Ridley's
Believe It Or Not—August 4, 2014: Unless a member of or veteran
of the U.S. Coast Guard another meager day of holidays but you are probably on
vacation anyway and are already celebrating. Hope you enjoy what is posted,
along with the factoids and quote from Rear Admiral R.R. Waesche with a smile
on your face, a positive attitude and a chocolate chip cookie, hopefully one of
Kellies Best, in your hand.
1. Coast
Guard Day—celebrating the founding of the Coast Guard on this day in
1790 founded originally as the Revenue Marine designed to protect not lives and
safe navigation and marine activities as it does today but to protect the
collection of tariffs by interdicting smuggling, a function it still performs
quite well in the case of illegal drugs coming into this country over and under
the waters. Happy Birthday Coasties.
2. International
Assistance Dog—celebrating for a week the contribution of assistance
dogs that provide great service to those people physically challenged and
giving a new very admired meaning to the phrase “working like a dog.”
3. National
Chocolate Chip Day---celebrating one of the great cookies of all time
and a great source of wealth to Famos Amos and Mrs. Fields but if you want the
best chocolate chip cookie in the world try Kellies Best; to order go to http://www.kelliscookies.com/
4. National Single Working
Women’s Day—celebrating the contributions in the workplace of all the
single women especially the single working moms in the workplace and in the
home.
5. Bipartisanship
First Step—celebrating an easy way to take a first step toward ending
the rancor and gridlock in D.C. by wishing President Obama, born on this day in
1961, a Happy Birthday.
On this day
in
a. 1977 President Jimmy Carter
signed legislation creating the Department of Energy which despite billions of
dollars spent has still not found a way to convert the hot air emanating in
Washington into an energy source.
b. 1987 to the future joy of
MSNBC, the FCC rescinded the Fairness Doctrine for radio and television which
required stations to present issues fairly; that act is the basis for the
plethora of conservative and liberal talk shows—hard to find unbiased coverage
of the news today.
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c. 1993 a federal judge sentence
LAPD officers Stacey Koon and Lawrence Powell to 30 months in prison for
violating Rodney King’s civil rights. Too bad the federal action did not
precede the state criminal as we might have avoided the L.A. riots following
the not guilty verdict.
Having experienced firsthand
in Alaska the importance of the Coast Guard to maritime safety and navigation
very glad of their continued existence: “The cat with nine lives is a piker
compared to the Coast Guard. You can kick this old service around, tear it to
pieces, scream from the house tops that it is worthless, ought to be
abolished or transferred to the Navy, have the people in fighting among
themselves and working at cross purposes and it bobs up serenely bigger and stronger
than ever.” Rear Admiral R.R. Waesche, Commandant of the Coast Guard
1936-1945 in a private letter 1935
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Please
enjoy the 140 character poems on events of interest on my twitter account below
(if you like them, retweet and join almost 140 growing followers
and please follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and
entertaining poems on my blogs--click on links below. www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for poems
to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy. Go to Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times for comments
on important and breaking news events that should be of interest.
© August 4,
2014 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
