United States Air Force Academy

Postcard US-4036245 from Colorado shows the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. According to Wikipedia, it is the youngest of the five United States service academies, with its first class graduated in 1959. Graduates of the Academy's four-year program receive a Bachelor of Science degree, and are commissioned as second lieutenants in the United States Air Force. The Academy is also one of the largest tourist attractions in Colorado, receiving close to one million visitors every year.

President Obama attended the Academy's 2016 graduation ceremony yesterday on June 2, 2016 as the keynote speaker. In his final commencement address of his presidency, Obama shared some of the lessons he learned in the White House as president and commander-in-chief, and warned the graduating cadets about isolationism.

The United States Air Force Thunderbirds performed during the graduation ceremony. However, one of its fighter jets crashed on its way back to the Peterson Air Force Base after the fly-over demonstration.

Beam of Light, Son Doong, Vietnam

Postcard Beam of Light by Romeo Durscher is one of the SkyPixel series that showcase stunning photos from drones. The photo was taken by a camera on  DJI Inspire 1, showing a view beneath the doline or sinkhole that forms the world’s largest cave Son Doong. The Beam of Light came through the opening in the cave's ceiling over 300 meters above.On top of the large stalagmite was Ginger Zee, the weather anchor for Good Morning America and ABC World News Tonight on ABC. Her placement on that rock formation, risen from the cave floor due to the accumulated material from ceiling drippings, gave out a sense of scale and size.

Meanwhile, President Obama is in Vietnam for a three-day visit, his first trip to the country and the 10th to Asia. He arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam on Sunday May 22, 2016.

Previously, President Lyndon B. Johnson visited U.S. military personnel in Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam on October 26, 1966 and December 23, 1967. So did Richard Nixon with an unscheduled six-hour stop outside Saigon, South Vietnam on July 30, 1969.

On November 16, 2000, Bill Clinton, who opposed the war in Vietnam, made history as the first U.S. President to visit Hanoi, the headquarters of the North Vietnamese command during the war, now the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. During his three-day visit, Clinton also visited Ho Chi Minh City, which was renamed from Saigon in 1976. George W. Bush was in Vietnam November 17–20, 2006 for the APEC Summit meeting.

Bison Becomes the First National Mammal

Postcard US-3939822 to Lithuania shows a herd of bison. The fuzzy, horned giant becomes a national symbol after President Obama signed the National Bison Legacy Act into law early today making it the national mammal of the United States.

Early American settlers mistakenly called bison “buffalo” due to the similar appearance between the two animals. However, the two main buffalo species only reside in Africa and Asia, while the American bison (Bison bison) lives only in North America,

The bison nearly went extinction during the westward expansion of the United States in the early 1800s, resulting from a deliberate policy of depriving Native Americans of a significant source of food, clothing and shelter. Its population recovered only after a concerted effort by conservationists in the early 20th century.

The bison is also the state mammal in Kansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming.

Obama Makes Historic Visit to Cuba

Outgoing postcard US-3917425 to Taiwan shows the Southernmost Point Buoy in Key West, Florida. On the buoy, it claims "90 miles to Cuba" although Cuba is actually 94 statute or 81 nautical miles due south at its closest point. Nonetheless, none of the US Presidents had visited Cuba since President Calvin Coolidge's visit in 1928.

Barack Obama made history as the first sitting U.S. president to set foot in Cuba in 88 years, ending decades of hostility between the two countries and marking an historic moment of reconciliation.

Embed from Getty Images

Some US business leaders and entrepreneurs, such as Ursula Burns, CEO of Xerox, Brian Chesky, president and founder of Air BnB/PAGE, Daniel Schulman, CEO of PayPal, Ken Siegel, general counsel, Starwood, and Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott, were aboard Air Force One with Obamas to attend the entrepreneurship event in Havana.

Sending Money to Cuba is now possible from a Western Union sign seen on March 8, 2016

As USPS resumed mail service to Cuba on March 17, 2016,  it was the first time in more than 50 years for the people in the US to be able to send direct mail to the island nation. Hopefully, we will see some official PostCrossing postcards from Cuba soon.

President Obama's letter was among the first batch of direct mails to Cuba

USPS Employees were servicing Obama's letter with a special postmark

Obama Visits South Dakota: Been to All 50 States as President

Delivering the commencement address at Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, South Dakota earlier today, Obama became the fourth president to have been to all 50 states in the U.S.

