Ridley's Believe It Or Not May 15 History Peace Officers Memorial Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—May 15, 2015 Trust your Friday tasks will be quickly finished and your desk cleared to enjoy the weekend. As always, I  hope you enjoy the holidays and observances, factoids of interest, a music video of Hypnotize and a relevant quote from Pope Leo XIII , looking forward to powering down your favorite recipe involving chocolate chips, blessed  with a positive attitude even though you know you may have to wade through tons of spam in your inbox, and secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable event like Fathers’ Day, 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. Peace Officers Memorial Day—commemorating and honoring those police officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice while on duty since the observance was created by proclamation of President Kennedy in 1961. Very appropriate to observe this day as police officers increasingly have become targets with 42 having died through May 14, 2015 of this year, which is 42 too many. If you see an officer today, thank them for their service and pray for their safety.
       2. International Day of the Family—a UN General Assembly observance observed since May 15, 1994 to commemorate the importance of the family to the community; the observance is more important than ever as the family as a unit is under increasing attack from AIDS that kills one or both parents to births out of wedlock and divorce.
       3. 1997 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1997 on a three week run Hypnotize ironically from his album Life After Death   by Notorious B.I.G., a hip hop artist and mafioso rapper who was shot to death on March 9, 1997 in another black on black shooting in a crime which has never been solved. Here is a link to a music video of Notorious B.I.G. performing Hypnotize: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glEiPXAYE-U
       4. National Chocolate Chip Day—how could our taste buds survive without chocolate chips to go into our ice cream, cookies, brownies, scones, etc.?
       5. All Right, All Bright Day—celebrating the birthday on this day in 1937 of Madeline Albright the first female Secretary of State who served under Bill Clinton and who unlike her successor in 2009 actually had accomplishments, was free of scandal and did not run her office through a private email server.
       On this day in:                                                           
       a. 1718 James Puckle, a lawyer in England, patented the first machine gun; it was capable of firing flintlock discharged bullets at nine shots a minute, a first step in the machine guns of today capable of firing up to 1,000 rounds a minute.
       b. 1862 President Lincoln signed into law a bill creating the Bureau of Agriculture (later renamed the Department of Agriculture). Although the number of farmers has decreased, like all federal agencies it has continued to grow and its budget expand.
       c. 1891 Pope Leo XIII defended workers’ rights and property rights in Rerum Novarum (of Revolutionary Change) ,  marking the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching, which recognizes private property and free market forces but calls them to be tempered by moral social considerations, which provides understanding of the foundation for some of Pope Francis’ proclamations.  
      d. 1911 the U.S. Supreme Court in Standard Oil of New Jersey v. United States ruled that the company is an unreasonable monopoly under the Sherman Anti-Trust and ordered it broken up.
      e. 1940 McDonald’s opened the first of its over 35,000 restaurants in San Bernardino, California; it is no longer there, but the one located in Downey, opened on August 18, 1953, still is and going strong after 62 years.
      f. 1997 finally after 22 years of silence and denial, the U.S. government acknowledged the “Secret War” in Laos against the Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese primarily involving U.S. airpower (some 2 million tons of bombs dropped) which proved to no avail as the Pathet Lao were ultimately victorious.

Reflections on the tenets of social teachings: “Let the working man and the employer make free agreements, and in particular let them agree freely as to the wages; nevertheless, there underlies a dictate of natural justice more imperious and ancient than any bargain between man and man, namely, that wages ought not to be insufficient to support a frugal and well-behaved wage-earner. If through necessity or fear of a worse evil the workman accepts harder conditions because an employer or contractor will afford him no better, he is made the victim of force and injustice.” Pope Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum
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© May 15 , 2015 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
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