Juneteenth, what else for a middle- age guy, single dad who hasn’t seen a proper movie in nearly a long long while, from the upper caste in America, what to do?

Well, I chose to just jump in headfirst and watch “Twelve Years A Slave”, a movie from ten years back. The story was based on an 1853 memoir — yes, 1853! — of Solomon Northup, a free Black man in the North kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South, before the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.

From Wikipedia:

12 Years a Slave received widespread critical acclaim and was named the best film of 2013 by several media outlets and critics. The film received nine Academy Awardnominations, winning for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Ridley, and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong’o.

The film is jarring, disturbing, deeply moving. Frankly, maybe expectedly, it shook me to my core.

I’m a White, upper-middle class guy. I’m from the upper caste. I’ve got only First-World problems. Two divorces, the biggest “tragedies” of my life. But I’m on good terms with both my ex-wives. I co-parent successfully with the second one, the mother of my children. As I often say, all good.

So on this Juneteenth, I wanted to get outside my world, my First-World hang-ups, get a better sense of what the day is intended to honor: the end of slavery.; and the horror of the 200 years prior; and maybe the left-over attitudes in our society since 1865.

Well, I got all that in spades.

And for the man Solomon Northup and the millions like him,

Stunned silence,

And regret for something I can’t really, fully understand,

And my belief that we need to do better in this country…and the world.