'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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