Earlier today in the Colorado Senate, Senate Bill 22-139 passed by a nearly-unanimous 32-1 vote. This bill establishes the 19th of June as Colorado eleventh holiday, Juneteenth, commemorating the belated notification of slaves in Texas by occupying Union troops that they had been set free by the Emancipation Proclamation two years before.
The bill to make Juneteenth a state holiday passed in the Senate! Now it’s heading over to me in the House!
Thanks to @SenJanetBuckner and @ColemanforCO for a near unanimous vote in the Senate. Let’s get this across the finish line! pic.twitter.com/GTj5j0VI5p
— Leslie Herod (@leslieherod) March 21, 2022
Who was the lone vote in opposition to establishing Juneteenth as a state holiday in the Colorado Senate, you ask? That would be Republican Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, representing a vast swath of dirt and cows and eventually enough people to make up a whole state senate district in northeastern Colorado.
Sen. Sonnenberg has been “owning the libs” with self-immolating bad behavior in the Colorado General Assembly for years before a new generation of far-right politicians made it routine. Sonnenberg, who joked about oiling his assault weapons with tears shed by Barack Obama over school shootings and referred to the female co-sponsor presenting legislation to a committee the bill’s “eye candy,” has been such a uplifting experience in his sixteen years of service that he makes a rare compelling argument for term limits.
Also, we do believe the last time the Colorado Senate passed legislation by a vote of 32- Jerry Sonnenberg was Senate Bill 20-217–the landmark police accountability reform legislation passed in the immediate wake of the killing of George Floyd.
It has been suggested that we allow readers to infer from these facts what they will.
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“…….infer from these facts what they will.”
I’d be interested in knowing Sonnenberg’s reasoning for his ‘no’ vote. After all, June 19 is already a federal holiday.
Great news!
(here’s the real story – and it’s pretty interesting)
Thanks, Michael. Black Mesa is on my eventual to-do list; perhaps combined with a trip to our second newest Colorado state park, Fisher's Peak.
I had some work in Amarillo a couple of years back and took an extra day and drove 385 north to Springfield, had lunch and then drove back. Interesting landscape and I love photographing those old, nearly-deserted towns.
The drive through northeastern New Mexico and North Texas is one of my favorites. When I drive eastward, I often choose that route.
Raton, NM, Clayton NM…Dumas, Texas, Amarillo then I40 east.
BTW Michael. I will be making that trip in May. If you have occasion to be in Ky,, let me know. I am flexible as to which week.
I'd love to coordinate that, DC.
I think I figured it out
As long as the holiday is on a Monday or a Friday, I am supportive.