#national gun violence awareness month

[adisquietfollows]

The reporters interviewed Amit Soussana for eight hours and doctors she spoke with immediately after her release. They also reviewed medical records, videos, text messages and photographs.

Full text under the cut.

March 26, 2024

Amit Soussana, an Israeli lawyer, was abducted from her home on Oct. 7, beaten and dragged into Gaza by at least 10 men, some armed. Several days into her captivity, she said, her guard began asking about her sex life.

Ms. Soussana said she was held alone in a child’s bedroom, chained by her left ankle. Sometimes, the guard would enter, sit beside her on the bed, lift her shirt and touch her, she said.

He also repeatedly asked when her period was due. When her period ended, around Oct. 18, she tried to put him off by pretending that she was bleeding for nearly a week, she recalled.

Around Oct. 24, the guard, who called himself Muhammad, attacked her, she said.

Early that morning, she said, Muhammad unlocked her chain and left her in the bathroom. After she undressed and began washing herself in the bathtub, Muhammad returned and stood in the doorway, holding a pistol.

“He came towards me and shoved the gun at my forehead,” Ms. Soussana recalled during eight hours of interviews with The New York Times in mid-March. After hitting Ms. Soussana and forcing her to remove her towel, Muhammad groped her, sat her on the edge of the bathtub and hit her again, she said.

He dragged her at gunpoint back to the child’s bedroom, a room covered in images of the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants, she recalled.

“Then he, with the gun pointed at me, forced me to commit a sexual act on him,” Ms. Soussana said.

Ms. Soussana, 40, is the first Israeli to speak publicly about being sexually assaulted during captivity after the Hamas-led raid on southern Israel. In her interviews with The Times, conducted mostly in English, she provided extensive details of sexual and other violence she suffered during a 55-day ordeal.

Ms. Soussana’s personal account of her experience in captivity is consistent with what she told two doctors and a social worker less than 24 hours after she was freed on Nov. 30. Their reports about her account state the nature of the sexual act; The Times agreed not to disclose the specifics.

Ms. Soussana described being detained in roughly half a dozen sites, including private homes, an office and a subterranean tunnel. Later in her detention, she said, a group of captors suspended her across the gap between two couches and beat her.

For months, Hamas and its supporters have denied that its members sexually abused people in captivity or during the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. This month, a United Nations report said that there was “clear and convincing information” that some hostages had suffered sexual violence and there were “reasonable grounds” to believe sexual violence occurred during the raid, while acknowledging the “challenges and limitations” of examining the issue.

After being released along with 105 other hostages during a cease-fire in late November, Ms. Soussana spoke only in vague terms publicly about her treatment in the Gaza Strip, wary of recounting such a traumatic experience. When filmed by Hamas minutes before being freed, she said, she pretended to have been treated well to avoid jeopardizing her release.

Ms. Soussana said she had decided to speak out now to raise awareness about the plight of the hostages still in Gaza, whose number has been put at more than 100, as negotiations for a cease-fire falter.

Hours after her release, Ms. Soussana spoke with a senior Israeli gynecologist, Dr. Julia Barda, and a social worker, Valeria Tsekhovsky, about the sexual assault, the two women said in separate interviews with The Times. A medical report filed jointly by them, and reviewed by The Times, briefly summarizes her account.

“Amit spoke immediately, fluently and in detail, not only about her sexual assault but also about the many other ordeals she experienced,” Dr. Barda said.

The following day, on Dec. 1, Ms. Soussana shared her experience with a doctor from Israel’s National Center of Forensic Medicine, according to the center’s medical report, which was reviewed by The Times.

Siegal Sadetzki, a professor at Tel Aviv University medical school who is helping and advising Ms. Soussana’s family as a volunteer, said Ms. Soussana first told her about the sexual assault within days of her release. Professor Sadetzki, a former top Israeli health official, said Ms. Soussana’s accounts have remained consistent.

Ms. Soussana also spoke to the U.N. team that published the report on sexual violence, but The Times was unable to review her testimony.

A spokesman for Hamas, Basem Naim, said in a 1,300-word response to The Times that it was essential for the group to investigate Ms. Soussana’s allegations, but that such an inquiry was impossible in “the current circumstances.”

Mr. Naim cast doubt on Ms. Soussana’s account, questioning why she had not spoken publicly about the extent of her mistreatment. He said the level of detail in her account makes “it difficult to believe the story, unless it was designed by some security officers.”

“For us, the human body, and especially that of the woman, is sacred,” he said, adding that Hamas’s religious beliefs “forbade any mistreatment of any human being, regardless of his sex, religion or ethnicity.”

Mr. Naim criticized The Times for insufficient coverage of Palestinian suffering, including reports of sexual assault by Israeli soldiers on Palestinian women, which have been the subject of investigations by U.N. officials, rights groups and others. He also said “civilian hostages were not the target” of the raid and said “we have from the first moment declared our readiness to release them.”

A Hamas planning document found in one village shortly after the Oct. 7 raid, which was reviewed by The Times, said: “Take soldiers and civilians as prisoners and hostages to negotiate with.” Video from Oct. 7 shows uniformed Hamas militants abducting civilians.

The Abduction

Ms. Soussana lived alone in a cramped single-story home on the western side of Kibbutz Kfar Azza. After hearing sirens warning of rocket attacks on Oct. 7, she said, she sheltered in her bedroom, which was also a reinforced safe room. From her bedroom, Ms. Soussana listened as the attackers’ gunfire grew closer.

The small kibbutz stands roughly 1.5 miles from Gaza, and it was one of more than 20 Israeli villages, towns and army bases overrun that day by thousands who surged across the Gazan border shortly after dawn. Some 1,200 people were killed that day and about 250 abducted, Israeli officials say, setting off a war in Gaza that local health officials say has killed at least 31,000 Palestinians.

Ms. Soussana was at the kibbutz almost by chance. Sick with a fever, she had been recuperating the previous day in the nearby city of Sderot, with her mother, Mira, who pressed her to stay the night. But Ms. Soussana drove home to Kfar Azza to feed her three cats, she said.

The youngest of three sisters, Ms. Soussana had grown up in Sderot. She qualified as a lawyer at a local college and worked for a law firm specializing in intellectual property. Her colleagues considered her a diligent, quiet and private person who kept her distance, her supervisor, Oren Mendler, said in an interview. In Kfar Azza, Ms. Soussana said, she rarely involved herself in village life and was not part of the local WhatsApp groups, which left her unaware of the extent of the attack on the kibbutz.

At 9:46 a.m. that day, she heard gunmen outside, prompting her to hide inside her bedroom closet, according to messages on her family WhatsApp group reviewed by The Times. Twenty minutes later, her phone died.

Moments later, “I heard an explosion, a huge explosion,” she said. “And the second after that, someone opened the closet door.”

Dragged from the closet, she said, she saw roughly 10 men rifling through her belongings, armed with assault rifles, a grenade launcher and a machete.

Part of the house was on fire — a blaze that would ruin the building.

Over the next hour, the group dragged her through a nearby field toward Gaza. Security footage from a solar farm near the kibbutz, which was widely circulated on the internet, shows the group repeatedly tackling her to the ground as they struggled to restrain her. At one point, a kidnapper picked her up and slung her across his back. The video shows her flailing so hard, her legs thrashing in the air, that the man tumbled to the ground.

“I didn’t want to let them take me to Gaza like an object, without a fight,” said Ms. Soussana. “I still kept believing that someone will come and rescue me.”

The Abuser

The kidnappers attempted to restrain her by beating her and wrapping her in a white fabric, the video shows. Unable to subdue her, the attackers tried and failed to carry her by bicycle, she said. Finally, they bound her hands and feet and dragged her across the bumpy farmland into Gaza, she said.

She was badly wounded, bleeding heavily, with a split lip, she said. The hospital report prepared shortly after her release said that she returned to Israel with fractures in her right eye socket, cheek, knee and nose and severe bruising on her knee and back. The report stated that several injuries were related to her abduction on Oct. 7, including punches to her right eye.

After reaching the edge of Gaza, Ms. Soussana said, she was shoved into a waiting car and driven a few hundred yards into the outskirts of Gaza City. She was untied, dressed in a paramilitary uniform and transferred to another car filled with uniformed militants. A hood was placed over her head, though she could still catch glimpses of her surroundings from under it, she said. After a short drive, she was hurried up a staircase and onto a rooftop, she said.

After the hood was removed, Ms. Soussana said, she found herself in a small structure built on the roof of what she would later realize was an upscale private home. She remembered that militants were busy taking more guns from a box. Then the gunmen hurried downstairs, and she was left alone, facing a wall, with a man who said he was the owner of the house and called himself Mahmoud, she recalled.

“After a couple of minutes, he said I can turn around,” Ms. Soussana said. “And I was shocked,” she added. “I find myself sitting in a house in Gaza.”

