Don’t Take A Knee. Does Not Add Up. 17,000 Miles An Hour. Trash Talk Needed. Stop The Disparity Of Information.
George Floyd. Another sad statement for our entire country. A country where we have lost over 100,000 lives to Covid-19 overshadowed by another incident of reckless police activity. This is 2020. In 1965, fifty-five years ago, there was a famous march from Selma to Montgomery. The march was a part of the civil rights movement and helped provide awareness of widespread discrimination in the United States. Fifty-five years later we have a police officer putting his body weight on another human’s neck for almost nine minutes. I do not care the race or religion of the people involved in the George Floyd incident – it does not matter whether the people are black, white, red, blue or brown. We have protesters who have every right to assemble and voice their outrage and concern – in an organized and peaceful manner. Then people with ill will join the protesters, using the gathering to loot businesses, many owned and operated by people of color. We have Minneapolis police arresting a CNN crew, live on the air, before they charged and arrested the former police officer who held down George Floyd with his knee. I am not ignorant to the fact that people have bias. I am well aware of the bigotry that exists in this country and other countries around the world. I am embarrassed for our country. I am sick of discrimination, racism and bigotry. If I had answers to this serious problem, I would be the first person to help stomp out racism. I do not have the answers regarding discrimination and bigotry. Do you?
This is taken from one of my favorite sports writers, Peter King, and his weekly column “Football Morning in America”. He posts early morning on Monday’s and last week’s piece about the NFL and minorities really does not sit well with me. An excerpt: “This is going to be an uncomfortable column. It should be uncomfortable to talk about this, because what’s happening in the NFL is not right: 70 percent minority players, 13 percent minority head coaches, 6 percent minority general managers, 3 percent minority owners.. What is wrong with this picture? You’re good enough to play, but not to coach, manage or own.” I am sure NFL owners have their reasons on how they rate and rank potential candidates for their open head coach and general manager positions – but the numbers don’t lie. Only six of 64 top football people in the sport—the 32 head coaches and 32 GMs—are minorities. As Peter King states very loudly: “This is going to be an uncomfortable column.” Damn straight it is uncomfortable; actually maddening. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/05/25/nfl-minority-hiring-rooney-rule-fmia-peter-king/
I know everyone has already figured this out. Yesterday’s SpaceX launch of their ship called the Crew Dragon includes a rendezvous with the International Space Station (ISS) today at approximately 10:29 AM EDT . To intercept the ISS, the capsule must match the station’s speed, altitude and inclination, and it must do it at the correct time such that the two spacecraft find themselves in close proximity to each other. The difference in velocity between the ISS and the Crew Dragon capsule must then be near to zero at the point where the orbits of the two spacecraft intersect. Everyone get that? Now for reality: the Crew Dragon rendezvous is with the ISS that travels five miles per second or 17,000 miles per hour, at an altitude 250 miles above the earth. To keep it in perspective, the ISS orbits earth every 92 minutes. No, I don’t get it but it does give credence to the 2016 movie Hidden Figures, a well-done drama that details the talent, ability and skill set of African-American women who showed NASA a dose of reality. These three women, dealing with repetitive discrimination, served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation’s confidence and turned around the Space Race. If you have not seen Hidden Figures, you are missing out on a great movie.
The rain storm took away from last Sunday’s broadcast of the fund-raising golf event where Tiger and Peyton Manning played against Phil and Tom Brady. The rain and no-gallery protocol posed problems with watching this golf event, as if this sport needed more reasons not to watch four hours of golf on TV. I am aware of how the PGA and USGA try to maintain “the dignity of golf” with many rules and regulations of what broadcasters can and can’t do with their coverage of a tournament, but Sunday’s multi-faceted broadcast brought the television audience up close and personal to the four participants. Yes, it was a charity event so the golfers were much more tolerant to being mic’ed up – but the banter between the four, along with the trash-talking from guest commentators was very refreshing to hear and see. Is it time for the golf gods to follow a bit different go-forward, especially with limited spectators? We would not want to see some of the broadcast tactics implemented by the now-defunct XFL, but I do think it is time to open the array of options to bring the audience into the dynamics of golf. I can think of one former television executive in Atlanta who would agree with me. Anyone else? Most importantly, this event raised a ton of money for a great cause.
Here is why we are so confused and why so many don’t believe that wearing a mask is required or needed to help slow down the spread of Covid-19. How can the World Health Organization (WHO) not be in concert with other worldwide health entities? This disparity of information is uncalled for, unprofessional, and is the root cause why we are all not onboard to quell the spread of this virus. Absolutely ludicrous. “WHO is recommending healthy people, including those who don’t exhibit Covid-19 symptoms, only wear masks when taking care of someone infected with the contagion, a sharp contrast from the advice given by American public health officials who recommend everyone wear a mask in public. If you do not have any respiratory symptoms such as fever, cough or runny nose, you do not need to wear a mask,” Dr. April Baller, a public health specialist for the WHO, says in a video on the world health body’s website posted in March. Masks should only be used by health care workers, caretakers or by people who are sick with symptoms of fever and cough.” Their recommendation has not changed since March and differs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which urges individuals to wear a mask or face-covering in public settings, regardless of infection or not, to limit the spread of the virus.” In a word: INSANE.
Adios, be safe, pay if forward, and have a Funday Sunday!