June 2, 2016 Ridlley's Believe It Or Not American Indian Citizenship Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not For June 2, 2016 Finally only 232 days to endure President Obama’s pathetic lame duck term. Political theater in really high gear with Hillary’s “lead” over Sanders in California now having evaporated to two percent (a statistical dead heat) as she prepares to give a major foreign policy address claiming Trump is not fit to be commander in chief; Trump is already burning up the Twitter wires with preemptive attacks on her (needs to have spell check to spell “judgment” correctly) and is facing his equivalence of the Clinton email scandal with a fraud suit against him with respect to Trump University; in what has to be a record, Hillary has not held a press conference since December 4, 2015; President Obama was stuttering profusely as he compared Trump supporters to a bunch of “Okie Dokes” (people who fall for scams); we now find that ala Katie Couric’s deleting of 8 minutes of Under the Gun, the State Department admitted it deleted portions of a press conference video admitting that the administration had lied on a key point in the Iran nuclear deal. On the non political theater front, the media is in a frenzy over the killing of a gorilla to save a toddler who fell into the gorilla pit at the Cincinnati Zoo while giving almost no coverage to the 69 people shot, 6 of whom died, in Chicago over the Memorial Day Weekend.

As always I trust your Thursday is off to a great start and that you will enjoy today’s holidays and observances, a music link to Ray Charles, factoids of interest, a relevant quote from George Clooney,  while  looking forward to enjoying  a bowl of rocky road ice cream, blessed with a positive attitude and  secure in  the knowledge that, if you want to find a gift for any memorable events like FATHERS’ DAY, GRADUATIONS, birthdays, weddings, or  anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem  at a great price  tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.

1. American Indian Citizenship Day—celebrating that on this day in 1924 all American Indians born here became American citizens, not just those who had served in the military or who had married an American citizen.    

2. International Sex Workers Day—commemorating the protest and occupation of a church in Lyons, France of some 100 prostitutes on this day in 1975 to protest working conditions and violence against them. If you see someone today walking with a red umbrella, there is a good chance that that person may be a member of the world’s oldest profession.     

3. 1962 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1962 on a run of five weeks in that position I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles.  Here’s a link to Ray Charles performing the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQXsM1l2wZ8

4. National Rocky Road Ice Cream Day—celebrating this poet’s favorite ice cream especially when served with some berries or fruits.    

5. Shades of Gray—noting the birthday on this day in 1740 in Paris of the author, philosopher, and playwright Marquis de Sade also best known for his acts of sexual cruelty and debauchery (to which he was introduced by his uncle, an abbot in the church, at the age of 6 and giving us the word “sadist.” His sadistic behavior practiced on prostitutes is exactly the sort of behavior that the ladies of the night would have marched against on this day in 1975. He spent the last years of his life in an insane asylum, in typical de Sade fashion having a relationship with a 14 year old daughter of one of the employees there.

On this day in:

a. 1662 in a dark day for religious tolerance Bridget Bishop’s trial for witchcraft began in Salem, Massachusetts; she was found guilty and hanged on June 10, 1662 the first of 20 people subsequently found guilty and hanged.   

b. 1774 the Quartering Act of 1974 was enacted which allowed the colonial governor to quarter British troops in unoccupied homes, barns and other structures if other accommodations were not available. The act was deeply resented and along with the Stamp Act and British attitudes toward the Colonies was a driving force to move the colonies to rebel against the Crown and its repeal in March of 1776 was a classic example of too little, too late but remains part of our history embodied in the Third Amendment. 

c. 1835 P.T. Barnum and his circus began its first tour of the United States.

d. 1886 President Grover Cleveland married Francis Folsom in the White House, becoming the only president to marry in the White House.

e. 2004 Ken Jennings won the first of his 74 consecutive wins on Jeopardy, winning  $2,520,000 before being defeated by Nancy Zerg; his second place finish to her netted him a paltry $2,000.  

Reflections on the Salem Witch Trials from an actor’s perspective: “I believe in all the qualities of being a liberal. I keep going back to all the great social events in our country's history, starting with the Salem witch trials, where the conservative view was that they're witches and should be burned at the stake, and the liberal view was there's no such thing as witches.” George Clooney Unless of course they happen to be conservatives in which case they are witches as should be burned and the stake or at least hounded and ridiculed by the media.     

 Please enjoy the poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day In History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance or go to Ridley's Believe It Or Not for just This Day In History.

© June 2, 2016, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet 
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