On June 16, 2021, then-Gov. David Ige signed into law Act 53, which made Hawaii one of the very last states to finally recognize Juneteenth, the day commemorating the historic emancipation of slaves on June 19, 1865, in Texas and the symbolic annihilation of the Confederacy’s racist economic system.

The day after Ige signed Act 53, President Joe Biden also signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, making Juneteenth a federal holiday that took effect just in time to give federal workers that year’s Juneteenth off.

A key distinction to note is that the federal government made Juneteenth a public holiday in 2021, whereas our state of Hawaii only made it a day for reflection.

As anyone in local politics knows, creating new named days in the Hawaii Revised Statutes, let alone new state holidays, can be like pulling teeth and fingernails among legislators. The unspoken rule in local circles is if you want something like that, you go to either your county mayor or the governor’s office – or both – and you request on behalf of a community organization that a proclamation be issued for that specific day.

Perhaps this is the reason it took Hawaii so long to even recognize Juneteenth, because it was easy enough to just get a proclamation from the county mayors and the governor’s office every year.

But for something as important as Juneteenth, we shouldn’t need to get someone’s signature every year just to put it on the local map.

Having helped in the effort to get Juneteenth recognized in Hawaii, I will say that the key to getting Act 53 passed into law in 2021 was constantly reassuring legislators at the time that Juneteenth would only be a recognized day, but not a holiday – just to coax them into hearing the bill – since previous attempts went nowhere in prior sessions.

The unfortunate reason for that caveat was not fiscal or administrative, but rather that “crab bucket syndrome” in Hawaii is a very real thing. The minute one asks for a recognized day, dozens of contrarians flood the zone with hasty criticisms like “but why haven’t we recognized such-and-such (insert your favorite event here) day, though?”

“So then let’s get the Legislature to recognize your day and my day, and any other day you want, there are plenty of days in the year that you can attach a name to, support my bill and I’ll gladly support yours,” I would always counter in response to anyone who would confront me.

Of course, as is often the case, nine times out of 10, good faith offers of collaboration are usually refused and met with the nebulous cop-out response, “We shouldn’t be virtue signaling when we can be feeding hungry people and increasing the salaries of teachers,” to which I reply, “I’m actually supporting those bills too, in case you want to help on that as well.”

Fortunately, in the end, we got Juneteenth as a recognized day in Hawaii. God bless you, former Gov. Ige.

But when Biden signed Public Law 117-17 making Juneteenth a federal holiday, that significantly changed the political and historical optics. Hawaii went from catching up on a long overdue recognized day to now being behind, once more, on having Juneteenth as a holiday, as now more than half of U.S. states have passed laws to make it a state and federal holiday.

Hawaii is a state that is well acquainted with the tragedies of colonization and the negative externalities of agricultural plantations. And yet, despite being so progressive, so ethnically diverse, and so familiar with the agonies of inequity when it comes to officially commemorating and observing Juneteenth – a day that encapsulates America’s triumphant struggle against racial discrimination and economic stratification – we keep dragging our feet behind other states.

I’m sure some of you could certainly use an extra day off, but that’s not the reason I think Juneteenth should be a state and federal holiday. We need to give our residents, as American citizens, a time-out to reverently reflect on the meaning and implications of historic slavery, racial injustice and economic stratification. 

Holidays are part of government’s important role in being the educational narrative-setter in history and national destiny. Making Juneteenth a holiday adds vital moral weight that keeps it at the front of people’s minds and stirs discussion about why it is important enough to be a state and federal day off. We’ve already made it a recognized day, it needs to be amended to be a holiday because of what it represents. 

Holidays are part of government’s important role in being the educational narrative-setter in history and national destiny.

In the meantime, until the next session of the Legislature and until a bill is signed into law, both the county mayors and governor of Hawaii can use their discretion as executive authorities to give administrative leave to workers to make it a de facto “holiday.” This would likely be very popular, and it would spare people from having to say awkward things like, “The federal government gives people Juneteenth off, but Hawaii isn’t like that, it took forever just to get it recognized as a day.”

The standing committee chairs of the Senate and House tasked with tourism/culture, labor, judiciary and finance subject matter authority should make it a point to upgrade Juneteenth in Hawaii to a holiday to match the federal government. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s something we should have done a long time ago before the federal government.

Let’s make things right. Make Juneteenth a holiday in Hawaii.