Israeli attack near aid delivery point kills 31 in Gaza, truce talks falter – https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israeli-strike-aid-point-kills-26-rafah-hamas-affiliated-media-say-2025-06-01/
Best Wishes and Hugs,
Scottie
Month: June 2025
Many Items in Peace & Justice History for 6/1
Also, I want to mention that I’ve been publishing here at Scottie’s Playtime since 7/10 or 11, and normally, have posted one of these each day. There hasn’t been much change or updating for a while; the newsletter and history website is Carl Bunin’s labor of love, depending upon the sales of buttons, pencils, and other merch. I’ve been reading these since 2001, and have noted it feels as if we here may have seen some of these before, and definitely will have by next month. So: should I continue after July 10th, or has everyone seen these, and enough is enough for a while? I don’t mind either way, but I don’t want to use up space and give people repeats. Just let me know in comments over the next few days, OK? And thanks for visiting Scottie’s Playtime!
June 1, 1845 Sojourner Truth (born Isabella Baumfree, but went by the name she believed God had given her as a symbolic representation of her mission in life) set out from New York City on a journey across America, preaching about the evils of slavery and promoting women’s rights. She had been a slave with several owners but was legally free when slavery was abolished in New York state. Read more about Sojourner Truth (There’s a very cool yet somewhat incendiary comment there on this page; go see it.) |
| June 1, 1921 America’s worst race massacre, begun the day before over the threat of a lynching, culminated in the complete destruction of the African-American neighborhood of Greenwood in Tulsa leaving nearly 10,000 homeless.  The ruins of Tulsa Oklahoma’s Greenwood District following the assault by the white community. Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 read more Meet The Last Surviving Witness To The Tulsa Race Riot Of 1921 |
| June 1, 1932 Gay rights organizer Henry Gerber published an article in Modern Thinker magazine attacking the view that homosexuality is a neurosis. In 1924, Henry Gerber, a postal worker in Chicago, started the Society for Human Rights, America’s first known gay rights organization.  “The Society for Human Rights is formed to promote and protect the interests of people who are abused and hindered in the legal pursuit of happiness which is guaranteed them by the Declaration of Independence, and to combat the public prejudices against them.” After having created and distributed a newsletter called “Friendship and Freedom,” Gerber was arrested and held for 3 days without a warrant or being charged with any infractions. Upon release he lost his job for “conduct unbecoming a postal worker.” Following the last of his three trials, in which the charges were ultimately dismissed, Gerber moved to new York City and re-enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving another 17 years. He lived until 1972, passing away at the the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home in Washington, D.C., living long enough to see the Stonewall Rebellion [see June 28, 1969], the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. More on Henry Gerber |
June 1, 1942 On the advice of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler ordered all Jews in occupied Paris to wear an identifying yellow star on the left side of their coats. The following month 13,000 French Jews were deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps.  |
| June 1, 1950 Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), then the only woman in the Senate, and just the second in U.S. history, denounced Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) and his “red-baiting” tactics on the floor of the U.S. Senate, in a speech called “A Declaration of Conscience.”  “Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism in making character assassinations are all too frequently those who, by our own words and acts, ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism—the right to criticize; the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; the right of independent thought.” Text of the Senator Smith’s Declaration |
| June 1, 1963 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and readings from the Bible in public schools violated the establishment clause of the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution in School Dist. Of Abington Township v. Schempp. The Court reasoned that the daily practice was unconstitutional because a public institution was conducting a religious exercise and “that public funds, though small in amount, are being used to promote” a particular religion. “It is not the amount of public funds expended; as this case illustrates, it is the use to which public funds are put . . . .” The decision |
| June 1, 1967 The Vietnam Veterans Against War (VVAW) was founded in New York City after six Vietnam vets marched together in a peace demonstration. The group was organized to give voice to the growing opposition to the escalating war in Indochina among returning servicemen and women.  VVAW, through open discussion of soldiers’ first-hand experiences, revealed the truth about the nature of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia.  VVAW demonstrating against Iraq war 2004 The VVAW today |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjune.htm#june1
And Another Young Candidate
Presuming we have elections, we’re gonna be rich in good people to elect. Here’s another one I’ve been watching and donating to for a couple of months. I may have posted about her here before, but I’m not certain.
Another Young Person Running For Office
I’m skipping down to the part about the candidate. We’ve all seen the clip of Sen. Ernst. But I remember the statements of Zach Wahls; I bet we all do! -A.
Well, We Are All Going to Die by Charlotte Clymer
An all-timer cruel remark. Read on Substack
Snippet:
Anyway, while Sen. Ernst may not care if your loved ones don’t have the lifesaving health care they need, I do bring good news: there’s a leader in Iowa who does.
You may remember Zach Wahls; he’s the young man who went viral many years ago when he delivered a deeply moving testimony to the Iowa Legislature about growing up with two mothers, as lawmakers were considering support for marriage equality.
Well, Mr. Wahls has been serving in the Iowa State Senate since 2019—including a few years in tenure as the Minority Leader—and he’s public exploring a run against Sen. Ernst in next year’s election.
I have rarely been as impressed with an elected official as I am with Mr. Wahls. He’s exactly the kind of leader you’d hope would be dedicated to fighting the good fight and having the kind of good sense necessary to bring folks together for common sense solutions.
Sen. Ernst was already looking at a competitive fight before her “we are all going to die” honesty this morning, and I have to imagine the math ain’t looking great for her against Mr. Wahls moving forward.
If you’d like to throw a donation to Mr. Wahls in what I believe would be a successful campaign, I’d be grateful.
I’ll end this on a note of reason and empathy. When word of Sen. Ernst’s comment reached the great Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota, her response couldn’t have summed it up better:
“I thought my job as Senator was to try to keep my constituents alive.”
It’s In London-
(sigh- I love Twelfth Night. -A)
Ian McKellen Will Open All-Trans Production of Twelfth Night, Shakespeare’s Most Trans Play
Shakespeare really did get T4T friend groups tbh.
A trans theater company is staging a production of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved comedies this summer in London, and the play will receive an introduction from none other than Sir Ian McKellen.
Trans What You Will, which is dedicated to staging Shakespeare plays with trans and nonbinary performers, will produce a staged reading of Twelfth Night at The Space in London on July 25. In a post to Instagram, the theater company wrote that the “inherent queerness” of the play is “glaringly apparent to so many.” Like many of the Bard’s plays, Twelfth Night absolutely smacks of gender.
As Trans What You Will describes it, “you’ve got a lady disguised as a man, seducing another lady on behalf of a lord, but nothing goes to plan when the lady falls for the disguised lady, and the disguised lady falls for the lord!” More specifically, the play follows two twins, Viola and Sebastian, who are separated from each other in a shipwreck. Viola disguises herself as a man, Cesario, and enters into the service of Duke Orsino, who rules over the area. As Cesario, she also serves as wingman to Orsino, who’s in love with the Countess Olivia. But Olivia falls in love with “Cesario,” Viola falls in love with Orsino, and chaos ensues. (I mean, sounds like your average T4T friend group if you ask us.)
The theater company also announced McKellen as the production’s “special guest” on Wednesday. In a statement posted to Trans What You Will’s Instagram, McKellen called Twelfth Night “perhaps the funniest and most moving of Shakespeare’s plays.”
“This is achieved through the complexity of gender and sexuality from first to last,” he said, adding that he’s “really looking forward to the impact of this latest version of the play at The Space.” (snip-MORE)
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