DieBruderschaft.com

LOS ANGELES -- Even though Carmelo Anthony and Tamika Catchings wore their Team USA attire Monday, they werent speaking on behalf of USA Basketball. Maybe, just maybe, they were because of USA Basketball, because of the international travel and exposure to different cultures and overall enlightenment thats a byproduct in their participation in the past three Summer Olympics stretching back to 2004. The sum total of all of their voyages, physical and personal, had brought them to this room at the Challenger Boys & Girls Club, addressing the media following a youth-police interactive session designed to bridge the gap between people of color and law enforcement.Were often too quick to conflate prominence with experience. We think that just because someone is famous they are qualified or even obligated to speak out on societal issues, when the reality is speeches are better left to those who actually have something to say. Anthony and Catchings dont profess to have all of the solutions. What they know -- what we can tell about them -- is that theyre equipped to take on the problems.Being an athlete you have a choice: You can either stay in the bubble that were in or you can get more engaged, Catchings said later. Being knowledgeable, being informed about everything thats going on ? I do feel like because we travel so much, we are exposed to a lot. I think that does kind of play into being able to speak out on different issues.For Anthony, there is no trace the steps of his journey, no indication of where he learned what, or when. He cant even pinpoint what pressed him into action in the early hours of July 8, when he awoke from a fitful sleep and began composing an Instagram post. All he knows is that after the darkest side of America took the lives of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and five Dallas police officers, It was too much.So Anthony posted a picture of the famous athletes summit featuring Jim Brown, Muhammad Ali and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and let his thoughts flow.I just started typing, Anthony said.He enlisted his fellow athletes to call for systemic changes, to apply pressure to politicians, to make demands. They were just words on a screen. But typing is an action. Self-expression is an action. We know this because the laws of physics say actions bring about reactions, and look at the ripple effects since Anthonys Instagram post hit.Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James led off the ESPYS broadcast with another call to action. WNBA players wore protest warmup shirts, used their postgame interviews to address only Black Lives Matter-related topics, then held firm and forced the league to rescind its fines for their violations of uniform policies.Monday provided the most tangible progress yet, with about 200 youths meeting with police officers, community leaders and Olympic team members to air out thoughts from both sides of the law enforcement divide that has gone from tense to deadly lately.A couple of things came out of it that were simple, but profound, said deputy chief William Scott, a commanding officer in the Los Angeles Police Departments South Bureau.He mentioned the girl who said it would help if police officers admitted their mistakes when they made them. (There can be so little police accountability in the wake of tragic incidents, starting with a reluctance to even release the names of the officers involved.)One of our officers said, You know, youre right, Scott said. The culture of law enforcement, sometimes we dont own up to what were doing. And he pledged in public that I promise you, thats something I can do. Its those types of things that are very powerful.An African-American officer described the tension he feels when he is off-duty in plain clothes and is pulled over by white police officers.That tension is not just felt from community to police officer, said Calvin Lyons, the president and CEO of the area Boys & Girls Clubs. It can be from police officer to police officer when race and ethnicity are involved.Finding commonalities and minimizing differences are the first steps that can be taken. If one kid has a better perspective on what police officers are thinking during a stop and if one officer has a handle on interacting with people of color, the day was a success. Catchings, of the Indiana Fever, said she cant wait to collaborate with the Indiana Pacers Paul George to hold a similar event back in Indianapolis.A few athletes cant undo racism or eradicate fear and hate. Through words and actions they can make a difference, however slight.Were just going to keep it going, Anthony said. Were going to keep the conversations going. But for me to just see it, when youre in it, you really dont understand or feel the impact that youre creating or that you have. Its not until you kind of sit back and unwind and think about everything and put everything into perspective.Its not time to sit back yet. We can pause for just a moment, however, and acknowledge the place this generation of athletes has reached. And lets make sure to salute the female athletes who are speaking out from empathy, not their own fear. Lyons, the Boys & Girls Club executive, noticed a slight gender-based difference in the comments during the sessions.The young ladies were speaking about: our brothers, our uncles, our fathers, Lyons said. The young men were speaking about themselves. How do I react? And the young ladies seemed to have a fear for losing someone close to them.The fear was enough to spark action from the WNBA