She said Mahmoud was soon joined by a younger man, Muhammad. She remembered Muhammad as a chubby, balding man of average height with a wide nose.

Later that day, they dressed her in a thick brown garment that covered her body, she said. They gave her three pills, which they said were painkillers. It was the only time that she remembers receiving any kind of medicine in Gaza, let alone medical treatment.

Fitted with a fan and a television, the room appeared to have been prepared for her arrival, she said. There were three mattresses, she said, one for her and two for the guards.

Early in her captivity, her guards chained her ankle to the window frame, she said. Around Oct. 11, she said, she was led by the chain to a bedroom downstairs. She understood that it belonged to one of Mahmoud’s sons, and that his family had been moved to another place.

The chain was reattached to the door handle, she said, next to a mirror. For the first time since her capture, she could see what she looked like.

“I saw the chains and I saw that my face was all swollen and blue,” she said.

“And I just started to cry,” she said. “This was one of the lowest moments of my life.”

The Jail

For the next two and a half weeks in October, Ms. Soussana said, she was guarded exclusively by Muhammad.

She recalled that the room was almost permanently shrouded in darkness. The curtain was usually drawn shut and there were rolling power outages for most of the day, she said.

She said Muhammad slept outside the bedroom, in the adjacent living room, but frequently entered the bedroom in his underwear, asking about her sex life and offering to massage her body.

When he took her to the bathroom, Ms. Soussana said, he refused to let her shut the door. After giving her sanitary pads, Muhammad seemed particularly interested in the timing of her period, she said. She said she had spoken in a mix of basic English and Arabic; she had learned a little Arabic at school and her mother’s family — Jews from Iraq — had sometimes spoken it during her childhood.

“Every day, he would ask: ‘Did you get your period? Did you get your period? When you get your period, when it will be over, you will wash, you will take a shower and you will wash your clothes,’” Ms. Soussana recalled.

When it arrived, Ms. Soussana said, she was exhausted, afraid and undernourished; her period lasted just one day. She managed to convince him that her menstruation continued for nearly a week, she said.

She tried to humanize herself in his eyes by asking the meaning of Arabic words she heard on television. She also promised that her family would reward him financially if she was returned without further harm to Israel, she said.

In the afternoons, two associates of Muhammad would join him at the apartment, bringing him a cooked meal, she said. Some of this food was given to her as her one meal of the day.

The Israeli strikes on the neighborhood became more frequent and frightening, Ms. Soussana said, noting that some shattered the windows. As the bombing intensified, she said, she started feeling sorry for the civilians, wondering why Hamas had never built bomb shelters for its people.

“I felt for them,” Ms. Soussana said. “Just think about growing up like this — it’s scary.”

The Assault

Early on the morning of the assault, she said, Muhammad insisted she take a shower, but she refused, saying the water was cold. Undeterred, he unchained Ms. Soussana and brought her to the kitchen and showed her a pot of water boiling on the stove, she said.

Minutes later, he brought her to the bathroom and gave her the heated water to pour over herself, she said.

After washing for a few minutes, she heard his voice again from the door, she said.

“‘Quickly, Amit, quickly,’” she recalled him saying.

“I turned around and I saw him standing there,” she said. “With the gun.”

She remembered reaching for a hand towel to cover herself as he advanced and hit her.

“He said, ‘Amit, Amit, take it off,’” she recalled. “Finally, I took it off.”

“He sat me on the edge of the bath. And I closed my legs. And I resisted. And he kept punching me and put his gun in my face,” Ms. Soussana said. “Then he dragged me to the bedroom.”

At that point, Muhammad forced her to commit a sexual act on him, Ms. Soussana said. After the assault, Muhammad left the room to wash, leaving Ms. Soussana sitting naked in the dark, she said.

When he returned, she recalled him showing remorse, saying, “I’m bad, I’m bad, please don’t tell Israel.”

That day, Muhammad repeatedly returned to offer her food, Ms. Soussana said. Sobbing on the bed, she turned down the initial offerings, she said.

Knowing that Ms. Soussana craved sunlight, she said, he refused to open the curtains, leaving the room in darkness. Desperate for daylight, she accepted the food, believing that she had no other option but to placate her abuser.

“You can’t stand looking at him — but you have to: He’s the one who’s protecting you, he’s your guard,” she said. “You’re there with him and you know that every moment it can happen again. You’re completely dependent on him.”

The Israelis

Ms. Soussana said her captors moved her away from the border after a major, hourslong bombardment overnight. Based on the extent of the explosions and snippets she caught on television, she later concluded it was around the start of Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza on Friday, Oct. 27.

On the following day, she was hurried into a small white car, she said. The driver headed southwest toward what she would later be told was the central city of Nuseirat.

“Muhammad is sitting in the back seat next to me, and with the gun pointed at me,” she said.

The car stopped outside what looked like a United Nations school and Ms. Soussana was ushered into a busy street, she recalled.

She said she was handed over to a man who called himself Amir. He marched her up the stairs of a nearby apartment block and into another private home, she said.

For the first time in weeks, she was free of Muhammad — but terrified to be entering yet another unknown. “‘Oh my God,’” she remembered wondering. “‘What’s going to happen to me?’”

The man ushered her into a bedroom and shut the door behind her, she recalled. Inside, she found two young women playing cards, next to an older man lying on a bed and an older woman sitting in a chair, she said. Ms. Soussana was wearing traditional clothes from Gaza, she recalled.

“They looked at me and I looked at them, for like half a minute,” she said. “Then I asked, ‘Are you Israelis?’”

“Are you Israeli?” Ms. Soussana remembered one of the women replying.

The Tunnels

Three weeks after her kidnapping, Ms. Soussana had been united with four other hostages. Hugging them, Ms. Soussana broke down in tears, she said.

The identities of the four others were shared with The Times on the condition that their names would not be used to protect those still in captivity.

A few days after her arrival, she was summoned to the apartment’s living room, Ms. Soussana recalled. Amir often played here with his children.

On that day, the guards wrapped her head in a pink shirt, forced her to sit on the floor, handcuffed her, and began beating her with the butt of a gun, she said.

After several minutes, they used duct tape to cover her mouth and nose, tied her feet, and placed the handcuffs on the base of her palms, she said. Then she was suspended, hanging “like a chicken” from a stick stretching between two couches, causing her such pain that she felt that her hands would soon be dislocated.

They carried on beating and kicking her, focusing on the soles of her feet, while simultaneously demanding information they believed she was hiding from them, Ms. Soussana said.

She still doesn’t understand what exactly they wanted or why they thought she was concealing something, she said. At one point, the head guard brought over a spike, and made as if to poke her eye with it, pulling away just in time, she said.

“It was like that for 45 minutes or so,” she said. “They were hitting me and laughing and kicking me, and called the other hostages to see me,” she said.

Ms. Soussana recalled that the kidnappers untied her and returned her to the bedroom, telling her she had 40 minutes to produce the information they wanted or else they would kill her. She said one of the young women was so frightened that she asked Ms. Soussana if she had any last messages for her family.

In mid-November, the hostages were separated: The two youngest women were taken to an unknown location, she said, while Ms. Soussana and the older couple were driven to a house surrounded by farmland.

They found the house full of gunmen, who ordered them to sit on the floor. Suddenly, the older woman began to scream, Ms. Soussana said.

The woman was looking into a shaft that descended into the ground, Ms. Soussana said. “I hear one of the drivers telling her: ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry. It’s a city down there.’”

“Then I realized,” Ms. Soussana said. “We’re going into the tunnels.”

The Release

A ladder, several stairs and a series of narrow sloping passageways led the three hostages deep underground, she said.

By the time they reached the bottom, the guards said they were 40 meters deep, something they hoped would reassure the hostages, she said: The Israeli bombs could not reach them there.

Ms. Soussana said a big gunman in a mask was waiting for them at the bottom. Initially, he started shouting at them, telling them that Israel had killed his family, she said, but then quickly stopped, removed his mask and took a different tone.

She said the man introduced himself in English as Jihad and told them his father had worked in Israel and had even had his Israeli boss to dinner, in the years when Israeli civilians could still enter Gaza. He spoke in Hebrew at times. Jihad said he had learned some from watching Israeli television and sang them a famous song that he had heard on a children’s show, Ms. Soussana remembered.

“I was shocked,” Ms. Soussana said. “Suddenly, he was the most humane guy we met there.”

The ground shook every time a missile struck nearby, making her fear they might be buried alive, she said. The tunnels were dark, damp and too narrow for two people to pass each other. And their subterranean cell was so short of air that they were left dizzy and panting after taking a few steps, she said.

Israeli troops would later capture and photograph the tunnel. Ms. Soussana identified fabrics and mattresses in the pictures.

Their captors spent little more than an hour a day in the tunnel, ascending to higher levels overnight for fresh air, Ms. Soussana said. The hostages pleaded with the guards to bring them, too.

