“As I turn up the collar on
My favorite winter coat
This wind is blowin’ my mind
I see the kids in the street
With not enough to eat
Who am I to be blind pretending not to see their needs?”
“Man In the Mirror” — Michael Jackson

Thirty-five years ago, Michael Jackson was dominating radio play with his album Bad. “Man In the Mirror” was the fourth single released from the album in February of 1988, quickly climbing to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 and holding the top spot for multiple weeks.

When Jackson passed away in 2009, an instrumental version of the song was played at the end of his memorial service.

The video for the song became notable because of the absence of Jackson in the video. Known for his incredible music videos throughout his music career, Jackson instead featured a montage of major news events and historic people.

The lyrics of the tune focus on a person who is taking time to reflect on their place in the world and choosing to use finances and potential influence not to build further finances and influence, but instead to help those who are truly in need and truly struggling.

This weekend, there are three celebrations for which people are preparing across the United States.

Throughout the month, various cities across the country are holding annual Pride Month parades, usually happening on weekends. Father’s Day is Sunday, and Juneteenth is Monday.

If you were to take a guess at which of the three took the longest to receive federal recognition after being proposed, you’d likely be wrong.

Father’s Day was originally proposed at a national level in 1910, with a local celebration in Spokane, Wash., serving as the model. More than 60 years later, President Richard Nixon officially recognized the day in 1972.

While Juneteenth celebrations date back to the 1860s, the first national proposal to recognize the holiday was in 1996, with it being added to the national holiday list in 2021.

Pride Month began as a march to recognize the Stonewall riots of 1969. The month was recognized at a federal level in 1999.

Sadly, many use the celebration of Pride Month and Juneteenth as a platform to continue to emphasize efforts to suppress and reduce the value of persons who are being recognized or honored with those celebrations.

One common refrain is that “fathers get one day, mothers get one day, soldiers who die get one day (Memorial Day), but we have to hear about the ‘alphabet army’ for a whole month!” (Quoted from a TikTok video speaking against Pride.)

One issue with that rhetoric is that June is recognized as the month… of recognizing many things.

It is National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, National PTSD Awareness Month, National Homeownership Month, National DJ Month, National Safety Month, National Dairy Month, National Candy Month, and National Adopt-a-Cat Month, among many others.

Oddly, you never hear anyone complaining about those things being acknowledged during June, though I have certainly seen and heard advertisements about multiple events for the previously-mentioned “celebrations,” whether it be a sale of candy or milk, a special promotion from home lenders, or dinners and dances to celebrate Caribbean food and culture.

While Monday is Juneteenth, it’s also the International Day for the elimination of sexual violence in conflict, World Martini Day, World Productivity Day, World Refugee Day, National Vanilla Milkshake Day, and National American Eagle Day, among many others.

A martini and a vanilla milkshake in the same day might not be the nicest thing to do to your stomach, but certainly Monday is the recognized day to do it!

Heck, Father’s Day, June 18, is also International Sushi Day, National Turkey Lovers’ Day, and National Go Fishing Day. See, dads, you have a reason to head out fishing on Father’s Day!

Pride and Juneteenth often bring up comments that those groups attempt to put down or harm others, but to be very honest, the day among those with some of the most intense hurt is actually Father’s Day.

I am incredibly blessed to have a father who has been a great example of a person as I was growing up and a great ear and huge help in so many areas of life as I’ve reached adulthood.

Not everyone has been blessed to have that in their life.

Christian author and speaker Beth Moore went through a very public separation from the Southern Baptist Church over the past few years. She disagreed with the church’s public statement that degraded women’s role in ministry and even in church lay leadership.

She went through multiple years of being publicly berated by those who once had booked her to speak to their conferences and spent their Bible studies reviewing her books. She ended up leaving the Southern Baptist Church, of which she’d been part since her youth, to join the Anglican church.

Part of her writing for multiple years was her revelation that she had been sexually abused as a child. In her recent book, “All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir,” Moore reveals that the abuse had been at the hands of her now-deceased father.

She talked about her home not being safe and even a place that she dreaded going to visit after she grew up and left because of the traumatic memories that would “rush in” whenever she was in certain places in the home where the abuse had been perpetrated.

Moore’s disenfranchisement with the Southern Baptist denomination began with public endorsement by the church of candidate Donald Trump in 2016, despite recordings of Trump admitting to perpetrating sexual abuse on women and boasting of getting away with it.

Her own background as a survivor and the reports of sexual abuse among leadership in the Southern Baptist Church that had been covered up eventually piled up to the point where Moore spoke out publicly against the church.

This led to a significant reflection by Moore on some of the things that she had taught in her life.

“It’s just devastating…I taught them. I helped with this,” Moore said in a recent interview with National Public Radio’s Ayesha Rascoe, referring to the cover-up of sexual abuse and degradation of women’s roles in the church. “I was part of this…just devastating.”

Rascoe asked Moore whether the experience had changed her view about those who are members of the LGBTQ+ community, a group that the Southern Baptist Church actively teaches against.

“I know what it is like to be made to feel like you are no longer wanted and you are outcast,” Moore stated.

Moore experienced the most incredible violation of a father-child relationship, yet she frequently wrote to praise fathers in her books. She spoke in front of stadium-sized crowds to encourage the role of a father within the life of a child, even though she had been abused.

Now, she’s sharing that while it’s not her sexual preference, she is supportive of those who are LGBTQ+.

Sometimes, it takes reflection to realize that it doesn’t have to be this-or-that within the mindset. All people can have value without reducing the value of any one person.

Enjoy celebrating the holidays you choose to celebrate - and take the time to educate yourself on the background of others, even if it’s not one you celebrate.

Perhaps that will allow us all to understand that there really isn’t a black or white when it comes to so many of these issues... but that’s a different Michael Jackson tune.