Too often we are told that the American Dream is a house with a white picket fence and the appropriate number of offspring as though the idealized American life had not been conceived before the middle of the twentieth century and that the previous one hundred and seventy odd years contained no national aspiration of individual life.

Liberty, not material possessions, is the core of the American dream. It is unamusingly ironic that a nation with a founding ideal of liberty also at its founding enslaved another people but our national character, just like an individual’s character, is complex and resists simplistic description. We are a nation, a people, raised on the ideal of liberty and far too often and for far too long we have fallen short of our lofty aspirations.

That does not mean we must not try.

Rather the opposite, we must constantly strive to be better. Perfection must never be the enemy of the good, and the evils of history while they cannot be erased nor should they, must never dissuade us from being virtuous today.

Slavery is one of the few things I consider an absolute evil. It is a mark of shame that it is a part of our history but it is there and no pretending that it was somehow caring or considerate can wash away the evil that existed alongside our virtues.

That we ended chattel slavery is a good and should be celebrated even if we continue to stumble towards a better and more just society.

To that end we should celebrate Juneteenth as a holiday. It should be a national one, one that mixes the desire of celebration with the need to reflect on where we still need to go.