After several days, the kidnappers gave in, brought them back to the surface and drove them to another private house, Ms. Soussana said.

They were still there when Israel and Hamas agreed to a hostage deal and a temporary truce, which went into force on Friday, Nov. 24. The following day, the three hostages were driven to an office in Gaza City — Ms. Soussana’s final detention site.

Every day brought hope and disappointment. It was never clear which hostages would be freed, or when.

On Thursday, Nov. 30, which turned out to be the last full day of the truce, the guards were making lunch when one of them finished a phone call and turned to Amit.

“He says: ‘Amit. Israel. You. One hour,’” Ms. Soussana recalled.

Within an hour, Ms. Soussana said, she was separated from the older hostage and driven through Gaza City. The car stopped, and a woman in a hijab climbed inside. It was another Israeli hostage: Mia Schem, who was also being released.

They were taken to a junkyard, Ms. Soussana recalled. Around them, she said, their guards changed from civilian clothes into uniforms.

Finally, the two women were driven to Palestine Square, a major plaza at the heart of Gaza City, where a raucous crowd waited to see them handed over to the Red Cross. Social media video showed that Hamas struggled to control the onlookers, who surrounded the car, pressed up against its windows and at one point began to rock the vehicle, Ms. Soussana said.

After a tense few minutes, the Red Cross officials managed to transfer the women to their jeep.

As they approached the Israeli border, a female Red Cross official handed Ms. Soussana a phone. A person who said he was a soldier greeted her in Hebrew.

“He said, ‘A couple more minutes and we’re going to meet you,’” Ms. Soussana said. “I remember, I started to cry.”

Aaron Boxerman and Isabel Kershner contributed reporting.

Patrick Kingsley is the Jerusalem bureau chief, covering Israel and the occupied territories. He has reported from more than 40 countries, written two books and previously covered migration and the Middle East for The Guardian. More about Patrick Kingsley

Ronen Bergman is a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine, based in Tel Aviv. His latest book is “Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations,” published by Random House. More about Ronen Bergman

A version of this article appears in print on March 27, 2024, Section A, Page 1 of the New York edition with the headline: Israeli Hostage Tells of Sexual Assault in Gaza. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jacob Ogles at The Advocate:

Florida’s major bridges won’t be lit up for Pride Month this year. Instead, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants the Sunshine Skyway lit up in red, white and blue. Florida Transportation Secretary James Perdue recently announced on social media that as part of the state’s “Freedom Summer,” all bridges will be lit in patriotic colors from May 27 to Sept. 2. “As Floridians prepare for Freedom Summer, Florida's bridges will follow suit, illuminating in red, white, and blue from Memorial Day through Labor Day!” he wrote. “Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida continues to be the freest state in the nation.” The decision was announced as the DeSantis administration also touted a sales tax holiday and free access to state parks on Memorial Day weekend. So despite the governor’s abysmal record on LGBTQ+ rights, the decision didn’t seem to outwardly be motivated by a chance to pre-empt Pride.

But it did come after some Republican officials in the state objected to decisions in recent years to light up state bridges for certain causes. Manatee County Commissioner Mike Rahn, for example, emails the state Transportation Department objecting to lighting the Sunshine Skyway in St. Petersburg in rainbow colors for Pride Month and in orange for Gun Violence Awareness Day, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

There will be no bridges in Florida lighted up with the LGBTQ+ Pride Flag colors this year, as part of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s “Freedom Summer” initiative that all bridges be lighted up in the Red, White, and Blue all summer long.

This also continues a petty vendetta campaign against the LGBTQ+ community by DeSantis and his cronies.

[ausetkmt]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.”

White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo.

Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues including abortion, guns, immigration and LGBTQ rights. The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that such skewed framing of the subjects could drive extremists to violently attack public places across the U.S. in the coming months.

These type of threats and racist ideology have become so commonplace on social media that it’s nearly impossible for law enforcement to separate internet ramblings from dangerous, potentially violent people, Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacy groups as an FBI agent, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

“It seems intuitive that effective social media monitoring might provide clues to help law enforcement prevent attacks,” German said. “After all, the white supremacist attackers in Buffalo, Pittsburgh and El Paso all gained access to materials online and expressed their hateful, violent intentions on social media.”

But, he continued, “so many false alarms drown out threats.”

DHS and the FBI are also working with state and local agencies to raise awareness about the increased threat around the U.S. in the coming months.

The heightened concern comes just weeks after a white 18-year-old entered a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, with the goal of killing as many Black patrons as possible. He gunned down 10.

WATCH: Senate Homeland Security committee holds hearing on white supremacist violence

That shooter claims to have been introduced to neo-Nazi websites and a livestream of the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shootings on the anonymous, online messaging board 4Chan. In 2018, the white man who gunned down 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue shared his antisemitic rants on Gab, a site that attracts extremists. The year before, a 21-year-old white man who killed 23 people at a Walmart in the largely Hispanic city of El Paso, Texas, shared his anti-immigrant hate on the messaging board 8Chan.

References to hate-filled ideologies are more elusive across mainstream platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Telegram. To avoid detection from artificial intelligence-powered moderation, users don’t use obvious terms like “white genocide” or “white power” in conversation.

They signal their beliefs in other ways: a Christian cross emoji in their profile or words like “anglo” or “pilled,” a term embraced by far-right chatrooms, in usernames. Most recently, some of these accounts have borrowed the pop song “White Boy Summer” to cheer on the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade, according to an analysis by Zignal Labs, a social media intelligence firm.

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta banned praise and support for white nationalist and separatists movements in 2019 on company platforms, but the social media shift to subtlety makes it difficult to moderate the posts. Meta says it has more than 350 experts, with backgrounds from national security to radicalization research, dedicated to ridding the site of such hateful speech.

“We know these groups are determined to find new ways to try to evade our policies, and that’s why we invest in people and technology and work with outside experts to constantly update and improve our enforcement efforts,” David Tessler, the head of dangerous organizations and individuals policy for Meta, said in a statement.

A closer look reveals hundreds of posts steeped in sexist, antisemitic, racist and homophobic content.

In one Instagram post identified by The Associated Press, an account called White Primacy appeared to post a photo of a billboard that describes a common way Jewish people were exterminated during the Holocaust.

“We’re just 75 years since the gas chambers. So no, a billboard calling out bigotry against Jews isn’t an overreaction,” the pictured billboard said.

The caption of the post, however, denied gas chambers were used at all. The post’s comments were even worse: “If what they said really happened, we’d be in such a better place,” one user commented. “We’re going to finish what they started someday,” another wrote.

The account, which had more than 4,000 followers, was immediately removed Tuesday, after the AP asked Meta about it. Meta has banned posts that deny the Holocaust on its platform since 2020.

U.S. extremists are mimicking the social media strategy used by the Islamic State group, which turned to subtle language and images across Telegram, Facebook and YouTube a decade ago to evade the industry-wide crackdown of the terrorist group’s online presence, said Mia Bloom, a communications professor at Georgia State University.

“They’re trying to recruit,” said Bloom, who has researched social media use for both Islamic State terrorists and far-right extremists. “We’re starting to see some of the same patterns with ISIS and the far-right. The coded speech, the ways to evade AI. The groups were appealing to a younger and younger crowd.”

For example, on Instagram, one of the most popular apps for teens and young adults, white supremacists amplify each other’s content daily and point their followers to new accounts.

In recent weeks, a cluster of those accounts has turned its sights on Pride Month, with some calling for gay marriage to be “re-criminalized” and others using the #Pride or rainbow flag emoji to post homophobic memes.

Law enforcement agencies are already monitoring an active threat from a young Arizona man who says on his Telegram accounts that he is “leading the war” against retail giant Target for its Pride Month merchandise and children’s clothing line and has promised to “hunt LGBT supporters” at the stores. In videos posted to his Telegram and YouTube accounts, sometimes filmed at Target stores, he encourages others to go the stores as well.

Target said in a statement that it is working with local and national law enforcement agencies who are investigating the videos. As society becomes more accepting of LGBTQ rights, the issue may be especially triggering for young men who have held traditional beliefs around relationships and marriage, Bloom said.

“That might explain the vulnerability to radical belief systems: A lot of the beliefs that they grew up with, that they held rather firmly, are being shaken,” she said. “That’s where it becomes an opportunity for these groups: They’re lashing out and they’re picking on things that are very different.”

[beardedmrbean]

Democratic St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones’ support of gun control is coming into question after an open records request released thousands of her personal texts, including one that argued gun crackdowns are ineffective.

"Chicago has strict gun laws as well but that doesn't deter gun violence," Jones texted in a group chat to her dad, Virvus Jones and advisor Richard Callow on March 21, KSDK reported. "It's about investing in the people."

