Thought For The Day – Thursday 19th June 2025 – Connections and Connectedness
Juneteenth
A school, and life, community is not merely a collection of individual departments, areas and peoples.
A school, and life, community is a respectful collaboration and connection between departments, areas and peoples.
Everyone has, and is, a unique part of the jigsaw.
And everyone’s own piece of the jigsaw is totally beautiful and very slightly broken.
So we need everyone and everything.
The word connection is derived from the Latin meaning to bind, deduct, join, tie and unite.
Making links makes the positive difference. Not just to some. But to all.
Such flexibility, and fluidity, greatly helps our individual and collective present(s) and our future(s).
There was an excellent example of this yesterday as respected visiting speaker, Rob Eastaway, spoke about connections between William Shakespeare, English Literature, and Mathematics.
Thank you very much to the English and Mathematics departments for such an excellent and imaginative collaboration.
And in so doing, by implication, this connected to History and Science also. And more subjects besides. Because everything influences everything and everyone influences everyone.
Community is founded on such connection and connectedness.
Community is founded on mutual respect. Valuing the vulnerable. Valuing and connecting all.
Today in the United States of America is Juneteenth. 
This day remembers the final abolition of slavery in the last state in the United States on June 19th 1865 at the end of the American Civil War. This was after slavery was initially outlawed by President Abraham Lincoln in the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, which officially came into effect on January 1st 1863.
Juneteenth is also called Freedom, Liberation or Independence Day. It is marked with food, barbecues, celebrations, church services, parades and games. A most famous dish is called “The Marcus Garvey Salad”, named after an inspirational person who stood up against racism, and made with red, green, and black beans. Juneteenth is now a public holiday in the United States of America.
Slavery was, and is, dehumanizing, wrong, horrific, violent and evil.
The film “12 Years A Slave”, a 15 certificate, shows the evils, horrors and violence of slavery, through the real-life story of Solomon Northup. Here is the age-appropriate trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z02Ie8wKKRg: “If there is something wrong, it is wrong with the instruction”, says Solomon.
All negative prejudice and negative discrimination is evil and wrong.
Juneteenth would not be the end of the centuries-old pandemic of racism, negative prejudice, negative discrimination, exploitation and oppression.
Many fundamental human rights would need to be stood up for.
Many evils would need challenged, confronted and changed.
The journey of, and to, positive Equality, Diversity and Inclusion very much continues today.
Because everyone and everything matters.
Everyone and everything is connected.