Richard Nixon was the first president who has visited all the states within his first three years in the White House. President Bill Clinton had not made to his last state Nebraska until his final weeks in office. While George H.W. Bush managed to visit all 50 states in his only term, his son G.W. Bush ended his two-term presidency and had never visited Vermont where a tiny town Brattleboro with just 12,000 residents had voted “to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution.”

Postcard US-2143742 from South Dakota shows a map card of South Dakota with a a tag line "The Mount Rushmore State". President Obama told the White House Press Corps that he used an Executive Order to immediately add his own face on Mount Rushmore. Of course, Republicans are trying to stop the Executive Order.

Navy Pier, Chicago

Postcard US-2558458 from Illinois shows the Navy Pier, a 3,300-foot 1,010-meter long pier on the Chicago shoreline of Lake Michigan, with the skyline of the Streeterville neighborhood of the Near North Side community area in the background. Built in 1916 primarily as a cargo facility for lake freighters and passenger excursion steamers, the pier today is Chicago's number one tourist attraction that hosts the Chicago Children's Museum and an IMAX theater. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on September 13, 1979.

In the news today, winning over the competitions from Columbia University in New York City, the University of Hawaii in Honolulu, and the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Chicago will host the Obama Library, Museum and Presidential Center on Chicago’s South Side, located in either Washington Park or Jackson Park.

Compared to the downtown area shown on the postcard, the South Side of Chicago has great disparity in income and other demographic measures, and a reputation for being poor or crime-infested, The Obama Library will not only honor the legacy of the first African American president in the U.S. who had worked at University of Chicago's Hyde Park campus, but also give an enormous economic boost for the South Side.

Obama Delivers Earth Day Messages in Florida

President Obama traveled to the Everglades in South Florida earlier today to highlight the impact of climate change on the American economy. The irony is that in Florida, where rising sea levels pose an imminent threat to 30% of the state's beaches in the next 85 years, state officials have taken an Ostrich Policy on climate change by banning the terms “climate change”, “global warming” and "sustainability" in any official state communications, emails, or reports.

Obama took a tour on the Anhinga Trail in the park on wooden boardwalk over vast 1.5 million-acre wetlands that are served as habitats to diverse species such as alligators and whooping cranes. Shown on the outgoing postcard US-3263777 to the Netherlands, a whooping crane can be more than 4 feet or 1.2 meters tall when standing erect. Indigenous to Florida but rare, whooping cranes were re-introduced in the mid-1990s to stimulate population recovery. These species are threaten as their habitats are impacted by salt water seeping inland caused by rising sea levels, which offers a vivid illustration over the relationship between theoretical arguments about carbon emissions and real-life implications. Studies also reveal that rising sea levels are threatening an $82 billion state tourism economy, and drinking water for more than 7 million Florida residents — more than a third of Florida's population.

President Obama is using his trip, timed to coincide with Earth Day, to push for an environment agenda that will cut carbon emissions by 28% by 2025 in an attempt to alleviate the impacts of climate change.

University of Virginia in Charlottesville

Postcard US-3149031 to China shows the lawn at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Established in 1819, the central quadrangle was designed by Thomas Jefferson. He planned the two story Pavilions as homes for professors, who lived upstairs and taught downstairs. Between them are rows of single rooms where students have lived since 1825. It's part of the Monticello and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville World Heritage Site recognized by UNESCO in 1987.

Update: In his State of Union address to the nation this evening, President Obama challenged the Congress to make two-year community college free under certain conditions, and to overhaul tax codes to shift benefits away from wealthy Americans in order to offer tax credits for college. As a public and state-affiliated institution, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville offers a good example on what investment on higher education can do for the nation by its association with 7 Nobel Laureates, 7 NASA astronauts, 7 Marshall Scholars, 4 Churchill Scholars, 29 Truman Scholars, and 50 Rhodes Scholars,

Don't Tread on My OBAMACARE

Postcard US-3091308 to Connecticut was a political advocacy card for ObamaCare. Today marks an important deadline for people in the United States to sign up for individual and family ObamaCare insurance plans that take effect on January 1, 2015. However, several states have offered extensions due to high demands. Otherwise, the next earliest effective date for ObamaCare insurance plans will be February 1, 2015. 