Thousands of Jones’ texts from her personal cellphone were publicly released last week after KSDK and the St. Louis Business Journal filed separate Sunshine Act requests for her communications regarding the political appointment process for a Circuit Attorney.

Her private message appears to contradict public comments she has made in the past, including after a mass shooting in the city last month that killed one and left 11 others injured.

ST. LOUIS CHECKS IN AS AMERICA'S MOST DANGEROUS CITY WHILE BALTIMORE SUBURB RANKS AS THE SAFEST: STUDY

"Our state's lax gun laws make our challenge even more difficult," Jones said in June following the shooting. "The legislature's lack of action on gun safety laws encourages the proliferation of guns on our streets and puts our responding officers directly in harm's way."

Jones also joined other cities across the country in declaring June 3 as "Gun Violence Awareness Day," where the mayor argued the Senate "must protect our families" by "expanding background checks to all gun sales, regulating assault weapons, and passing a federal red flag law." 

VIOLENT CRIMES ON THE RISE IN 2022, FOLLOWING PREVIOUS UNPRECEDENTED SPIKE IN MURDERS

In another text to her father and Callow, Jones recounted how Newark, New Jersey, has similar demographics to St. Louis, but far fewer murders, citing Newark’s investment in violence prevention programs. "Newark, NJ has the same size population, same size police force, and similar racial demographics, yet had 50 murders in 2022," she wrote, KSDK reported. "I visited these programs first hand and I know that they work. We just need the will…."

St. Louis recorded 200 homicides in 2022, 201 in 2021, and 263 in 2020, according to data published by the St. Louis Police Department. The city often has one of the highest murder rates in the nation, alongside cities such as Chicago and Baltimore.

The mayor’s office has since gone into "damage control mode," according to KSDK, with Jones’ spokesman releasing a statement last week clarifying the mayor’s stance on gun control.

"Gun laws are just one part of the solution," Jones spokesman Nick Desideri said. "There’s a difference between deterring behavior and making it harder to get firearms and weaponry; for example, there’s no doubt that gun laws in the blue region around Newark help reduce violence as opposed to here."

SOROS-BACKED PROSECUTOR IN ST. LOUIS ABRUPTLY RESIGNS AFTER SCANDAL-RIDDEN TENURE

In other texts, Jones appeared to agree with her public statements in support of gun control.

"We have way too many guns on our streets and no way to take them away," she said in a text message on May 10, according to KSDK.

They mayor also took issue with an op-ed written by Republican state Sen. Cindy O'Laughlin, which argued for city leaders to emphasize education, employment training and economic development to reverse crime trends in St. Louis. 

"St. Louis needs to clean up its act in many ways. It starts with reducing crime. We are also working to improve our schools statewide and there’s no better place to start than in St. Louis. The costs of crime and an unskilled workforce is costing the entire state in many ways," O'Laughlin wrote in The Missouri Times. 

ST. LOUIS FATAL SHOOTING CLAIMS LIVES OF WOMAN AND 2 CHILDREN IN COUNTY HOME

Jones mocked the op-ed on text, summing it up as "basically" saying, "'Thanks for staying in STL even tho we’re responsible for the horrific amount of guns on your streets.'" 

Desideri took to Twitter last week to share a message from Jones, which stated the texts were released due to an "honest mistake."

"I’ve never been one to hide my feelings," the message relayed by the spokesman stated. "Through an honest mistake, text messages between my family and close friends were released to the public. Sometimes my words can be terse, and my text messages speak for themselves. I understand the impact of some of my comments, and will contact the relevant parties to ensure productive dialogue moving forward." 

MISSOURI ATTORNEY GENERAL BLAMES ST. LOUIS PROGRESSIVE DA FOR CITY REACHING 'CRISIS POINT'

The texts between Jones, her father and Callow were gathered following the open records requests in connection to Kim Gardner stepping down in May as St. Louis circuit attorney. Typically, such materials are reviewed and portions redacted before they are released to the public, but the texts were published wholesale in a 135-page PDF document, according to KSDK.

The PDF was removed just a couple days after it was published and replaced with a shorter and redacted version.

The mayor’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for additional comment on the matter.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey on Thursday introduced legislation to outlaw the marketing of firearms to children amid growing outrage from federal lawmakers, gun violence prevention advocates, and parents over a weapon for kids inspired by the AR-15.

The Massachusetts Democrat's Protecting Kids From Gun Marketing Act would direct the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create rules to "prohibit any manufacturer, dealer, or importer, or agent thereof, from marketing or advertising a firearm or any firearm-related product to a minor in a manner that is designed, intended, or reasonably appears to be attractive to a minor."

The bill would also empower state attorneys general and private individuals to take legal action for violations of the rules.

The proposal follows recently renewed criticism of Illinois-based WEE1 Tactical for its JR-15. After coming under fire last year for branding that featured pacifier-sucking baby skulls with gun sights for eye sockets, the gunmaker scrapped the images and now says the firearm represents "a great American tradition," a "small piece of American freedom," and "American family values."

Markey led a May 2022 letter calling on the FTC to investigate WEE1 Tactical for unfair or deceptive marketing tactics and last week, in the wake of a series of mass shootings, he joined a press conference during which Senators repeated that demand.

"I am once again calling on the FTC to step up and use its authority to crack down on gunmakers who market their deadly weapons to America's youth," he said last week. "The deceptive and deadly marketing behind the 'JR-15' is grotesque and reflects the depth of the gun industry's moral depravity."

Markey also took aim at WEE1 Tactical's gun on Thursday, declaring that "a junior version of the AR-15 has no place in a kid's toy box."

"America's gun violence epidemic is claiming tens of thousands of lives each year as gunmakers, dealers, and vendors alike continue to put sales over safety by targeting kids with advertising of a deadly weapon," he said. "It's shameful, irresponsible, and dangerous. The FTC must act immediately to prohibit the marketing of these weapons to children, a step that could save lives."

The legislation is co-sponsored by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.).

The bill is also supported by the organizations Brady, Everytown, Giffords, March For Our Lives, and the Violence Policy Center—whose executive director, Josh Sugarmann, said that "few Americans are aware that there is an ongoing, coordinated effort by the gun lobby and firearms industry targeting America's children and teens. Imagine the public outcry if the alcohol or tobacco industries introduced child-friendly versions of their adult products."

Giffords federal affairs director Adzi Vokhiwa stressed that "the gun industry's deceptive and reckless marketing practices have real consequences: Our nation's gun violence epidemic is worsening while the gun industry's profits soar. Promoting weapons to young people is especially heinous considering that guns are now the number one cause of death for children."

Just over a month into 2023, at least 154 children across the United States have been killed by gun violence and another 364 have been injured so far, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Last year, the totals were 1,675 and 4,479, respectively.

"There's no world in which deadly firearms manufacturers should advertise guns to children," said Zeenat Yahya, policy director for March for Our Lives, which was formed by students after the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

"Unsecured access to guns has killed far too many children and young people over the years," Yahya continued. "The very idea that gun manufacturers want to take advantage of young people by targeting young people who aren't even old enough to drive with ads that sell deadly weapons is sickening."

"It's time for Congress to take a stand and defend young peoples' lives against an immoral industry practice," she added, "and we're pleased to stand with Sen. Markey and our congressional partners in the introduction of this bill."

[warningsine]

A new military recruit shot and killed two fellow soldiers and wounded a third at a training range in central Japan on Wednesday, the military said, with the 18-year-old suspect detained at the scene.

“During a live-bullet exercise as part of new personnel training, one Self-Defence Forces candidate fired at three personnel,” the Ground Self-Defence Force (GSDF), Japan’s army, said in a statement.

The shooter was an 18-year-old SDF candidate who joined the military in April, GSDF chief of staff Yasunori Morishita told reporters, adding he was detained on the spot by other soldiers.

“This kind of incident is absolutely unforgivable for an organisation tasked with handling weapons, and I take it very seriously,” Morishita said.

He said the three victims had been tasked with training new recruits, including the attacker, at the range, without further elaborating on their relations.

The suspect, whose identity is being withheld for now, has been charged with the attempted murder of a 25-year-old soldier, a local police spokesman said, declining to be identified.

The cadet “fired a rifle at the victim with the intent to kill”, the spokesman said.

National broadcaster NHK reported the casualties were a man in his fifties and two other men in their twenties.

Details of the casualties’ identities have yet to be officially confirmed.

Aerial footage broadcast by the station showed military and civilians gathered around an emergency vehicle and police blocking nearby roads. Some appeared to be investigators, wearing covers over their shoes and hair.

A local resident told NHK he saw several emergency vehicles rushing to the area at around 9:30am local time but had not heard anything before that.

Morishita said as far as he is aware, gun violence by GSDF personnel that resulted in injuries or fatalities last took place in 1984 at a camp in Yamaguchi.

The training range near Gifu is administered by the region’s Camp Moriyama and is a covered facility of more than 65,000 square metres.

