Love is a Force of Nature

I got this Brokeback Mountain movie promotional card during its Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival premiere at Cinema Paradiso in 2005. The movie told a powerful story of two young men, a ranch hand and a rodeo cowboy, who sheepherded in the Wyoming mountains in the summer of 1963 and formed a life-long bond with love and conflicts.

Sixteen years ago today on October 6, 1998, Matthew Shepard, a student at the University of Wyoming, was beaten, tortured and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming. He was targeted and attacked by two men because he was gay. His death from severe head injuries six days later brought national and international attention to hate crime legislation. However, it wasn't until October 2009 that the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. President Barack Obama signed the "Matthew Shepard Act" into law on October 28, 2009.

Today on October 6, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review those cases where state laws banning same-sex marriage were overturned by federal appeals courts, which resulted immediate recognition of same-sex marriage in Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin. Wyoming could see same-sex marriages recognized by the end of this year as it was covered by the same circuit appeals courts as Utah and Oklahoma. Five additional states: North Carolina, South Carolina, West Virginia, Colorado, and Kansas, are also covered.

The card was sent in to obtain a first-day-of-issue postmark on a Harvey Milk Forever Stamp on July 21, 2014, along with other first-day-of-issue postmark and digital color postmarks. It took two months for the fulfilled order to be returned on September 23, 2014.

Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico

Postcard US-2849000 to Germany shows the Arecibo Observatory, a radio telescope operated by SRI International, USRA and UMET under a cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF), in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

Built between 1960 and 1963, the observatory's 305-meter or 1,000-foot radio telescope is the largest single-aperture telescope in the world, used in the areas of radio astronomy, aeronomy, and radar astronomy researches. Scientists who wish to use the telescope need to submit proposals that are evaluated by an independent scientific board. The telescope was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

The postcard was purchased at Zazzle.

March on Washington

A massive crowd convened today at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom". Also referred as "the Great March on Washington", that gathering on August 28, 1963 was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history.

Postcard US-2323221 sent to Finland shows Martin Luther King, Jr., in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech advocating racial harmony during the march.

A rally is planned on the National Mall for the 50th anniversary next Wednesday on August 28, 2013. President Obama is scheduled to speak on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at 3 pm.

The U.S Postal Service issued the 1963 March on Washington Forever Stamp on August 23, 2013 to mark the occasion.