For coverage starting in 2015, the open enrollment period runs from November 15, 2014 to February 15, 2015. If you need in-person assistance, You can visit an insurance broker, a navigator organization, or an enrollment store. Remember to bring a photo ID, proof of income such as W-2 or tax return, immigration cards or papers, and your Social Security card. The consumer assistance center at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services can be reached at 800-318-2596.

Nevada Healthlink sign up sign  in the Boulevard Mall (top left), ObamaCare Poster at a bus stop in Las Vegas (top right), People line up to sign up insurance plans at an enrollment store in Las Vegas (bottom)

#ShopSmall

Between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it is Small Business Saturday on November 29, 2014. Launched in 2010 by American Express, it is the 5th year for a growing number of people to think and shop at local small business and independent retailers. President Obama and his daughters went to an independent book store Politics and Prose in Washington D.C. to buy books today as a way to show his support.

Postcard US-2941533 to Russia was shaped Guinness Beer Glass card purchased at the Guinness Store at the Shoppes at Mandalay Place in Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, next door to the Rí Rá Irish Pub, a participating small business where Guinness beers are served and traditional Irish music bands are playing.

The Millennium Project

To commemorate the 69th anniversary of the 1945 Charter of the United Nations, President Barack Obama proclaimed October 24, 2014 as United Nations Day.

Postcard US-1779034 to Australia features Meg Bonenfant at age 20, to highlight one of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs),  Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education. The goals were a series of time-bound and quantified targets, set out in the Millennium Project at the United Nations' Millennium Summit in September, 2000, aiming to reduce extreme poverty in the forms of income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability, with a deadline of 2015.

The postcard was obtained at the World Urban Forum III in Vancouver, Canada during June 19-23, 2006. Another copy of the card was recently sent to the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in New York City for a postmark on the United Nations stamps in September, 2014.

Fast Food Workers Demand Living Wage

President Obama said in his Labor Day speech at Milwaukee, Wisconsin: “All across the country right now there’s a national movement going on made up of fast-food workers organizing to lift wages so they can provide for their families with pride and dignity.” Meanwhile, organizers representing fast food workers around the country are planning a one-day strike next Thursday on September 4, 2014 at restaurants such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s and KFC in 150 cities, demanding a living wage of $15 per hour and the right to unionize. The Bureau of Labor Statistics had the average hourly wage for restaurant workers at $8.74 as of May 2013.

The campaign started with 200 fast-food workers in New York City in November 2012. It has since gained momentum as 13 states increased their minimum wages at the beginning of 2014 and Seattle approved a $15 minimum wage. According to Chicago Tribune, "in May, 101 McDonald’s workers were peacefully arrested for trespassing at a protest outside the company’s Oak Brook headquarters. Since then, the so-called Fight for $15 campaign has continued to raise awareness of its goals of unionizing fast food workers and raising their wages to $15 an hour."

The featured postcard shows a McDonald's Restaurant at Sahara Paradise Plaza in Las Vegas, as seen from the Stratosphere Tower.

President Obama Turns 53

Happy Birthday to President Obama, who just turned 53 today on Aug. 4, 2014. He was born in 1961, which was Year of the Ox in Chinese Zodiac. It is said that dependability, strength and determination are among the character traits for those people born in Year of the Ox. they are tolerant individuals who believe that the road to success involves hard work and scrupulous behavior; they do not believe in taking shortcuts.

Postcard US-1948589 to the Netherlands was made with a photo from President Obama's reelection campaign appearance at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas on August 20, 2012, embedded in a template then available at photofunia.com.

Hallmark Made First Father's Day ECard for Two Dads

In this Father's Day, Hallmark, the largest manufacturer of greeting cards in the United States, has made its first ECard dedicated to two dads. Titled "I'll Take Two," the ECard was created by transgender artist Kylie Summer Wu, showing a girl shopping for Father's Day gift for her dad and pop.

Meanwhile, President Obama honored fathers, gay or straight, inclusively in his presidential proclamation for Father's Day. Advocate also had an article featuring 33 Famous Gay Dads for Father's Day. 