Gun possession tightly controlled in Japan, where violent crime is rare.

But several high-profile incidents have rattled the country over the last year.

In July 2022, former prime minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead on the campaign trail by a man who allegedly targeted him over his links to the Unification Church.

The accused assassin, Tetsuya Yamagami, was due to make his first appearance in court this week, but the session was cancelled after a package sent to the facility set off a metal detector.

It was later found to contain no explosives, but rather a petition signed by thousands calling for a lenient sentence for Yamagami.

He has garnered surprise sympathy from some quarters over the effect his mother’s devotion to the Unification Church had on his family and childhood.

In April, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida escaped unharmed after a man threw an explosive device towards him at a campaign event.

That incident came shortly before Japan hosted the Group of Seven leaders’ summit in Hiroshima and prompted renewed calls for stepped-up security.

Thousands of police were deployed to secure the gathering, which passed without a security incident.

Last month, police in Nagano region west of Tokyo detained a man after an hours-long knife and shooting rampage, followed by an extended stand-off.

The man killed four people, including two police officers, before he was detained. He is reportedly the son of the speaker of the local city assembly.

[ozymandias-saffet]

O Z S A F F E T

— basics

name: “Oz” aka, Levi Ozymandias Saffet age / d.o.b.: 44, August 28th, 1980 gender, pronouns, sexuality: Demi-Man, Any pronouns, queer  hometown: Newburyport, Massachusetts occupation: Freelance web designer education: Graduate degree in bio-chemistry relationship status: Single children: None

Full Bio is under the cut - please be aware of trigger warnings before proceeding.

TW // Drugs, Violence, Murder, Injury

Oz came into the world silent as the grave - so quiet that his parents thought something was wrong with him. A middle child of five, Oz was the odd one out - he was just a little different. His siblings were loud and outgoing, and Oz was a quieter instigator.

His parents just thought he was socially awkward and didn’t ‘get it’. But Oz did- he was incredibly intelligent, quick as a whip. Perhaps he didn’t prefer to start the conversation - but he knew how to end it. He seemed to just prefer a little bit of anarchy- but his smarts were never in question. He studied multiple sciences at an Advanced level in high school and majoring in bio-chem in college, going on to get his graduate degree as well. Through it all, he had supportive parents, siblings who cheered him on and went about their lives, and an occasional distant friend or roommate.

And yet, Oz found himself craving something more adventurous. It started with little ways he could get a thrill. Drugs helped, of course. So did setting off fireworks, or shoplifting. He looked so upright, so perfectly unassuming. The quiet little man never seemed like a threat, which was perfect for stealing goods, getting into trouble. While working at a national lab in New York, he found himself pocketing important chemicals and extra medication - skimming materials off the top. Machines break all the time after all, and the labs always had so much money to replace just about anything… not even knowing what he was doing with all these items, he found himself delving into the black market.

He sold a few specialized chemicals and medical equipment to a very interested buyer- and soon enough Oz was in his early 30s and working directly within organized crime. The selling couldn’t go on forever without someone finding out at BROOKLABS, so instead he joined their ranks. His steady hands were perfect for a gun, and after years dissecting animals, staring at bones and tendons and joints and nerves during his extensive schooling, the team pushed him into becoming a hired hitman.

Oz was clean, quick, and silent. The man got in and got out so fast that he was a shadow behind his victims. It was easy and lucrative work for him. He was a respected hitman for years. And as time wore on, he stayed in his prime. Except for one job.

He forgot to check the backyard. He’d done it a million times, and this was the one day he’d forgotten. Oz had the victim dealt with in a second - but the victim’s colleague was unexpectedly there, packing up for their trip to the putting green. No one else was supposed to be there.

Oz was nearly killed - taken by surprise and wrestling with an angry man with a golf club. Oz’s small stature was, for once, used against him, his gun wrestled from him at one point. Shot, beaten, but somehow Oz got his gun back and shot the other man dead. Called a colleague in desperation. He couldn’t feel… anything. For one of the first times in his life, he was scared.

Suffering a lumbar spinal cord injury, Oz was stuck in the hospital for months. He had lost the use of his legs at first, and required intense rehabilitation to even walk with forearm crutches or push himself in a wheelchair. But more importantly to Oz, he didn’t feel that he could continue his old job. His hands unsteady and his body having gone through a traumatic event, he retired from his hitman position. Beginning to spiral from all of this, released from the crime ring he'd thought he was intrinsically connected to, he has to find a new dream.

Now they arrive in Helltown. A place that feels as mysterious as Oz likes - and away from the world at large. A place to start fresh with remote work as a web designer. Occasionally he finds himself with another unsavory client - someone from his old days on the black market, looking for something only Oz can find. But most of the time, he's trying to restart his life, using his mobility aids - wheelchair, and occasionally forearm crutches.

[brookston]

Holidays 10.16

Holidays

Air Force Day (Bulgaria)

Allergist Day (Russia)

Armenian Press Day (Armenia)

Ask An Activist Day

Bells Across America for Fallen Firefighters

Blog Action Day

Boiler Switch On Awareness Day (UK)

Bu-Ma Democratic Protests Commemoration Day (South Korea)

Clean Your Bug Zapper Day

Department Store Day

Ether Day

Global Cat Day

Healthcare Security & Safety Officer Appreciation Day

Heroes and Foreparents Day (British Virgin Islands)

International Day of Action for Peoples’ Food Sovereignty & Against Transnational Corporations

John Brown Day (Vermont)

John Dunsworth Day of Kindness

Kraft Heinz Pantry Day (Canada)

Learn a Word Day

Maintenance Personnel Day

National Boss’ Day

National Burns Awareness Day (UK)

National Childhood Hunger Day

National Cut Up Your Credit Card Day

National Department Store Day

National DGS Day

National Dictionary Day

National ‘Don’t Click It’ Day

National Eddie Day

National Elaine Day

National Feral Cat Day

National Fossil Day

National Report Truth in Negotiations Act Fraud Day

National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day

National Sports Day

National Trey Day

National Veterans BBQ Day

National Wolf Awareness Day

Noah Webster Day

Ox Day (French Republic)

Pope John Paul II Day (Poland)

Population Control Day

Restart A Heart Day (UK)

Sarandi Battle Anniversary Day (Uruguay)

Steve Jobs Day (California)

Teachers’ Day (Chile)

World Allergy Awareness Day

World Anesthesia Day

World Endodontic Day

World Pandesal Day

World Spine Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Liqueur Day

National Texas Twinkie Day

National Veterans BBQ Day

United Church of Bacon Day

World Bread Day

World Food Day (UN)

World Pandesal Day

Independence & Related Days

Emeria (a.k.a. United Socialist Republics of Emeria; Declared; 2010) [unrecognized]

Oroquieta City Day (Philippines)

Pomerak'tèr (f.k.a. Maldico; Declared; 2016) [unrecognized]

Slovaland (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

3rd Wednesday in October

Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day (a.k.a. BRA Day USA) [3rd Wednesday]

Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence [3rd Wednesday]

E-Waste Wednesday (Canada) [3rd Wednesday]

Global Dignity Day [3rd Wednesday]

Global Ethics Day [3rd Wednesday]

Hagfish Day [3rd Wednesday]

Hump Day [Every Wednesday]

International Day of Action Against for Academic Integrity Day [3rd Wednesday]

International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating Day [3rd Wednesday]

International Narcissism Day [3rd Wednesday]

International Pronouns Day (a.k.a. Pronouns Day) [3rd Wednesday]

Lamh Day (Ireland) [3rd Wednesday]

Love Your Body Day [3rd Wednesday]

Medical Assistants Recognition Day [3rd Wednesday]

Missouri Day (Missouri) [3rd Wednesday]

National Disability Monitoring Day [3rd Wednesday]

National Financial Aid Day [3rd Wednesday]

National Teach Business Day [3rd Wednesday]

Ride to Work Day (Australia) [3rd Wednesday]

SUDEP Action Day [3rd Wednesday]

Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day [3rd Wednesday]

Take Your Parents to Lunch Day [3rd Wednesday]

Thank Your Cleaner Day [3rd Wednesday]

Unity Day [Wednesday closest to 10.22]

Wacky Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wandering Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Website Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wiener Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Weekly Holidays beginning October 16 (2nd Full Week of October)

National Food Bank Week [Week of 10.16]

Festivals Beginning October 16, 2024

Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, Illinois) [thru 10.27]

Chile Challenge 4-Wheel Drive Trail Event (Caballo, New Mexico) [thru 10.19]

Circleville Pumpkin Show (Circleville, Ohio) [thru 10.19]

Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) [thru 10.20]

International Rome Film Festival (Rome, Italy) [thru 10.27]

Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival (Lausanne, Switzerland) [thru 10.20]

Feast Days

Anna Waser (Artology)

Arnold Böcklin (Artology)

