Autistic Pride Day is a pride celebration for autistic people held on June 18 each year. Autistic pride recognises the importance of pride for autistic people and its role in bringing about positive changes in the broader society.

Although Autistic Pride Day is June 18, pride events are often held on the weekend of that year for logistical reasons, but can be held at any time during the year.

Autistic Pride Day was first celebrated in 2005 by Aspies For Freedom (AFF), who selected June 18 because it was the birthday of the youngest member of the group at that time. AFF modelled the celebration on the gay pride movement.

According to Kabie Brook, the co-founder of Autism Rights Group Highland (ARGH), “the most important thing to note about the day is that it is an autistic community event: it originated from and is still led by autistic people ourselves”…

We have to facilitate growth in our lives instead of traversing aimlessly throughout our lives. Without growth we will all be stymied.

© Norma Bobb-Semple 2021

One of the cemeteries at Tarawa.

Japanese RAdmiral Keiji Shibasaki was commander of the 3rd Special Base Defense Force, the tokubetsu Konkyochitai, who was responsible for defending the Ocean, the Gilberts and the Nauru Islands.  During the US invasion, he gave his orders from a concrete bunker on Betio.  He should have stayed there.  He was killed when he moved his staff to a secondary headquarters.

In choppy seas and heavy winds, the LVTs (aka Amtraks) moved in.  Destroyers Ringgold and Dashiell followed the minesweepers Requiste and Pursuit who went into the shallow waters of the lagoon with Lt. Forbes Webster and Stanley Page (of the RNZ Navy), as their pilots.

When it was over.

Japanese Warrant Officer, Ota recalled, “We could see the American landing craft coming towards us like dozens of spiders over the surface of the water.  One of my men exclaimed, ‘The God of Death…

Betio, Tarawa after the fighting

Miscommunication blighted the operation. As a result, the 1^st Battalion spent a miserable night bobbing up and down in their landing craft before landing on the second day, not using a deep water channel that had been found, but once again wading across the reefs in the face of enemy gunfire.

Despite their struggles, the Americans were finally making headway.  Air strikes weakened the Japanese artillery, and Major Ryan’s 3^rd Battalion were able to advance, clearing the western beach and the coast opposite the pier.  More troops landed on the second evening.

The troopship Doyen was ordered into the lagoon to accept the most critically wounded.  Lt.Cmdr. James Oliver, Medical Corps, led a 5-man surgical team with experience in the Aleutians.  They treated 390 Marines and only lost 9 men.

Meanwhile, an air attack on the neighboring island of Bairiki blew…

SANTIAGO GALICIA ROJON SERRALLONGA

Derechos reservados conforme a la ley/ Copyright

Hay tantas historias desterradas de los libros y desgarradas de la memoria colectiva e individual. Naufragan en los recuerdos de algunos, en las imágenes de otros, en lo que unos relataron a sus descendientes, en lo que aquellos escribieron en sus libretas de apuntes. Se trata de anécdotas olvidadas, episodios humanos extraviados, vivencias que alteraron los años o que, a pesar de que parezca extraño, permanecen en los cuadernos y en las listas de los que ya están ausentes. Vivencias que se deshilvanan desde la existencia otoñal y las mañanas y las noches de invierno, con sus tardes y sus madrugadas incluidas, y que la ausencia y los años repetidos se encargan de desdibujar. Hemos olvidado, parece, ser hombres y mujeres grandiosos e irrepetibles, protagonizar capítulos singulares e intensos, acaso porque de pronto aparecimos en cajas de cristal con…

Yes, yes … Filosofa is still snarking and ranting … there is just so much wrong in this world, every bit of which could be so easily fixed with just the three ‘C’s – common sense, compassion, cooperation.  I did have more snippets than just these two short ones, but … I’m out of time, so I shall save them for later or tomorrow!  Gives you something to look forward to, eh?

---

Cosa Nostra rides again?

William Braddock is a Republican candidate from Florida who is hoping to be elected to fill the seat currently held by Democrat Charlie Crist, who is resigning to run for governor to (hopefully) replace the ignoble Ron DeSantis next year.  William Braddock is short on name recognition, but one thing he has plenty of is audacity.

Also running in that same GOP primary race is Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who went…

Guest Post : John Adams Negative thoughts feed our fears and starve our soul. They tend to push us into dark alleys, which ultimately lead to the black hole called depression. When we surround ourselves with the negative energy of intrusive thoughts, good things slip away. Breaking the habit of focusing on the bad possibilities […]

10 Ways to Erase unwanted thoughts.