Juneteenth Paradox

"Juneteenth always carries weight, but it also raises a question we don’t ask often enough: are we actually free? We sit with James Baldwin’s reminder that nothing changes until it’s faced, then we look straight at the modern paradox of liberty in a time of surveillance, government overreach, and systems that seem designed to keep people compliant, exhausted, and divided. 

We talk about why  *"Black history is American history, and why real patriotism isn’t blind loyalty. For us, patriotism means the courage to hold a nation accountable to its ideals, to examine uncomfortable truths, and to build something better from the wreckage." That same standard applies to our personal lives too, because transformation doesn’t happen through slogans. It happens through responsibility, honesty, and a willingness to step off the “Matrix merry-go-round” of inherited beliefs and automatic habits. 
If this resonates, subscribe, share the show, and leave a review so more people can find it. And as always, I pray ya'll have the greatest health and most vibrant energy and of course PEACE!

*Quotes by Katrina Butler

Transcript

Welcome And A Quick Request

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey, hey, hey, humanity. Teresa Marie, traveling ambassador of Chi, and host of Free to Just Be, the podcast where I have been documenting my dance of transformation and awakening to the incredible energy that we are experiencing on the planet and all things about the Matrix merry-gorround. And I've coined that phrase, and I share and help people identify and dissolve those Matrix programs, false beliefs, and many of the um systems that we have found ourselves on. And I've been doing this for about three and a half years and just recently began to video my podcast as well. And as you can tell, I'm a very authentic, genuine uh 65-year-old, and I am literally walking in brand new ways of being. And uh it's very daunting, and it takes a lot of courage to go against what everybody else does, and yet there are millions that are beginning to wake up. Um, it really, really began when COVID hit, and uh now here we are, and today I want to talk about the holiday that we're um observing called Juneteenth, and it really got me pondering. Um I love the word Sila, which means pause and ponder. And before we jump in, let's pause and ponder about liking this podcast. If I'm resonating with you at all, maybe it's my garden videos, maybe it's uh the funny way I present myself sometimes, maybe you just think the way I look is hysterical. But if I have encouraged, inspired, or made you think, I would appreciate it if you hit the like button, and that way the algorithm will rise us up and more people will get to view this information and share it, please. That would be great. Uh, you can also subscribe, you can find my podcast on Spotify or iHeartRadio or Apple, or now you can also find Free to Just Be on YouTube, and soon and very soon, I will be going live on YouTube. That's why I need you to like the podcast so that I can get the amount of followers that I need to do so. So if you've been following me, now you can follow the face behind Teresa Marie, uh the former hippie freak of the South. And um I just so appreciate you giving me some of your time, and I hope I bring some value and hope and inspiration to you tonight. And uh, as you can tell, I uh just came in from the garden. My husband and I went into town and uh picked up some more plants and um another bale of straw, and we were in his Jeep with all the windows wide open, and so uh thus my patriotic scarf and uh no makeup, and this is this is me, baby, and um I am just so happy to be

Baldwin’s Quote And A Hard Truth

SPEAKER_00 3:43

me. And tonight I want to open with a couple of quotes and uh definitions. So I'm gonna put my glasses on, and my quote is from James Baldwin, who was a prolific writer and uh activist, and he said, not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed unless it is faced. Now, is that not where we find ourselves right now on the planet? I think uh, especially since COVID days, um so many people are awakening to the prison planet that we have been living on. And so many of us are fed up with uh government overreach and uh all the control systems that are in place, and it's it's kind of a paradox that today we are observing Juneteenth.

Juneteenth And The Paradox Of Freedom

SPEAKER_00 4:48

And of course, that is when the African American population was emancipated and uh set free from slavery. But uh first let's let's view for a minute what uh a paradox is. What does paradox mean? So a paradox is a statement or a situation that seems self-contradictory or runs contrary to expectations. Now, you would expect that in the United States of America that we would be united and that we would be living in the republic that we thought we were living in, and yet it is a complete self-contradictory thing to say when we are constantly surveilled, when we are ill paying illegal taxes, when we are taxed uh ridiculously, um, when in so many different aspects, we as humans, not even just our African American brothers and sisters, and we are not negating, you know, uh the the uh remembrance that they are observing today uh on June two n June. But the paradox is are any of us truly free? Now that's what's so cool about James Baldwin's statement, because you see, we are beginning to face the fact that we are on this matrix merry-goran, and many of us, the huge majority of Humanityville is still going round and around that merry-ground. And then there are others, there are pioneers that have stepped off the m the Matrix Merry-Garound in many ways, shapes, and forms, and have left systems.

Stepping Off The Control Systems

SPEAKER_00 7:17

Uh the education system, the medical system, um the food system, um, the health care system. Pick a system, and many of us have begun or already have exited from a lot of these systems, and it's because we began to face the truth. Think about your African American brothers and sisters, who may not be living in plantation life, may not be um being whipped or um uh owned, you know, like like merchandise. That may not be going on anymore. Yet what uh did the system, what did the Matrix Merry-Go round do specifically to our African American brothers and sisters?