Balderic (a.k.a. Baudry) of Monfaucon (Christian; Saint)

Benjamin Russell (Artology)

Bercharius (Christian; Saint)

Bertrand of Comminges (Christian; Saint)

Blue Whale Contemplation Day (Pastafarian)

Colmán of Kilroot (a.k.a. Colman mac Cathbaid; Christian; Saint)

Daniel Chodowiecki (Artology)

Day of Atonement (Nation of Islam)

Ed Valigursky (Artology)

Edward Ardizzone (Artology)

Eliphius (Christian; Saint)

Eugene O’Neill (Writerism)

Feast of ‘Ilm (Knowledge; Baha’i)

Fortunatus of Casei (Christian; Saint)

Gall (Christian; Saint)

Gerard Majella (Christian; Saint)

Günter Grass (Writerism)

Hedwig of Silesia (Christian; Saint)

Hugh Latimer (Anglicanism)

Junian (of Saint-Junien; Christian; Saint)

Kang Kyung-ok (Artology)

Laufey’s Day (Pagan)

Lullus (a.k.a. Lullon), Archbishop of Mentz (Christian; Saint)

Malcolm the Lion (Muppetism)

Marguerite Marie Alacoque (Christian; Saint)

Marie-Marguerite d'Youville (Christian; Saint) >li>Mummolin (a.k.a. Mommolin), Bishop of Noyon (Christian; Saint)

Nicholas Ridley (Anglicanism)

Opening the Bosom of Women (Hathor’s Temple; Ancient Egypt)

Oscar Wilde (Writerism)

Pamela Anderson Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Pascal (Positivist; Saint)

Pierre Paul Puget (Artology)

Primo Conti (Artology)

Silvanus of Ahun (Christian; Saint)

Thevarparampil Kunjachan, Blessed (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Catholic Church)

Victor III, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Sukkot [15-21 Tishri]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [42 of 53]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [48 of 60]

Premieres

Alice’s Wonderland (Ub Iwerks Disney Laugh-O-Grams Cartoon; 1923)

Barfly (Film; 1987)

The Beach Nut (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1944)

Black Dynamite (Film; 2009)

Boss and the Blade or Sheik, Rattle and Roll (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 64; 1960)

Bridge of Spies (Film; 2015)

The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special (WB TV Cartoon Special; 1980)

Christmas in July (Film; 1940)

College Spirt (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1932)

Crazy, by Patsy Cline (Song; 1961)

Dare by the Human League (Album; 1981)

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train (Anime Film; 2020)

Desolation Angels, by Jack Kerouac (Autobiography; 1965)

Electric Ladyland, by Jimi Hendrix (Album; 1968)

Etta Jones Sings Lady Day, by Etta Jones (Album; 2001)

Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor (Novel; 1944)

From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (WB LT Cartoon; 1954)

Fry Me Cookie, With A Can Of Lard, recorded by Will Bradley (Song; 1941)

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (Novel; 1959)

Hope and Glory (Film; 1987)

A Hull of a Mess (Betty Boop Cartoon; 1942)

It’s Only Rock N’ Roll, by The Rolling Stones (Song; 1974)

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (Novel; 1847)

The Kids in the Hall (TV Series; 1988)

Kill Your Darlings (Film; 2013)

The Last Angry Moose or Hot Scotch (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 169; 1962)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis (Novel; 1950) [The Chronicles of Narnia #1]

The Lobster (Film; 2015)

The Lyon’ Mouse (WB MM Cartoon; 1937)

The Mouse of Tomorrow, featuring Super Mouse (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

Our Town or Home of the Grave (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 170; 1962)

Pierrot Lunaire, by Arnold Schoenberg (Melodrama; 1912)

Practical Magic (Film; 1998)

Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw (Play; 1913)

Riddle of the Gold (Animated TV Show;Jonny Quest #5; 1964)

Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Movie; 1988)

Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays (WB Animated Film; 2012)

The Sensual World, by Kate Bush (Album; 1989)

Smallville (TV Series; 2001)

The Spider and the Fly (Disney Cartoon; 1931)

Sunken Treasures (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1936)

We Belong, by Pat Benatar (Song; 1984)

You’ve Got a Secret or Out of Sight, Out of Mine (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 63; 1960)

Today’s Name Days

Hedwig (Austria)

Hedviga, Margareta, Marija (Croatia)

Havel (Czech Republic)

Gallus (Denmark)

Siret, Sirja, Sirje (Estonia)

Luna, Sirkka, Sirkku, Stella (Finland)

Edwige (France)

Carlo, Gallus, Gordon, Hedwig (Germany)

Gál (Hungary)

Edvige, Fortunato, Irene, Margherita (Italy)

Daiga, Daigone, Dainida, Egils (Latvia)

Ambraziejus, Dovaldė, Gutautas, Jadvyga, Margarita (Lithuania)

Finn, Flemming (Norway)

Ambroży, Aurelia, Dionizy, Florentyna, Galla, Gallina, Gaweł, Gerard, Gerarda, Gerhard, Grzegorz, Radzisław (Poland)

Vladimíra (Slovakia)

Beltrán, Eduviges, Eduvigis, Florentino, Gerardo, Margarita (Spain)

Finn (Sweden)

Avice, Avis, Gerar, Gerard, Gerardo, Gerrard, Hedda, Hedwig, Hedy, Heide, Heidi, Jerard, Noah, Noe (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 290 of 2024; 76 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of Week 42 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 9 (Jia-Xu), Day 14 (Gui-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 14 Tishri 5785

Islamic: 12 Rabi II 1446

J Cal: 20 Orange; Sixthday [20 of 30]

Julian: 3 October 2024

Moon: 99%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 10 Descartes (11th Month) [Malebranche / Locke]

Runic Half Month: Gyfu (Gift) [Day 10 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 25 of 90)

Week: 2nd Full Week of October

Zodiac: Libra (Day 24 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 10.16

Holidays

Air Force Day (Bulgaria)

Allergist Day (Russia)

Armenian Press Day (Armenia)

Ask An Activist Day

Bells Across America for Fallen Firefighters

Blog Action Day

Boiler Switch On Awareness Day (UK)

Bu-Ma Democratic Protests Commemoration Day (South Korea)

Clean Your Bug Zapper Day

Department Store Day

Ether Day

Global Cat Day

Healthcare Security & Safety Officer Appreciation Day

Heroes and Foreparents Day (British Virgin Islands)

International Day of Action for Peoples’ Food Sovereignty & Against Transnational Corporations

John Brown Day (Vermont)

John Dunsworth Day of Kindness

Kraft Heinz Pantry Day (Canada)

Learn a Word Day

Maintenance Personnel Day

National Boss’ Day

National Burns Awareness Day (UK)

National Childhood Hunger Day

National Cut Up Your Credit Card Day

National Department Store Day

National DGS Day

National Dictionary Day

National ‘Don’t Click It’ Day

National Eddie Day

National Elaine Day

National Feral Cat Day

National Fossil Day

National Report Truth in Negotiations Act Fraud Day

National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day

National Sports Day

National Trey Day

National Veterans BBQ Day

National Wolf Awareness Day

Noah Webster Day

Ox Day (French Republic)

Pope John Paul II Day (Poland)

Population Control Day

Restart A Heart Day (UK)

Sarandi Battle Anniversary Day (Uruguay)

Steve Jobs Day (California)

Teachers’ Day (Chile)

World Allergy Awareness Day

World Anesthesia Day

World Endodontic Day

World Pandesal Day

World Spine Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Liqueur Day

National Texas Twinkie Day

National Veterans BBQ Day

United Church of Bacon Day

World Bread Day

World Food Day (UN)

World Pandesal Day

Independence & Related Days

Emeria (a.k.a. United Socialist Republics of Emeria; Declared; 2010) [unrecognized]

Oroquieta City Day (Philippines)

Pomerak'tèr (f.k.a. Maldico; Declared; 2016) [unrecognized]

Slovaland (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]

3rd Wednesday in October

Breast Reconstruction Awareness Day (a.k.a. BRA Day USA) [3rd Wednesday]

Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence [3rd Wednesday]

E-Waste Wednesday (Canada) [3rd Wednesday]

Global Dignity Day [3rd Wednesday]

Global Ethics Day [3rd Wednesday]

Hagfish Day [3rd Wednesday]

Hump Day [Every Wednesday]

International Day of Action Against for Academic Integrity Day [3rd Wednesday]

International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating Day [3rd Wednesday]

International Narcissism Day [3rd Wednesday]

International Pronouns Day (a.k.a. Pronouns Day) [3rd Wednesday]

Lamh Day (Ireland) [3rd Wednesday]

Love Your Body Day [3rd Wednesday]

Medical Assistants Recognition Day [3rd Wednesday]

Missouri Day (Missouri) [3rd Wednesday]

National Disability Monitoring Day [3rd Wednesday]

National Financial Aid Day [3rd Wednesday]