players. The Minnesota Lynx started it, with shirts that referenced Sterling, Castile and the Dallas officers, along with a #BlackLivesMatter hashtag.Wearing the shirts, it was more of: Hey, we want to use our voice, because we want to make a difference, Catchings said. When you have 144 WNBA athletes and all 144 players supported what we did. Every single team supported it. And I think when you look at that, being able to use our voice. ? Of course we were going to get fined at first, and nobody cared. We wanted to stand up for what we believed in. When you look at the power of African-American women, and being able to step up and join causes and support our brothers, thats what its all about. It doesnt matter what race you are, when you can come together for a cause and make a movement and make sure that, united, we can make a change.Sue Bird isnt African-American, but she joined all of her Seattle Storm teammates in wearing black shirts for a photo that she and her teammates posted on Twitter. They used a Martin Luther King quote -- There comes a time when silence is betrayal -- tagged the @WNBA Twitter account and used the hashtags #WeWillNOTBeSilenced and #BlackLivesMatter.The WNBA stood down, the fines were rescinded and the side controversy was over.Its good that now the focus can be on whats really important, Bird said.The WNBA players are uniquely qualified to advance the argument, even if its a case of positives springing from negatives.A lot of us have played throughout the world, Bird said, reflecting a common occurrence since WNBA salaries dont allow for a luxurious offseason. Were college grads, weve played throughout the world, weve done all these things and with that we have a sense, I think, about us. And maybe some of that does come from having to fight for respect.Anthony hasnt had to fight many of those battles. Yet hes enlisted in this one, at the forefront of a national crisis.For me personally, Im going to continue with these small groups, Anthony said. I think a lot of things come out when you put people into small groups and talk about it.Hes bringing it home. Chuck D has said the difference between Public Enemys first album, Yo! Bum Rush The Show and their classic second album It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back was the time the group spent touring the world for the first album. They gained a global perspective that improved their art.We saw improved versions of Carmelo Anthony and Tamika Catchings on Monday, two athletes who have been enriched by every opportunity afforded them, two Olympians with one more Games in which to compete. One more Olympic trip to come, with the possibility of even more benefits. Cheap Adidas Hockey Jerseys . - NASCAR announced a 33-race schedule for the 2014 Nationwide Series with virtually no changes from this years slate. Discount Adidas Hockey Jerseys . The Americans, skipped by John Shuster, seized the advantage in the eighth end by scoring five points for a 7-3 lead. The Czechs pulled two back in the ninth, but Shusters team of third Jeff Isaacson, second Jared Zezel and lead John Landsteiner ended with another point to secure the last Olympic berth on offer. http://www.cheapnhljerseysbywholesale.com/ . -- Edmontons Val Sweeting is two wins away from a trip to Winnipeg to play in Canadas Road of the Rings in December. Stitched NHL Jerseys . Numbers Game examines the deal that sees Michael Del Zotto and Kevin Klein switch places. The Predators Get: D Michael Del Zotto. Authentic NHL Jerseys China .com) - Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Roger Federer were easy first-round winners Tuesday at the Australian Open. There is a moment - a brief moment - at the start of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when the naive might be seduced into thinking it is a gentle road-trip movie.You know things are going to go wrong, though. The word massacre is a pretty unsubtle clue as to where the plot is heading. You know youre in for a tough ride.It was a bit like that on the first day in Visakhapatnam. England started well enough but, the second they lost the toss on this surface, you feared there was trouble ahead. From the moment Virat Kohli got off the mark with a cover-driven boundary off James Anderson, he looked daunting. And, on a pitch that is already showing signs of uneven bounce and spin, you know already that England face a monumental struggle to stay in this game.The toss in Rajkot was crucial, too. It gave England a chance to apply some scoreboard pressure and the time to ease their way into the series. But the anticipated deterioration in that surface came too late to influence the outcome.It looks as if Visakhapatnam is going to be different. Even before lunch on the first day, one delivery from Stuart Broad jagged away from the bat sharply off the pitch and a few deliveries seemed to take a piece of the surface when they bounced. Batting last is likely to prove much tougher.In such circumstances, it is vital the bowling side take any half-chance that comes along in the first innings. Think of the Ashes Test in Adelaide in 2010. Australia won the toss and batted first on a typically excellent batting pitch, but a brilliant bit of fielding by Jonathan Trott in the first over resulted in the run-out of Simon Katich and England took advantage.Something similar might have happened here. Had Adil Rashid been able to cling on to a tough chance offered by Kohli when he had scored 56, England would have had a key breakthrough. But the chance went to ground and Kohli went on - and on - to make a high-class