How Division Keeps People Bound

SPEAKER_00 8:17

They uh pretty much uh uh killed the family, right? They got uh so many of the men addicted to different drugs, um, and this was all by design. This is what the truth is. Um, just like we as humans and as Americans cannot take what happened to our African American brothers and sisters out of history, it's part of American history. We cannot negate that our governmental systems by design destroyed the black Americans' family life. And many of the moms were abandoned, and now we have single mom families, and and then they brought in um the rap culture and the thug life and you know uh wearing pants down below your your um butt cheeks and and and all of these things, if you look at them, they are all negatives, they are all still forms of slavery. They have pit um whites, red skin, yellow skin, uh it's all division. And every single race wants to be acknowledged, every single person on the planet wants to be acknowledged. And the other major thing that they did to our um dear black population is not only the destruction of families, which of course is is pretty much worldwide, but it separated them from church, from God. Um African Americans traditionally were very family-oriented, even when they were slaves, and were the most spiritual people. And you go to a gospel church that is full of color, and you will have the best worship ever. And they have really destroyed a lot of of that continuity from generations past, and it's a tragic, tragic outcome of what's happening. And yet, what James Baldwin said is true. True change is happening because people are facing this matrix merry-go-round we found ours uh find ourselves on, and we all want emancipation, we all want to be free of it. Now, I'm not negating, I I want to stay focused on on this day because it is important.

Patriotism Means Accountability

SPEAKER_00 11:17

So I was reading an article by a gal named Katrina Butler uh called When Fourth of July Meets Juneteenth. And I'm just gonna read a couple of sentences because they're so relevant to what's what's happening in the world today and what we're celebrating or um reminding ourselves of on this day of Juneteenth. So she says, we and I quote, we must also recognize that black history is American history. And true patriotism isn't blind loyalty. Um I always had a struggle with the Romans 13 scriptures where it says, obey the authorities that be, because they were put there by God for your own protection. And I always question that. Well, what if the powers that be are incredibly corrupt and evil? And you know, then you discover down the line as you're beginning to evolve and you're beginning to wake up more and more that many of the scriptures were adulterated or removed or twisted or added to. Why? Because the controllers of this Matrix Mary-Garound want to continue to control. But it's it's unraveling. It's it's like somebody pulled the cord, and dare I say, no, I don't have to dare, because it was God. God is unraveling it all and showing the world the truth. So as you're beginning to wake up, you are beginning to realize that you can't just blindly believe everything that you hear just because um, say,

Do Your Own Research Again

SPEAKER_00 13:10

for example, the political party that your grandparents and your mom and dad and now you belong to. No, you have to literally begin to uh do your own research. Um, one of the things I say all the time, um, over and over again on this podcast is we have to have a resurrection of inquisition. Where has our curiosity gone? Well, it's gone to Google. Hey Google, right? We don't we don't research anything on our own anymore. And um, it's part of that microwave mentality. Um, and unfortunately, folks, we cannot bypass, we cannot um not do the work. Nobody does it for us. It's an inside job, and um you as an individual and I as an individual have to be the one that is willing to um begin to awaken to what's really happening, and then we have to decide do we want to continue to live like that? So, anyway, to continue with Katrina Butler's um words, so she says we um we must recognize that black history is American history. This is the truth, and you know, there are people that want to continue this whole race division thing and and you know, say, oh, you know, you we don't even need to go there. It's it's ridiculous because it is true. History happened, and we can't just put it under the carpet and say it didn't, right? And so she continues true patriotism isn't blind loyalty. Now, here's where we get interesting. It's the courageous act of holding your nation accountable to its ideals, and that humanity bill is what there are people now challenging everything, challenging laws, challenging um regulations, challenging uh governmental leaders, uh saying we don't want you in this position of power, we don't want the same political leaders for 30 or 40 years. Uh, we want certain things to happen, we want certain things to stop. And this is truly what like Martin Luther King Jr. wanted to do. He wanted to see things systematically change instead of systematically continuing to loop the loop over and over again. Same racism, same division, same, same, same slavery for all of us. And then there's the few, the 2%, the elites, the one that run, the ones that run the money that want to control all the rest of us, right? So in the big picture, all of us on the planet have been being ruled by nefarious evil uh rulers, and we are all in our own form of slavery, and we all are responsible for exiting. And uh today I I do. I want to stand uh in the gap for my African American brothers and sisters and say, you know, I I am so sorry for what man did to your beautiful race, and it was wrong, and we have been led down these roads of evil over and over and over again across centuries, and hopefully, in my time here on the planet, before I exit, I would like to see unity and harmony on this planet, which is why I do this podcast, which is why I continue to evolve, which is why I share um all of my experiences, because I want to help people understand that uh we all allowed all of these control systems, and we can also rise up and change it. So Katrina Butler continues to say that um we have to hold our nation accountable to its ideals, right? She continues, it's being willing to ask the hard questions, to examine uncomfortable truths, and to build a better future from the wreckage