National Teach Business Day [3rd Wednesday]

Ride to Work Day (Australia) [3rd Wednesday]

SUDEP Action Day [3rd Wednesday]

Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day [3rd Wednesday]

Take Your Parents to Lunch Day [3rd Wednesday]

Thank Your Cleaner Day [3rd Wednesday]

Unity Day [Wednesday closest to 10.22]

Wacky Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wandering Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Website Wednesday [Every Wednesday]

Wiener Wednesday [3rd Wednesday of Each Month]

Weekly Holidays beginning October 16 (2nd Full Week of October)

National Food Bank Week [Week of 10.16]

Festivals Beginning October 16, 2024

Chicago International Film Festival (Chicago, Illinois) [thru 10.27]

Chile Challenge 4-Wheel Drive Trail Event (Caballo, New Mexico) [thru 10.19]

Circleville Pumpkin Show (Circleville, Ohio) [thru 10.19]

Frankfurt Book Fair (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) [thru 10.20]

International Rome Film Festival (Rome, Italy) [thru 10.27]

Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival (Lausanne, Switzerland) [thru 10.20]

Feast Days

Anna Waser (Artology)

Arnold Böcklin (Artology)

Balderic (a.k.a. Baudry) of Monfaucon (Christian; Saint)

Benjamin Russell (Artology)

Bercharius (Christian; Saint)

Bertrand of Comminges (Christian; Saint)

Blue Whale Contemplation Day (Pastafarian)

Colmán of Kilroot (a.k.a. Colman mac Cathbaid; Christian; Saint)

Daniel Chodowiecki (Artology)

Day of Atonement (Nation of Islam)

Ed Valigursky (Artology)

Edward Ardizzone (Artology)

Eliphius (Christian; Saint)

Eugene O’Neill (Writerism)

Feast of ‘Ilm (Knowledge; Baha’i)

Fortunatus of Casei (Christian; Saint)

Gall (Christian; Saint)

Gerard Majella (Christian; Saint)

Günter Grass (Writerism)

Hedwig of Silesia (Christian; Saint)

Hugh Latimer (Anglicanism)

Junian (of Saint-Junien; Christian; Saint)

Kang Kyung-ok (Artology)

Laufey’s Day (Pagan)

Lullus (a.k.a. Lullon), Archbishop of Mentz (Christian; Saint)

Malcolm the Lion (Muppetism)

Marguerite Marie Alacoque (Christian; Saint)

Marie-Marguerite d'Youville (Christian; Saint) >li>Mummolin (a.k.a. Mommolin), Bishop of Noyon (Christian; Saint)

Nicholas Ridley (Anglicanism)

Opening the Bosom of Women (Hathor’s Temple; Ancient Egypt)

Oscar Wilde (Writerism)

Pamela Anderson Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Pascal (Positivist; Saint)

Pierre Paul Puget (Artology)

Primo Conti (Artology)

Silvanus of Ahun (Christian; Saint)

Thevarparampil Kunjachan, Blessed (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, Catholic Church)

Victor III, Pope (Christian; Saint)

Hebrew Calendar Holidays [Begins at Sundown Day Before]

Sukkot [15-21 Tishri]

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Butsumetsu (仏滅 Japan) [Unlucky all day.]

Fortunate Day (Pagan) [42 of 53]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [48 of 60]

Premieres

Alice’s Wonderland (Ub Iwerks Disney Laugh-O-Grams Cartoon; 1923)

Barfly (Film; 1987)

The Beach Nut (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1944)

Black Dynamite (Film; 2009)

Boss and the Blade or Sheik, Rattle and Roll (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 64; 1960)

Bridge of Spies (Film; 2015)

The Bugs Bunny Mystery Special (WB TV Cartoon Special; 1980)

Christmas in July (Film; 1940)

College Spirt (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1932)

Crazy, by Patsy Cline (Song; 1961)

Dare by the Human League (Album; 1981)

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train (Anime Film; 2020)

Desolation Angels, by Jack Kerouac (Autobiography; 1965)

Electric Ladyland, by Jimi Hendrix (Album; 1968)

Etta Jones Sings Lady Day, by Etta Jones (Album; 2001)

Forever Amber, by Kathleen Winsor (Novel; 1944)

From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (WB LT Cartoon; 1954)

Fry Me Cookie, With A Can Of Lard, recorded by Will Bradley (Song; 1941)

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson (Novel; 1959)

Hope and Glory (Film; 1987)

A Hull of a Mess (Betty Boop Cartoon; 1942)

It’s Only Rock N’ Roll, by The Rolling Stones (Song; 1974)

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë (Novel; 1847)

The Kids in the Hall (TV Series; 1988)

Kill Your Darlings (Film; 2013)

The Last Angry Moose or Hot Scotch (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 169; 1962)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis (Novel; 1950) [The Chronicles of Narnia #1]

The Lobster (Film; 2015)

The Lyon’ Mouse (WB MM Cartoon; 1937)

The Mouse of Tomorrow, featuring Super Mouse (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1942)

Our Town or Home of the Grave (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S4, Ep. 170; 1962)

Pierrot Lunaire, by Arnold Schoenberg (Melodrama; 1912)

Practical Magic (Film; 1998)

Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw (Play; 1913)

Riddle of the Gold (Animated TV Show;Jonny Quest #5; 1964)

Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Movie; 1988)

Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays (WB Animated Film; 2012)

The Sensual World, by Kate Bush (Album; 1989)

Smallville (TV Series; 2001)

The Spider and the Fly (Disney Cartoon; 1931)

Sunken Treasures (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1936)

We Belong, by Pat Benatar (Song; 1984)

You’ve Got a Secret or Out of Sight, Out of Mine (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S2, Ep. 63; 1960)

Today’s Name Days

Hedwig (Austria)

Hedviga, Margareta, Marija (Croatia)

Havel (Czech Republic)

Gallus (Denmark)

Siret, Sirja, Sirje (Estonia)

Luna, Sirkka, Sirkku, Stella (Finland)

Edwige (France)

Carlo, Gallus, Gordon, Hedwig (Germany)

Gál (Hungary)

Edvige, Fortunato, Irene, Margherita (Italy)

Daiga, Daigone, Dainida, Egils (Latvia)

Ambraziejus, Dovaldė, Gutautas, Jadvyga, Margarita (Lithuania)

Finn, Flemming (Norway)

Ambroży, Aurelia, Dionizy, Florentyna, Galla, Gallina, Gaweł, Gerard, Gerarda, Gerhard, Grzegorz, Radzisław (Poland)

Vladimíra (Slovakia)

Beltrán, Eduviges, Eduvigis, Florentino, Gerardo, Margarita (Spain)

Finn (Sweden)

Avice, Avis, Gerar, Gerard, Gerardo, Gerrard, Hedda, Hedwig, Hedy, Heide, Heidi, Jerard, Noah, Noe (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 290 of 2024; 76 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 3 of Week 42 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Gort (Ivy) [Day 18 of 28]

Chinese: Month 9 (Jia-Xu), Day 14 (Gui-Chou)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 14 Tishri 5785

Islamic: 12 Rabi II 1446

J Cal: 20 Orange; Sixthday [20 of 30]

Julian: 3 October 2024

Moon: 99%: Waxing Gibbous

Positivist: 10 Descartes (11th Month) [Malebranche / Locke]

Runic Half Month: Gyfu (Gift) [Day 10 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 25 of 90)

Week: 2nd Full Week of October

Zodiac: Libra (Day 24 of 30)

[spokenwordplaypodcastcommunity]

Students, Participate in Spoken Word Poetry Challenge- Post, Follow, Like & Share Your Own Creative Video Upload Reading Your Written Poetry Aloud.

Welcome students to the first day of summer school programs activities at Spoken Wordplay Podcast Community. This is your head instructor Ms. Tonya Michelle Wilkerson speaking from the heart with a motivational message. The month of June is recognized as National Gun Violence Awareness Month. Students, I would like to share with you some creative activity ideas to do with your family and friends to join the movement for National Gun Violence Awareness Day and wear the color “ORANGE” this coming weekend starting June 7th through June 9th to help bring about positive changes for gun violence prevention within your community. Plan to attend an event like a march or a rally to show your support by honoring the lives lost and wounded by gun violence. Participate in Spoken Wordplay Podcast ” POETRY CHALLENGE”

THIS IS HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR SPOKEN WORD POETRY on SOCIAL MEDIA

Yes, Students, you will be creating a written poetry using Performing Arts elements like storytelling, theater and music. Students make sure to express your personal feelings with emotion, opinion and attitude written down on paper as a rhyme, repetition, improvisation or wordplay.

