Lankford explains abandoned Juneteenth amendment
Responding to an onslaught of criticism, Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said he had proposed to replace Columbus Day with Juneteenth as an act of fiscal responsibility and that he was not trying to “rewrite history or join the mob.”
In a Facebook video posting late last week, Lankford said, “A lot of my staff and I did a lot of phone calls today just to be able to answer questions from a lot of mad people.
“Quite frankly, I'm not sure they're mad at me, other than they're just mad at everybody right now and frustrated because they' re watching our history get attacked as a nation. I' m not trying to attack our history. I'm trying to deal with our finances for the future, as well as to be able to honor our continued history.”
Lankford also made reference to some Lankford apparently
racist calls he received about Junenteenth, the holiday observed on June 19 to celebrate emancipation.
He said, “Now I do have to tell you: I've had a few people that called me today that said, `Those people don' t need another holiday.'
“I think I know what you mean by `those people.' I'm just going to tell you if you're a person that' s calling me saying, ` those people don't need another holiday,' you and I are just going to disagree.
“Because I don' t see ` those people.' I see fellow Oklahomans and I see fellow Americans. So if this is about race to you, we're just going to disagree, you and I.”
Lank ford is no longer cosponsoring an amendment that would have substituted June teen th for Columbus Day as a paid federal holiday. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican, and Lankford announced Friday that they had withdrawn the amendment, which was to be offered to a bill making Juneteenth a
federal holiday.
Johnson said he suggested Columbus Day for the swap “because few Americans in the private sector get it as a paid holiday, and as a result, it is lightly celebrated, and would not be disruptive to most Americans' schedules. I was in no way deprecating Christopher Columbus' achievements or expressing any value judgment regarding his place in history.”
Lank ford said all 100 senators have agreed that Juneteenth should be a federal holiday. But he said adding another paid federal holiday would cost taxpayers about $600 million a year, as federal workers would either get a day off or be paid overtime if they had to work.
Under the amendment he sponsored, Columbus Day would still have been a holiday, but not a paid one, he said.
According to Pew Research, only 21 states give their workers a paid day off on Columbus Day, the second Monday in October. Oklahoma is not one of them.
Many states have other names for the day that recognize the fact Native Americans were on the land before explorer Christopher Columbus“discovered” it. Oklahoma observes Columbus Day and Native American Day on that Monday.
Lank ford said ,“I' ve had hundreds of people that have reached out to my office and have called me, frustrated, angry about the fact that I'm trying to be able to get rid of Columbus Day because they saw on a Fox News program or they read on some conservative blog site that's what I was planning to do.
“So l et me set the record straight … I'm the same person I've always been. Nothing's changed.”
Lankford said he was “mad and frustrated” about statues being pulled down.
“There's no way I'm trying to rewrite history or join the mob or get rid of 4th of July or all the things that I've heard some people in quote unquote conservative media say that I'm trying to do,” he said on his Facebook video message.
“I'm trying to actually save our dollars, to preserve our history and to continue to be able to celebrate things together. I' m not trying to appease anybody. I'm trying to be able to serve everybody in this. Because we are all in this together. And our history is all of our history so we should all honor that all together.”
“I'm trying to actually save our dollars, to preserve our history and to continue to be able to celebrate things together. I'm not trying to appease anybody. I'm trying to be able to serve everybody in this. Because we are all in this together. And our history is all of our history so we should all honor that all together.”
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford