Today is Hawaii’s third official marking of Juneteenth as a state “day of observance” of the end of slavery, though not one of the holidays that state and county workers have off.

It took several tries before it even got that far — and House Bill 1449 in 2022 was the most recent, unsuccessful effort to promote it to join 13 other annual state holidays here; general election days are holidays as well.

Even if it is a work day, there’s always time to reflect on the sunset of a dark period in American history.