Social justice

Race

Community

Students, create a video posting on social media using #SPOKENWORDPLAYPODCASTPOETRYCHALLENGE capturing yourself performing the written Spoken Word Poetry on YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK, TIK-TOK, INSTAGRAM AND TUMBLR or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Go to Spoken Wordplay Podcast social media pages and channels called ” Daily I Am Affirmations as well as ” Relaxing Focus and Study Music” and click the like, follow, download, subscribe and share buttons. Students, start a conversation and post a comment, view the latest shows and don’t forget to visit my website page to leave a review comments to the latest and recent postings archives at spokenwordplaypodcast.com and I thank you students for your monthly support.

[pashterlengkap]

Ron DeSantis won’t let Florida bridges display rainbow lights for Pride

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Republican administration will not allow the state’s bridges to display rainbow lights for Pride month this year. In a May 8 post on X, DeSantis announced the state’s “2024 Florida Freedom Summer” initiative. The state-wide effort includes free admission to state parks during Memorial Day weekend and a sales tax holiday on recreational items throughout July. Related Florida colleges close LGBTQ+ centers due to Ron DeSantis’s “dystopian” anti-DEI law “The LGBT center… was one of the reasons why I came to [this university] in the first place.” We’re kicking off summer the right way in Florida—enjoy the Summer of Freedom! pic.twitter.com/oXppx1Nf0m— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) April 30, 2024 Stay connected to your community Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our Newsletter today As part of “Freedom Summer,” the state’s bridges will be illuminated in red, white, and blue lights from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Florida’s Department of Transportation (FDOT) Secretary Jared Perdue wrote in his own X post. The post featured a photo of Tampa Bay’s Sunshine Skyway bridge lit up in the colors of the U.S. flag. “Thanks to the leadership of @GovRonDeSantis, Florida continues to be the freest state in the nation,” Perdue wrote. As Floridians prepare for Freedom Summer, Florida's bridges will follow suit, illuminating in red, white, and blue from Memorial Day through Labor Day! Thanks to the leadership of @GovRonDeSantis, Florida continues to be the freest state in the nation. https://t.co/FG892hO5zE pic.twitter.com/SBvxzr4ACk— Jared W. Perdue, P.E. (@FDOT_Secretary) May 8, 2024 As multiple local Florida outlets have noted, the “Freedom Summer” initiative means that bridges that would otherwise be lit in colors celebrating Pride, National Gun Violence Awareness Month, Juneteenth, and other summer holidays won’t be this year. The FDOT has final approval over lighting display requests for the state’s bridges, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. But in recent years, the agency has left decisions around Pride displays up to local county commissions, according to the Tampa Bay Times, following widespread public outcry over its denial of requests to light several Florida bridges in rainbow colors in 2021. One of those bridges was the Sunshine Skyway, which spans Tampa Bay connecting Manatee, Hillsborough, and Pinellas counties. For the past three years, the bridge has displayed Pride colors for one week during June. But in February, FDOT administrators were informed in an email from Manatee County Administrator Charlie Bishop’s office that County Commission Chairperson Mike Rahn disapproved of displays for both Pride and National Gun Violence Awareness Day. Critics, like St. Petersburg LGBTQ+ liaison Jim Nixon, expressed concern that Rahn had overstepped his authority, as FDOT policy requires a vote from the full county commission on bridge displays, the Tampa Bay Times reports. Rahn, however, has cited the FDOT’s authority over the matter. “Manatee County is out of the business of lighting the bridge,” he told the Herald-Tribune recently. “This is an FDOT matter. My point is, I don’t own the bridge, I can’t open the bridge, I can’t shut down the bridge, I get no revenue from the bridge. Why is it my responsibility to light the bridge?” “My concern also is if we are going to do it for one group, we have to do it for all groups no matter what their political stance is,” he continued. “I feel, personally, that the bridge is being politicized by different organizations.” In an email to the Tampa Bay Times, Rahn expressed skepticism over the agency’s policy of leaving decisions over bridge lighting themes to local county commissions. “In my opinion, the lighting of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a FDOT matter and should not be left with to the individual counties,” he wrote. It’s unclear… http://dlvr.it/T7PVLy

[scoredandstoried]

TIMELINE - OZ SAFFET

Below is an in-depth timeline of Oz Saffet's life from birth (August 28, 1982) until now (early August 2023).

Please be aware of all Trigger Warnings under the cut.

TW // Drugs, Murder, Guns, Violence, Injury

BORN: August 28, 1982

Born in Salem, MA to Levi Saffet Sr. and Nathalie Saffet, the middle child of 5. (Oswald, Silas, Karla, and Erich)

1988 - Saffet family moves to Rockport, MA for his dad's job.

1992 - Oz is 10 and pushes a kid at school down the stairs after a small disagreement. He is forced to make an apology card.

1994 -Oz is 12, gets into a fight with another kid and breaks his nose. He is suspended.

1995 - His parents enroll him in Kenpo Karate to try and give him something to focus on and a way to get out his feelings.

1998 - Oz begins taking special credit classes and AP classes to look good for colleges, which he enjoys immensely.

September 2000 - Begins classes at Northeastern with a major in Biochemistry.

Late 2001 - Attends a college party where he tries cocaine for the first time. He continues to 'socially' do drugs and drink until he graduates, though maintains his studies well.

2004 - Graduates from Northeastern University with a BS in Bio-chemistry. Takes his time to party and enjoy nightlife.

2006 - Attends New York University to begin earning a Masters in Bio-chem. He enjoys having his own lab work and projects, and learns a lot about the inventory system and ordering process for materials. Also continues clubbing on weekends.

2008 - Oz is hired by BROOKLABS, a national lab in Brooklyn.

2009 - After about a year, Oz starts noticing ways he can skim materials off the top without the budget being affected significantly. He begins stealing chemicals and supplies.

Late 2009 - Oz starts looking into the dark web and begins selling his wares on the black market.

2010 - Fudges a major inventory list and is able to steal a significant amount of product. After selling this to a Syndicate rep working within the black market, Oz begins correspondence with them.

2013 - Oz and the Syndicate representative converse about him joining the Syndicate. Oz continues working within BROOKLABS while learning inventory and selling for the Syndicate.

2015 - After leaving BROOKLABS, Oz begins learning to use guns and knives, citing his steady hands and quiet demeanor for a good reason to be added as a hitman.

Late 2015 - Oz takes care of his first hit and does impeccably.

Early 2016 - Oz's father passes.

2018 - Oz starts a long-term relationship (WC) with someone unaware of his deep connection to the Syndicate or his job as a hitman.

2020 - Oz's younger brother (WC) moves closer to NYC.

Early 2021 - The hit that goes wrong. Oz is gravely injured and in the hospital for months.

Late 2021 - After getting out of the hospital, Oz gives some info to his partner about what he does. His partner leaves him, sending him spiraling.

Early 2022 - Oz is hired by Audra to manage the Athenaeum while she's away.

Current: Oz helps crunch numbers and aid with inventory and occasionally will delve into the Black Market world again when he's needed, but ultimately mostly manages the Athenaeum. He misses his hitman days and is currently in a wheelchair, sometimes using forearm crutches as a mobility aid instead, depending on his level of comfort and energy.

[lakeconews]

During National Gun Violence Awareness Month, state launches new website

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced the launch of GunSafety.ca.gov, a website that provides critical information on how Californians can use gun violence restraining orders to help protect their loved ones, as well as the state’s new law allowing victims of gun violence to sue those spreading illegal weapons.

[riverdamien]

Befriend the Process!

Befriend the Process!

Pride Month!

National Gun Violence Awareness Month!

Wear Orange on June 2 Symbolizing Every Town for Gun Safety!

Sirach 42:15-25:  says all is beautiful: "even to the spark and fleeting vision."

---------------------------------

Many of us are past full bloom now. Presently we're on a new quest: to make peace with our diminishment.  Sirach tells us we all are beautiful! It was glorious to be young, but there is glory in our aging, even with its losses, aches, pains, disabilities.

Nothing's made in vain, Sirach insists. Each in its turn is good. Embracing the splendor of youth is easy. We must also make friends with the graceful, gracious surrender of our lives to aging, and of our wishes for a changed universe to the slowness of time as well, and to struggling generation after generation.

All aspects of creation is a changing universe! Thus we are changing in every way!

We surrender in the sense of seeing life as a part of one great universe and seeing ourselves as a part of one Great Rainbow.

As Eric Fromm says:

“Love means to commit oneself without guarantee, to give oneself completely in the hope that our love will produce love in the loved person. Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of little love.”

As we enter Pride Month, and remember tomorrow wearing orange to symbolize "Gun Safety in Every town let us remember love is an "act of faith!"

--------------------------------------

Father River Damien Sims, sfw, D.Min., D.S.T.

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org

415-305-2124

====

"May I have the strange courage

to embrace a world

I know will hurt me,

offering myself to people

I know will let me down

and giving the best of my energies

to plans that will not work out.

I want to choose

to love the world as it is,

just as I know I am loved as I am.

Justin McRoberts 

.

----------------------------------