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Email Story to a Friend June 9, 2006 Just because it's June And what is so rare as a day in June? Then, if ever, come perfect days; Then Heaven tries earth if it be in tune, And over it softly her warm ear lays; -- James Russell Lowell Advertisement June is here and so are summer days. It's been summer unofficially since Memorial Day. Officially, summer starts with the solstice on June 21, but by then, June is almost past. And June is what summer is about: endings, beginnings, flowers and vacations. For starters, June is Rebuild Your Life Month. Admirable thought to ponder during June's 30-day unfolding. The spring has banished winter, blanketed the hills in green, watered them with rain and decked them with blossoms wearing every color of the rainbow. Fresh and alive and gay and young June is a love song, sweetly sung -- from "June is Bustin' Out All Over" by Rogers and Hammerstein June is when many young love-besotted couples decide to get married. There's nothing like a June bride. All that white glistening in the summer sun. All those bouquets. And that smile full of hope for the years ahead. June is when young scholars graduate and take a few months off from the ardors of learning before moving to the next tier of their educational ascent. Speeches are made at the commencement ceremonies and forgotten, along with much that transpired in the classroom. Legislators, ever eager to serve our best interests and our vested ones, too have been in the habit of proclaiming a particular month "National Something-Or-Other Awareness Month." Last month there were 45 such themes attached to the month of May. October has the most, with 56 worthy causes vying for our awareness. June's 35 contenders are not to be dismissed, however. June is a month of paradoxes. It is both Dairy and No-Dairy Month. It is Turkey Lovers Month, Soul Food Month and National Steakhouse Month. And it is the month when strongly committed vegetarians celebrate Vegan World Day. June is Iced Tea Month, Candy Month and Potty Training Month. And it is International Accordion Awareness Month and Effective Communications Month — as if those two concepts could live together, shall we say, in harmony. In a more serious vein, June is Cancer From the Sun Month, Aphasia Awareness Month, Child Vision Awareness Month and Pharmacists Declare War on Alcoholism Month. I'm not sure how helpful these designations are to the subjects they address, but it is worth knowing that many people care very deeply about them and hope you will too. We honor fathers with their very own day in June. Necktie and ashtray sales used to peak around Father's Day, but that was before Dads started dressing more casually for work and stopped smoking. You don't have to live in New Orleans to know that June 1 to November 30 is hurricane season. Hopefully we will put that knowledge to work so that June doesn't have to be declared National Lose Your Home and Livelihood Month. You don't have to live in Portland to know that June is National Rose Month. But if you do live there, you can't possibly ignore the annual Rose Festival and parade. Portlanders have been officially celebrating roses for 99 years. About 2 million people take part in the monthlong event. The rose is, after all, our national floral emblem and it is grown in all 50 states. And did you know that stores sell more than 1.2 billion fresh-cut roses every year? Locally, June is when the arts go outside and become festivals. Ashland artists gather on the lawn of the old Briscoe School for the MidSummer's Dream Art and Music Festival. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival opens its outdoor season on the Elizabethan Stage. The Britt Festivals open their season in what used to be Peter Britt's yard. Meanwhile, in Grants Pass, the Rogue Music Theatre is busy rehearsing for its summer outdoors musical that opens in mid-July. In 1998, 1999 and again in 2000, President Clinton issued a presidential proclamation declaring June as Gay Pride Month. The origin for the proclamation was in memory of the June 28, 1969 Stonewall Riot, when the patrons of a gay bar in New York rioted after police raided the club. President Bush has not continued Clinton's initiative. He has yet to declare June — the month his father was born and the month we celebrate Flag Day — as Gay and Lesbian Pride Month. This June, he has instead proposed an amendment to the Constitution banning gay marriage. And to think it all began in June. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2006 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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