One of our readers said she’d like to know what’s going on with Daydreamz and SAMA, LLC, our local cannabis entrepreners. We made a big deal out of their arrival in Town, their permissions, the work of the Planning Board. How are they doing?

    Well have an update in the August Times. Just next month.

    To the Editor: I found Jane Lawless' interesting piece on a few of the unsung Black women heroes of the Civil War an inspiring example of courage and bravery. ("Mark Juneteenth by remembering the Black women who went above and beyond for the Union," Eagle, June 19.)

    These women no doubt endured unimaginable hardships prior to making their desperate but necessary decisions to escape their slave owners. Their stories should be included in any history lesson on the Civil War.

    For almost 50 years, I lived less than an hour from Galveston, Texas — the site of where approximately 250,000 enslaved Texans learned 2½ years after the Emancipation Proclamation that they were now free. As imagined, living in Texas, Juneteenth has long been a much recognized and celebrated holiday.

    So imagine my surprise when I learned that some of my Berkshire neighbors, who seemed to know nothing of Juneteenth's history and its importance, were complaining on [our local] social media that our transfer station and Town Hall were closed because of this "Joe Biden made-up holiday."

    I can assure these folks that to many Black Americans, not just in Texas but yes even in Massachusetts, Juneteenth is not a "made-up holiday" and is every bit as significant as Patriot's Day. To suggest otherwise shows a lack of understanding of how President Abraham Lincoln changed the course of our country's history by declaring the owning of human beings immoral and against America's egalitarian ideals.

Melissa Bye
New Hartford Road