century. He may well have made the defining contribution to this Test already. The next time Rashid sees Chris Scott (the Durham keeper who dropped Brian Lara in the early stages of his 501 in 1994) they will surely exchanging knowing looks.While it might be tempting to dismiss the chance as one of those things there was an element of self-inflicted injury about it. With the bowlers unable to find any swing and both batsmen having a couple of questions to answer against the short ball - Cheteshwar Pujara has been hit four times in this series and Kohli is an almost compulsive hooker and puller - England had clearly decided upon a plan of attack. Ben Stokes was to pitch short in the hope that one of the batsmen might hit the ball to one of the men back for the hook.The flaw in the plan was the choice of fielder at long leg. Rashid is not, by domestic standards, a bad fielder and has pretty safe hands. He is a little slow by the standards of this team so it would, under normal circumstances, make sense to hide him at long leg.But in these circumstances, with the slips all but out of business and the mishit hook offering Englands best chance of a catch, it would have made more sense to place a better fielder in the position.Rashid was a little slow to react and, though he just about made it to the ball, he was not in a good position to cling on to the catch. It was not straightforward, but it was the sort of chance that several of this England team would have taken far more often than not. To compound the error, Rashid let the ball slip under his body to the boundary later in the same oveer.dddddddddddd Stokes looked as if he could drink hot blood.Alastair Cook recognised the error. Within a few minutes, he had replaced Rashid with the quicker and more athletic Anderson at long leg. But the moment had gone. Kohli had learned his lesson. He wasnt going to make the same mistake.If it seems harsh to focus on such a fleeting moment, it is because Test cricket in such circumstances is harsh and unforgiving. Attention to detail over such issues can make all the difference and, by leaving Rashid at long leg, England failed to make the most of their perfectly reasonable plan.Later, Cook also failed to take advantage of the second new ball. Just two balls after Anderson had Ajinkya Rahane edging a classic outswinger, Ravi Ashwin might have been caught at gully edging a similar delivery. Instead, England had a third man and a deep square leg.The decision to introduce Zafar Ansari into the attack for the 11th over might also attract some criticism, too. The score was 36 for 2 at the time and Ansari, though he bowled nicely enough in that first spell (six overs for 19 runs), was unable to sustain the pressure.There was some logic in the decision to turn to him, though. As a left-arm spinner, he was trying to take the ball away from the two right-handed batsmen and Stuart Broad was off the pitch (at that stage he was struggling with a cut sustained in Rajkot and opened by a committed piece of fielding; later he struggled with a sore right foot that may well see him rested for the third Test). It wasnt that the decision was wrong, it was just it didnt work out.That England remain with any sort of foothold in the game is largely due to the performance of Anderson. Unable to gain much movement with the first ball of the match, he nevertheless took three of the four wickets to fall - bouncing out M Vijay with a sharp short ball and persuading Rahane to nick an outswinger - and managed to gain dangerous swing with the second new ball.We thought the way the new ball played in the morning it was the easiest time to bat and didnt swing that much, Anderson said afterwards. Every time I pitched it up Vijay hit me for four, so I went short. I watched the first Test so I knew there was a chance with the short ball.The pitch is quite abrasive and not chewing the ball up as we would like. The outfield is lush so there are not many areas to get the ball to reverse. We got a little bit from 40 to 55 overs but it was tiny.I thought we bowled pretty well. There were a couple of periods we let it get away: half an hour before tea we let ourselves down a bit with the ball and in the field. But on that pitch we are reasonably happy with that.The wicket was tough to bowl on. The outfield was heavy - there will be some sore legs tomorrow - and the pitch played well. The two guys who got hundreds they set about their business and showed they are world-class. They made it very difficult to bowl at them.Anderson also warned that conditions could deteriorate sharply, so it was essential for England to strike early on day two and for their batsmen to score heavily in the first innings.Im not sure the pitch will stay together as well as Rajkot, he said. There are signs of it keeping low. There will be more variable bounce and we have seen a few spin. So we are in tough position and we need to have a good day with the ball and an extremely good go with the bat. Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Cheap Adidas Hockey Jerseys Wholesale Nike Baseball Jerseys Wholesale Jerseys From China Wholesale Jerseys China Wholesale NFL Jerseys China Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys Free Shipping Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys Authentic Cheap NHL Jerseys Canada Cheap Nike MLB Jerseys Cheap Soccer Jerseys China NCAA Jerseys Cheap Nike NHL Jerseys China Wholesale Jerseys China Cheap Jerseys Store Cheap Football Jerseys Store Wholesale Soccer Jerseys Jerseys NCAA China Jerseys NFL Cheap Cheap Nike NBA Jerseys ' ' '