Based in Kansas City, Missouri and founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark first introduced same-sex themed wedding cards in 2008. It later added its first-ever Mother's Day cards for lesbian moms and Valentine's cards for same-sex couples. You can see more of the spectrum collections, part of the company's "Love is..." design series, here in honor of LGBT Pride Month.

If Not Now, Then When?

June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, as declared in a proclamation by President Barack Obama on May 30, 2014, calling on Americans to eliminate prejudice “everywhere it exists.”

Presented by Human Rights Campaign, UNLV Spectrum, LGBT Bar Association and Freedom Nevada, a special preview screening of the HBO Documentary "The Case Against 8" was held at the Student Union Theater, University of Nevada, Las Vegas at 2 p.m. today. The film offered a behind-the-scenes look inside the historic case to overturn California Proposition 8 that bans same-sex marriage in the state. It highlights that "battles are won because they are fought!" The documentary will premiere in theaters on June 6, 2014 and debuts on HBO on June 23, 2014.

The postcard to Taiwan, one of several from the Cirque du Soilei show Zumanity, depicts a scene where "the lovers dance a tumultuous tango. Through their fierce choreography, a passionate story of love and anger unfolds. Again and again they attract and repel in intense conflict until the magnetic energy between them becomes more than they can bear."

Yes, We Still Can

Postcard US-1939267 to Germany shows President Obama greeted the audience before a campaign speech for reelection at Canyon Springs High School in North Las Vegas on August 20, 2012. He chose North Las Vegas, where foreclosures was the worst in the entire country in 2011, to highlight the need for another term for him to battle the sluggish economy.

More than a year later, in his fifth State of the Union address tonight, Obama focuses on America's economic divide and inequality. Facing a divided Congress and uncooperative Republican leadership, President Obama vows to use the executive power pursue his campaign agenda and outlines modest steps, with or without the help of Congress, to help Americans left behind amid the economic recovery.

NBCNews: Speaker of the House John Boehner gives President Barack Obama a thumbs up after the president noted "how the son of a barkeep is the Speaker of the House" in an effort to highlight the opportunities available to Americans during the State of the Union address. 

World AIDS Day

I am dedicating postcard US-1987877 to World AIDS Day, observed every year on December 1, to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. President Obama issued an official proclamation on World AIDS Day today.

Although the initial discovery of AIDS in 1981 involves gay men, it was soon determined that AIDS was not isolated to the gay community. HIV is transmitted primarily through unprotected sex; contaminated blood transfusions and hypodermic needles; and from mother to child during pregnancy and delivery. Learn the UNAIDS Strategy and how to get involved.

USPS AIDS Awareness Stamp in 1993

In Las Vegas, The Venetian and The Palazzo lighted their hotel exteriors with red lights in the evening on December 1, 2013 in support of World AIDS Day. The Southern Nevada Health District will offer free HIV testing at the Gay and Lesbian Center of Southern Nevada (401 S. Maryland Parkway) and at Nevada Partners (710 W. Lake Mead Blvd., North Las Vegas) on December 2, 2013.

United Nations Day

President Barack Obama, as every President of the United States has done each year since 1946, proclaimed October 24, 2013 as United Nations Day to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the 1945 Charter of the United Nations. 
Postcard US-2373503 to Russia, shows the United Nations Headquarters in New York City, arrived in 62 days. It was sent to the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) in New York City for mailing with the United Nations stamps on August 20, 2013. For procedures on how to send mails through UNPA, see my previous blog.

Some other postcards sent under a separated envelop on the same day, survived a mail catastrophe and arrived their destinations without any postmarks.

One Year Later: Obama and Same Sex Marriage

LGBT Supporters with Bill Clinton for Obama Re-Election in 2012 

This postcard is made to mark the anniversary of President Obama's endorsement for same-sex marriage on May 9, 2012. On the postcard, a "LGBT for Obama" banner was held high when former President Bill Clinton spoke during a rally at the the Springs Preserve in Las Vegas on October 9, 2012.

Jonathan Capehart had a blog on "Obama and gay marriage: one fabulous year" at Washington Post that documented major related events in the year following Obama's announcement. (updated on May 10, 2013: he had a new blog titled "Minnesota, Clinton and Obama: More gay firsts" following a 75 to 49 vote on May 9, 2013 in the Minnesota State House to legalize same-sex marriage.)

The postcard can be purchased at Zazzle.com