Rock and a Hard Place: Juneteenth Betweenth

An unkown white WWI soldier was in Bell County, Texas, when an African American man joined him.

A second white man, in rags, waved. His head bandaged, he wore a moth-eaten blue coat with white trimmings indicating his artillery regiment.

"Where you from?" the African American man asked the ragged man.

"1776. General Washington's artillery."

"What's your name?" asked his white companion, his own uniform soiled and threadbare.

"Just some unknown," the Revolutionary War artilleryman said. "Forgotten. You?" he asked the WWI soldier.

"Me, too,"

"Don't know my name, neither," confessed the black man. Seems I was long forgotten before gettin' hanged with six brethren by Klansmen, after bein' liberated in '65.

Emancipation didn't sit right with folks. June 19th made it official, but unofficial lynchings happened anyway. USA's a hard place, crammin' all different types together. Not talking 'bout black and white, but righteous and nefarious."

"But the grand experiment!" shouted the artilleryman. "All men--created equal."

"By when?" asked the black man. "Not everybody's in that all."

"When we surrounded the British army at Yorktown--1781--an' they surrendered."

"Really?" the black man said. "Hard for me to celebrate. Or even see anythin' special in Juneteenth, turns out."

"Gentlemen," the WWI man interrupted. "There's a bigger picture. In 1914 the whole world was threatened. This country, this "hard place" you say, joined in. It was one world against another, an' together we taught Germany a lesson."

"Haven't bothered us since," added the black man.

"True," he agreed. "But--in deference to you, sir," he said to him, "while free men are not always free, the general direction's rock solid. It's our rock. Even in a hard place like this. As a memorialized man, I refer you to Memorial Day."

"And Independence Day," the Revolutionary artilleryman said. "And Juneteenth betweenth them. And that's where we walk right now--between a rock and a hard place.

"I'm not forgotten," said the Unknown Soldier. I have a tomb--put there in 1931."

"I guess that's somethin'," admitted the black man.

"You've got two holidays," complained the artilleryman to the black man.

"Holidays come and go." said the WWI soldier. "The calendar should be filled with the likes of us."

Hardly enough, they each thought.