Today is a day to celebrate freedom in America. Juneteenth celebrates the day the final group of slaves received word of their freedom in Galveston, Texas after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865.

America is far from perfect. The founding documents express freedom for all and we have yet to live up to that in practice. America can be better everyone.

I am reminded of the great words of Langston Hughes from his poem 'Let America Be America Again'. His words serve as a great reminder of what the country can be:

O, let America be America again— The land that never has been yet— And yet must be—the land where every man is free. The land that's mine—the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME— Who made America, Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose— The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, !We must take back our land again, America!

O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath— America will be!