Chief Investment Strategist, The Freeport Society
Today is Juneteenth National Independence Day, commonly shortened to just “Juneteenth.” Over the years, it’s also gone by Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and Jubilee Day. Whatever we call it, it’s the day we commemorate the ending of slavery in the United States.
America isn’t like other countries. Ours was not founded on the basis of blood and soil but on the concept that all people are created equal and endowed by their Creator with the unalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness… which I have taken the liberty of modifying to life, liberty, and the pursuit of wealth at The Freeport Society.
Hey, I’m an investor… for me pursuing wealth is pursuing happiness. But I digress…
One of the great contradictions of American history is that a country founded on the concept of freedom somehow managed to tolerate slavery for nearly a century after its founding… and then, for another hundred years after the abolition of slavery, continued to tolerate state-sponsored abuse of racial minorities via the Jim Crow laws. It took a civil war and a prolonged civil-rights movement to get where we are today.
Let’s take that as a reminder that freedom isn’t free. It may be an unalienable right for us all, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to get it without a fight.
And that fight goes on.
It’s the nature of government – maybe the nature of mankind itself – to want to impose its will on others. And it’s our right and responsibility as freedom-loving Americans to push back.
So here’s to the abolition of a heinous practice and the ongoing fight for freedom.
Happy Juneteenth from The Freeport Society!
To life, liberty and the pursuit of wealth.