 Greetings everyone. This is the second year that Juneteenth has been celebrated as a national holiday. But this day has been celebrated and honored in communities across the United States ever since 1865. On this day we remember the emancipation of enslaved people in Texas, marking the final blow to legal slavery in the United States. We remember all who persevered through the horrors of slavery and the generations who fought to build a better life than the years that followed. We celebrate the courage of those who escaped slavery to serve in our ranks such as Civil War hero Robert Smalls who escaped slavery by commandeering a Confederate transport delivering it to the Union lines. We also remember Ann Bradford Stokes, an enslaved woman from Tennessee who served as a nurse aboard the hospital ship Red Rover becoming the first woman to earn her own Navy pension. We remember the many former enslaved sailors who powered our Civil War Navy making up 20% of the crews of many ships. They forged the nation we now share and moved us forward in this continuous struggle for dignity, respect and freedom. Please take a moment this Juneteenth to reflect on our journey as a nation and the debt we all to all came before us as we continue the struggle for a more perfect Union. I am honored to join you all in this journey and wish you all a happy and safe Juneteenth holiday.