Kids These Days

Just turn on the news.  We've heard it all.  Another shooting, another kid caught in trouble, another reason for us to sigh and say, "Kids these days!"

Then you hear or read about one, and a bit of hope returns.

That's what happened when i heard about Hunter Gandee.  There was an infusion of hope.

Hunter is 14, and on the wrestling team in high school.  His 7-year-old brother, Braden, has Cerebral Palsy, and cannot walk without assistance.

Hunter wanted to put a face on the disease, and encourage more research into ways to help kids like his brother become and stay mobile.  So he planned, and pulled off, a two day, 40 mile walk to bring this disease into the spotlight.

A 40 mile walk with his little brother strapped to his back.

When i think about kids these days, i want to think about kids like Hunter.


Today is

Abolition Day -- French Guiana

Alcoholics Anonymous Founders Day
   
Army Day -- Jordan

Ball Point Pen Day -- date, in 1943, Biro patented one of the early models of a ball point pen (it was as awful as the other early ones, though!)

Birthday of  Cheng Huang -- Taiwan (the gods that are city guardians are celebrated with a procession of actors on stilts doing dragon and lion dances on this 13th day of the fifth moon)

Celtic Tree Month Duir (Oak) commences

Dia de Portugal e de Camoes -- Portugal (National Day)

Guan Sheng Di Jun Dan -- Taoism (Heavenly Sage Guan Di's Birthday [god of war])

Herbs & Spices Day

Holiday of the Wan Thing -- Fairy Calendar (the Wan Thing arrived in Fairyland this day and has sat there looking wan ever after, so the Fairies decided to give it its own holiday)

National Black Cow Day

National Iced Tea Day

Petit Jean Antique Auto Show and Swap Meet -- Morrilton, AR, US (sponsored by the Museum of Automobiles in Morrilton, and the place to be if you love old cars; through Saturday)

Rape of Lidice/Lidice Memorial Day -- Czech Republic and Slovakia/New Jersey, US (in one of the most-remembered atrocities of WWII, the small town of Lidice, Czechoslovakia, was invaded by Nazi troops who murdered every man, burned every house, and sent all the women and children for "reeducation.")

Reconciliation Day -- Republic of the Congo

St. Brigid of Ireland's Day (Patron babies/infants/newborns, blacksmiths, boatmen/mariners/sailors/watermen, cattle, children whose parents are not married, dairymaids/dairy workers, fugitives, midwives, nuns, poets, poultry farmers, printing presses, scholars, travellers; Douglas, Lanarkshire, Scotland; Ireland; Ivrea, Turin, Italy; Kildare, Ireland; Leinster, Ireland)

Steamboat Days -- Burlington, IA, US (fun on the Mississippi Riverfront; through Sunday)

Where the Wild Things Are Day -- birth anniversary of Maurice Sendak

World Pet Memorial Day -- some sites say this is always on June 10, others that it's always on the second Tuesday in June, but none can tell us where it came from or who started it that i can find


Anniversary Tday:

Alcoholics Anonymous is founded, 1925


Birthdays Today:

Joey Zimmerman, 1986
Tara Lipinski, 1982
Leelee Sobieski, 1982
Hoku Ho, 1981
Shane West, 1978
Doug McKeon, 1966
Elizabeth Hurley, 1965
Linda Evangelista, 1965
Jeanne Tripplehorn, 1963
Michael Burger, 1957
John Edwards, 1953
Jeff Greenfield, 1943
F. Lee Bailey, 1933
Maurice Sendak, 1928
Nat Hentoff, 1925
Judy Garland, 1922
Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 1921
Saul Bellow, 1915
Frederick Loewe, 1904
Hattie McDaniel, 1889


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Tales from the Crypt"(TV), 1989
"Paperback Writer"(UK song release), 1966
"Tristan und Isolde"(Opera), 1865


Today in History:

Frederick Barbarossa drowns leading his troops across the Saleph River to attack Jerusalem in the Crusades, 1190
The first American log cabin is built, at Fort Christina in Wilmington, Delaware, 1639
Bridget Bishop becomes the first person hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
Captain James Cook runs aground on the Great Barrier Reef, 1770
A landslide dam on the Dadu River created by an earthquake ten days earlier collapses, killing 100,000 in the Sichuan province of China, 1786
The Jardin des Plantes museum opens in Paris; a year later, it becomes the first public zoo, 1793
The first Boat Race between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge takes place, 1829
Myall Creek Massacre in Australia: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered, 1838
The first class of the United States Naval Academy students graduate, 1854
Mount Tarawera in New Zealand erupts, killing 153 people and destroying the famous Pink and White Terraces, 1886
Americus Callahan of Chicago patents the window envelope, 1902
The inaugural service for the United Church of Canada, a union of Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregationalist churches, is held in Toronto Arena, 1925
Dr. Robert Smith takes his last drink, and Alcoholics Anonymous is founded in Akron, Ohio, United States, by him and Bill Wilson, 1925
Six-Day War ends: Israel and Syria agree to a cease-fire, 1967
Apple ships its first Apple II personal computer, 1977
The Spirit Rover is launched, beginning NASA's Mars Exploration Rover mission, 2003
Twenty inches of rainfall in Escambia County, Florida damages roadways and bridges, and leaving parts of the Florida Panhandle and coastal Alabama under water, 2012
German authorities are forced to evacuate 10 villages as heavy rains swell the Elbe River, breaching its banks, 2013
Heavy monsoon rains cause the collapse of a partially-finished building on a residential block in Mumbai, India, 2013