| Existing comment:
Saturday was the annual DC Emancipation Day celebration. The event commemorates Abraham Lincoln's 1862 signing of the District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act which ended slavery in the District. The fireworks which end the event are in sight of the newly-opened Trump Hotel and the Capitol down the street. Calls for states rights and hands-off rapacious business interests were used as justifications for preserving "the peculiar institution" of slavery back then. Thank goodness no one holds those oppressive attitudes today. |