This commentary is by Devon Thomas, the new pastor serving Bethany Church in Montpelier and the United Church of Northfield. He is also a proud Black Vermonter. On June 19, 1865, the U.S. Army proclaimed to the people of Galveston, Texas, that the enslaved Black people of Texas were emancipated. The fact that this proclamation came nearly three years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation had freed all enslaved people of the Confederacy, and that this freedom had to be won by force through a bloody civil war, testifies to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words a century later. Speaking from the steps of the Alabama State Capitol at the end of the march from Selma to Montgomery, he assured the crowd that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. Today, 61 years after Dr. King addressed those freedom marchers, and 161 years after emancipating slaves in Galveston, the Supreme Court of the United States has struck down critical parts of America’s Voting Rights Act. Those rights protected Black people and all underrepresented people of our nation from the systems of racism that those freedom fighters spent their lives suffering, marching, advocating, legislating and dying into existence. The universe may bend toward justice, but sitting here today, that bend feels more like a wobble than an arc. Juneteenth is a day on which Americans should remember that freedom is not given freely to everyone. We may mark January 1, 1863, as the end of slavery, but for millions of enslaved people, those words never became a reality. I write this with Vermont in mind. A state that fought for the Union against the Confederacy, a state that upheld the Emancipation Proclamation, we are also a state where many of our neighbors raise the Confederate flag over their homes and claim it as their heritage. How strange our remembrance of history is; that a state like Vermont, which fully and wholeheartedly professes a need for liberty and equity for our nation, includes neighbors who fail to ensure those same freedoms at home. READ MORE How appropriate it is that Juneteenth is celebrated alongside Pride Month. I was present when the late James Cone declared to his 2011 class at Union Seminary: “Freedom is not free, unless it is given to everyone.” He was referring to the LGBTQ+ community and how Black churches often fail to stand in solidarity with them in their fight for freedom. How can Black people declare freedom for ourselves if we are unwilling to fight as hard for the freedom of others? A wise soul once informed me that most Black people are poor, and most poor people are white. This is an interesting reality, which is also true in Vermont, where many of the laws and regulations we could pass to ensure affordable housing, healthcare, education and taxation for low-income white Vermonters would also ease burdens in our minority communities. Freedom is not free unless it is given to us all. As we enter Vermont’s election season, I ask Vermonters to hold that to heart. Did we do enough in the last legislative session to advance Vermont’s ideals of liberty and equality? Did we move our state down the moral arc of the universe, or did we just wobble? Are we marching against oppression, or are we allowing systems of oppression to wash our integrity away? Are we learning from history, or just telling stories to communicate we’ve learned nothing? ​Vermont has moral power. That moral power is rooted at home in our state, defined by local marches for justice and resistance to oppression. Freedom is not free for everyone. Juneteenth is a time we Vermonters can ask ourselves if we are doing our part to march for freedom and bend the arc of the universe toward justice. Read the story on VTDigger here: Freedom is not free for everyone. ...read more read less