Happy Juneteenth!

Today is a day in the US to celebrate the Emancipation Proclamation. The commemoration started in Texas because it took from 1 January 1863 until 19 June 1865 for the news to reach Texas that slaves were freed. Why that long? Because -- Texas. Also there was a war and Texas was a Rebel state, and there was no Internet. And DC is a long ways away from Galveston, TX where the news was announced.

Here are two lessons to take from this holiday.

First, all people are created equal. Sure, some are taller, some better at coding, others more empathetic or better-looking or more adept at poetry. But we're all equal. 

"Buit wait!," you exclaim, "Isn't that what the Declaration of Independence says and not the Emancipation Proclamation?"

We'll get to the DoI in a few weeks but think of it this way. The Declaration of Independence does indeed capture the novel idea that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." About 97 years later the Emancipation Proclamation bookended that idea with the granting of freedom to enslaved people thus establishing "all people" as having those rights.

Celebrate!

Second, things change and what worked in cybersecurity today may not work tomorrow. Take some time today to ponder that and its implication for your career.

(image credit: By Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 - http://www.wdl.org/media/2714/service/thumbnail/6000x6000/1/1.jpgGallery: http://www.wdl.org/en/item/2714/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31578413)