Slavery, Juneteenth and Emancipation.

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In my country, the 19th of June is the birth date of our national hero Jose Rizal. I didn't know the day is also a memorable day for America. Sadly, most Americans neither know how important the day is, till the incumbent at the White House produced another scandalous pronouncement making the day its bid for reelection campaign rally exactly where the Emancipation Proclamation of `1865 freed the black people from slavery happened. Question is..... are the black people truly free? The events since Memorial Day show otherwise. The people are shouting out, or screaming at the top of their lungs, the bondage the black people have been enslaved with in the land of the free. I know the words slavery and prejudice and apartheid. Been in my vocabulary since I studied Current Events in grade school. The reality, however, is totally different from the printed news. Reality is not just black and white. The scope of depravity of human rights for the black people is unspeakable. So, to understand more the plight of the black people and the mind-boggling cruelty of the white people, I watched again the movie '12 Years a Slave.' I grimaced at the lashes. That hurt only the physical. What is unfathomable is the invisible pain that left indelible marks in the heart. A day of reckoning will come, said one white man to the enslaver. I'd like to believe that genuine emancipation comes this time. The new generation of ebony and ivory are, after all, standing for justice side by side.