone.
In order to have a city that works for everyone, everyone must be a part of the decision making process. That means those that once were on the menu are now at the table. Each of us must see ourselves in the fabric that makes our beloved city vibrant, thriving, resilient, and relevant.
“Juneteenth should remind, motivate, and offer hope for a better tomorrow. We have come a long way as a country, a state, a city, and as a people. But even though a long road still remains ahead of us, so much is possible. Working together, we can achieve affordable and accessible housing, education, and health care. We can achieve equitable economic development. We can achieve pathways to wealth creation and guaranteed income. We can achieve respect.”
This enduring effort serves as my north star, and Juneteenth fosters this belief and opportunity to be a new brick in an old foundation.