'The
Road to Freedom is Long'
It’s
Independence Day here in the United States. A
strange one to live through at a time when so
many of the freedoms that define America are
being so drastically curtailed. Over the past
week, as I pondered the cognitive dissonance of
Independence Day under a clearly oppressive
regime, I got news of the passing of a
journalism giant — Bill Moyers.
Many
of you might already know of Moyers, a Baptist
minister from Texas who served as a special
assistant to President Lyndon Johnson before
moving on to an illustrious career as an
award-winning broadcast journalist. His
journalism and his post-journalism career as
president of the Schumann Center on Media and
Democracy, were always focused on shining a
light on how money in politics corrupts
democracy and progressive causes. He was also a
strong advocate of environmental journalism and
a supporter of Earth Island
Journal.
I
never had the good fortune of meeting Moyers,
but I did correspond with him a few times over
the past few years. “I have no doubt you punch
way above your weight!” he wrote to me once in
reference to our magazine, words that I’ve
treasured and tried to live up to ever
since.
On
this 4th of July, I’d like to share
with you a few lines from Moyers’ 2019 speech in
celebration of a very different Independence Day
— Juneteenth — which commemorates the end of
slavery in the United States.
I
share this because his words on the fragility of
freedom and what it takes to safeguard it are
ringing particularly true to me today. I hope
they will speak to you too:
“Juneteenth
says struggle, victory, backlash. Struggle,
victory, backlash. Struggle, victory,
backlash. Jim Crow has nine lives and a
thousand tricks and schemes and he never quits.
Juneteenth tells us it’s a long road to freedom
and you can be ambushed anywhere on it.
Juneteenth tells us, look out, be alert. Don’t
give up. The struggle is never done. Brothers.
The struggle, sisters, is never done.”
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