If you visit this space with any frequency and consistency, this will be a blinding glimpse of the obvious (BGO): I'm a really big fan of Norwich. I wasn't born here and I didn't grow up here but I settled here a skosh more than thirty years ago and have grown old here (still waiting for the wisdom to arrive).
I strive very hard, some say 'too hard,' and they're not always incorrect in that assessment, to look on the bright side and be positive about what goes on here and why, as best as I can understand it. I do it so often that I'm perceived as a sort of cheerleader which explains those saddle shoes in my closet and that set of rather bedraggled pompoms, but I try to applaud us whenever I can because I don't think we celebrate ourselves enough. And if I err on the side of excess, that's fine by me.
All that said, we blew it last Monday. By 'we,' I mean all of us, and by 'it,' I mean the city's observation of Juneteenth as the national and state holiday it now is. Yes, we had a sizeable crowd and glorious weather the morning of Friday, June 16th in the courtyard at City Hall for the unfurling of the Juneteenth flag, and by all accounts, there was a great deal of food, fun, and fellowship along Franklin Street Monday afternoon at the Juneteenth Community Cookout. (Some might say a 'Jubilee' in the original spirit of the word.)
But it was business as usual in municipal offices, just as it would be of course, for Independence Day, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, or Presidents' Day (as well as eight others).
Sorry, my mistake.
On those national holidays, City Hall is closed (I never realized the 'Day after Thanksgiving' was a holiday but it is around here). But last Monday, when the United States was observing Juneteenth Day, we Norwicheans were observing our traditional third Monday of June.
Yeah, I know Connecticut is called 'The Land of Steady Habits' and I do not pretend for one minute that negotiating, or renegotiating, labor agreements the City has with all the talented people in its employ is the easiest thing in the world (I know it isn't), but the kabuki theater that went on at the City Council meeting last Monday night (on the Council's agenda, a motion to cancel a scheduled meeting for July 3rd (y'know, the day before a national holiday); who says God has no sense of humor, right?) didn't just anger and annoy me (though it did both, sitting in my living room and watching it on public excess access television) but dismayed and demoralized me.
Sometimes the things we do (or do NOT do) speak so loudly I can't hear what we are saying which is sad because, at the City Hall flag-raising, Mayor Nystrom had some terrific historical notes about Norwich's attitude towards the slave trade in New England and our first in the state embrace of Juneteenth through the efforts of Daniel Jenkins more than three decades ago.
But by Monday evening, I could only conclude Friday's words were just that, words. The newspaper report I found on the City Council meeting read, with apologies to Dickens, almost like a Tale of Two Cities and underscores to me, especially when I read some of the readers' comments, just how great the growing divisions are becoming in our country.
Juneteenth and July 4th are both part of our shared history, along with hundreds of other events, occasions, and moments that create and strengthen our national narrative. Respecting the significance and importance of Juneteenth must be more than a mere gesture because we have become a nation of citizens who far too often rely on angry gestures especially because brave words fail to be followed by bold deeds.
-bill kenny
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