RACISM!! TAKE A LOOK AT THIS VIDEO
https://www.facebook.com/PrinceEa/videos/10154108925139769/
Something i came across on Facebook that i thought was worth the watch on Racism. I would love to hear what you think about it.

Facebook Personas:

Mary 41, Mary is a mother of 4 kids from ages 13-7 who works full time and doesn't have the time on her own to coach and help her children develop in the sport of basketball like she would like them to. Her kids love basketball but she is always so busy it is hard to find a gym that will take her kids and allow her to leave and run errands while the kids play and improve on their skills without her having to be present providing adult supervision.

Jameson 17, plays high school basketball for his local high school but has recently found that if he wishes to continue playing the sport he loves he needs to dedicate more time and make it a passion. He struggles to push himself to get better and thinks he would do better in a group environment where other kids would be pushing themselves to get better at the same time they improve individual skills.

George 47, Has been coaching his son and sons friends for the past 3 years but doesn't have the time to keep running practices for them during the week. He wants to still have the ability to coach his son and his sons friends but is only able to find time once a week to coach them, he is looking for someone or somewhere to take his kids and help them develop while he continues doing what he needs to durning the week.

What do parents want their kids to do if they sign them up? (improve, learn, progress)
What does our gym offer that others might not? (Passionate coaches? Do they want to be there or are they doing it for the money?)

Who is the audience? The audience is extremely broad, anyone with children from 1st grade to 11th grade who want their kids improving basketball skills.

Our strategy is simple at the House of Hoops. We are looking to create winners, not only on the court but also off of it. We focus on each kid individually and also look at them in groups to help each player and team succeed. Our coaches want to win as badly as anyone but at the same time we realize that at this point in kids careers it is just as important if not more important that the kids learn to love the game of basketball and not get caught up in winning and losing.

This is the facebook page i have chosen to take over and i will be continuing to run it for the remainder of the semester and maybe even into the summer.       https://www.facebook.com/uthouseofhoops/

My main focus is going to be to encourage players and parents to tell their friends about the gym and eventually have room and time for more classes to help these younger basketball players develop their game.  I will also be posting a player of the week award each week, teams schedules ( to help take phone calls away from our head coach every single week when the games for our 25 teams change two nights before the games are to be played), and a section that will be called coaches corner. It is basically going to be advice from our coaches in the gym and the community that will let kids know what kind of things coaches look for in young developing athletes if they are going to recruit them or not. This may also be bounced around with the drill of the week which will be a video clip submitted of a few short drills kids can do at their houses to improve ball handling and control.

Racism 2.0

To start my discussion I want to be clear that racism isn’t only against African Americans. However in the world we live in today it would appear that way. From the riots in Fergusson to all of the stories we hear of white cops shooting black people. The reason it exists is because we continue to talk and make a big deal out of the skin color rather than the human being as a person. But don’t get me wrong, we have come along ways since the days of slavery and real racism where we had bathrooms for white people and colored people. I am glad to have had the experiences in life I have had with people from other races. I myself have been racially profiled as well. Think about the last time you were in a basketball gym watching a pickup basketball game. Captains are picking their sides for the first games of the evening, and I can’t blame them for overlooking me, I am an out of shape white boy who barely stands at 6’ tall. Of course I am going to take the more in shape African American standing next to me before I would ever choose myself. Studies and life show that African Americans are dominating the Professional sport of basketball, so why would you take a chance on someone who doesn’t have the appearance of a basketball player if you have never seen them play. Point and case is that you wouldn’t.(racial profiling, not exactly racist) (( I KNOW)) Racism exists and it exists everywhere. After 9/11 every time you found your self in an airport and you saw someone who had the appearance of an Arab, you caught yourself thinking and wondering. If you didn’t then good for you but it is a thought that everyone feared for quite awhile.  I don’t believe racism is ever going to go away, because people don’t stop talking about it. Things don’t disappear until people stop talking about them. And the world we live in now, just doesn’t allow for people to set aside race and look at each other as equals.

MY POSITION

I am a very open person, some of my very best friends are not white. In college my roommate was African American, I still consider him to be one of my very best friends. I am completely against any kind of racism whether it be hiring the help of Mexicans and paying them dirt cheap or being just ignorant and refusing to serve an African American at a restaurant. Sadly enough I have seen both of these situations in my life time. I am a landscaper in the summers and we have a Mexican who works with us named Navo and his other employer pays him dirt for the tremendous work he does. I still remember the first day he worked with me when I paid him at the end of the day he looked at me with the biggest eyes I have ever seen and said “I think you give me too much” and is said no I gave you what I give everyone who I hire. He looked at me and stared in disbelief. He had never been paid a fare amount in all of the jobs he had ever worked in the US. Made me sad but also grateful for the ability to look at ones soul and person rather than just looking at their color.

Aaron Swartz story

Physcological: When I was listening to the Story of Aaron Swartz, it made me think of all the people who steal music, or illegally download music.  Those people are stealing for their own gain, when Aaron was initially trying to illegally take the American literature and share it for everyone online…

Social: I would say socially this Aaron was on the right path because he was trying to give people this book written by Webster to be handled by anyone.  This is also where the copyright act comes into play, but it was only hitting the people in the USA, Charles Dickens was and is a perfect example of a man who was robbed of all of his books until he came to America and he tried to get the international copyright acts.

Cultural: I feel that I have talked about the cultural side of things already with how we were stealing and selling books or works from over seas.  Until they tried to earn equal rights for the authors whose books were being sold in America but they were never sending a single cent to the author.

My personal stance on this subject is one sided. I am against anyone taking credit for someone else’s work in any shape or form. I strongly despise people who take credit for others doings and giving no credit whatsoever to the worthy recipients. I can remember a website that I think was probably written and created with some of the same codes and same ideas as those used by any other “gorilla open access” copies. That website I am talking about is LIMEWIRE. Limewire was used to download the new hot songs every single day for FREE!

Most artist don’t charge an arm or a leg for their music, but they do charge because they took the time to create what it is you are asking for. It makes sense that they want to be paid.

Hey Eric, I have an idea to start a facebook page where the main focus is on picking up extra players for different sports teams for tournaments, rec leagues and even just pick up games.  I was considering calling it Pick Me UP. I would just like to hear from you if this will be something that you think i will be able to meet the qualifications for the course with. Thank you

#SOTU blog post,
now first off i am completely uneducated when it comes to most of the topics covered in the address tonight and i am not going to try to fool anyone with this post, but there are a few things that i just dont understand. One is the constant halting of the speech for the standing ovations... okay i get it you like what he said, why not wait until the very end of the speech and stand up and cheer your little hearts out. The screen shots i have taken were one right after he speaks of the Cuba, and shortly after when Alan Gross is given his standing ovation. I was fine with that one, obviously Obama was ready for a voice break so he changed subject for a few minutes and then went right back into the subject of the Cuban crisis.

The standing ovation I understand. and finally this post on my twitter feed was right below a poll taken. The poll is interesting as well, but seriously this is the reason i cant stand everyone having the right to a twitter. Just read her tweet and enjoy the classic tweets we all read every single day.

Thank you for breaking up my feed of regular #sotu post and giving me a laugh.

I was not effected personally by the address nor have i been swayed to one side or another. One thing that is easily noticed is Obama is very good with his words and persuading he media. Much better at addressing the media than say president Bush ever was. Although it was much more entertaining to listen to Bush slaughter his attempts.