The Inner Work That Sets Us Free

SPEAKER_00 17:56

of what was. This I can apply this to the awakening journey. We all have to take the wreckage of our lives. It's just like the history of African Americans. They have a horrible history way back when. But then every immigrant that came here has their own story. And just like you and I, right now in the 21st century, we have an entire life of different things that occurred, and we're the ones that have to face these uncomfortable personal truths, failures, um ways that we succumbed to evil, uh, times that we didn't do what was right, um, times where we were uh judged and and spitefully misused. We have to face that ourselves and choose to build a better future from that wreckage. So then Katrina Butler goes on to say, so as we approach this year's Juneteenth, I remain patriotic, but with eyes wide open. I believe in the dream. I also believe in the work. And that right there is the awakening journey as well, the dance of transformation. We have to have our eyes wide open to what's gone on in our own lives, what's gone on in the world, and then we have to believe. We have to believe and see it. We have to change everything between our ears. We have to get back to our heart. We have to, in in order, the Wookiefoot sung the song. Um to find your heart you have to lose your mind. To find your heart, you have to lose your mind. And the longest journey is from here to here, to your heart. And that's where it truly begins. We have to face the uncomfortable truths, not only about our personal self, but our f family line, our uh cultural line, our economic lines. We have to face the truth of the world that we're living in. And then as she continues, you have to do the work. I believe in the work. And she closes. We are a country in tension, in transition, in pursuit. Is that not the truth? We uh we are in the most tumultuous times right now, and buckle up, buttercup, because there are gonna be so many truths revealed that I we're gonna have to hold each other up, red, yellow, black, and white. We are gonna have to join arms and forces, and we're gonna have to encourage each other because this government is gonna tobble, because the God that I serve, the God that created all of us, is is he's he's even more sick and tired of the evil than we are. And I do believe that he is beginning to shake everything, and so in closing. Katrina Butler says, To all those who call yourselves patriots, I ask you this. Are you willing to help America live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all? And you know, you might not think you can change the world, but the way we change the world is one heart at a time. So one person that begins to wake up and recognize, wow, wow, I can't, I cannot blame my screwed-up life on the race of people that I come from. I cannot blame where I am in life on my ancestors, on my mom and dad, on the government. I have to accept full responsibility for my body, mind, and soul. And I have to look at it. I have to sit in my own pile of shite. And I have to begin to shovel and resurrect Inquisition and figure out what the roots

Personal Responsibility And Daily Programs

SPEAKER_00 23:23

are of each of my personal matrix programs. Because we all have them. I'll share one with you right now. It's almost seven o'clock here in Middle Tennessee, and I'm drinking coffee. Not a good practice. It's one of the programs that I haven't quite dissolved yet. And it's by design. My little town has seven different coffee shops, and they run twenty four-seven just about. Most of this is by design. And when we begin to start peeling back all the things that we are surrounded with, and we begin to accept personal responsibility, then our heart changes, and the lights come back on.

unknown 24:23

Blink!

SPEAKER_00 24:25

And so one heart that gets reached, one heart that recognizes the mind is a tool, it does not control us, and we stop loop-de-looping our thoughts, we begin to heal, we begin to have fresh new chi or energy go through our bodies, but nobody comes to do this for us. Just like Chris uh Katrina Butler shared in her article about Juneteenth, we have to do the work. Yes, we have to recognize our own history and how we got to right here. Yes, that's an important aspect of the awakening transformational dance that we find ourselves in. One step forward, two steps back, three steps forward, one step back, and the dance continues. But we cannot shirk the inner work that is required to become free. Free to just be who we came here to be. We all have a purpose, but until we discover the I am in us, we can't discover our purpose. So I just pray today for every one of my beautiful brothers and sisters of color tonight, and I hope you've had a really good Juneteenth day.

Unity, Prayer, And The Closing Charge

SPEAKER_00 26:09

And to my white brothers and sisters that grumbled and complained about this day, we need to do better. And I just pray that all of us will have the greatest health and the most vibrant energy today and every day going forward. Because we're all gonna need super on our natural folks, because as Steven Spielberg's movie, Disclosure Day, it talked about uh the possible uh other life forms, and if you haven't seen that movie, it's worth it's worth going to see. We enjoyed it last weekend. Um but disclosures have only just begun. So hold each other up, no matter what color, color should not even be a thing anymore. I mean, really, let's just let love lead out, and we can reclaim this world right back out of the enemy's hands. And to you, enemy, we're coming to your camp and we're taking back what you stole from us, our health, our freedom, our families, our children, our rights, our wealth, our abundance, and our peace. And you have to give it back sevenfold because that's what the word of God says, and God's word doesn't lie and never comes back void. So I hope you have a wonder-filled weekend. And if you're seeing me on YouTube, woohoo! I'm here, I'm going forward. And if you're listening on uh just audio, I so appreciate your listening tonight. And please like, subscribe, and share, and I will see you next time. Peace.