#flag: Milwaukee - Wisconsin - United States

[city-flag-tournament]

Bonus Poll

The current flag of Karakol, Ysyk-Köl Region, Kyrgystan vs A proposed flag for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States vs The current flag of Coral Springs, Florida, United States vs The current flag of Rockaway, Queens, New York, United States

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Gabe Fleisher at Wake Up To Politics:

Historically, the closest parallel to what happened last night is probably the assassination attempt of Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Like Donald Trump — who was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday — Roosevelt was a former president when he survived a gunman’s fire. Also like Trump, Roosevelt at the time was running to reclaim the White House, in the midst of a campaign speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Finally, and most importantly, the attempts on both men’s lives will likely be best remembered for their defiance in the face of a would-be assassin. In his case, Roosevelt continued delivering his speech, even as a bullet was lodged in his chest. “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose,” he famously declared, going on to speak for another 50 minutes before seeking medical attention. Secret Service protocols would not allow such a display today; still, the attack on Trump will forever be defined by this instantly iconic image, of Trump’s face streaked with blood, his fist raised in the air, the American flag waving behind him. It has been 44 years since a federal elected official (Allard Lowenstein, a New York congressman) was successfully assassinated in the United States, a streak that often masks the fact that political violence has been steadily increasing over the last decade.

This is not the 1960s — when a president, a presidential candidate, and several civil rights leaders were killed in a five-year period — but more from a lack of successes than a lack of trying. It has not been an era, thank God, of murdered politicians, but it has been one of dangerously close shaves. On January 6, 2021, rioters came within 40 feet of then-Vice President Mike Pence, as Trump supporters chanted for his hanging and searched for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), among others. Less than two years later, Pelosi’s husband sustained an attack by hammer; if a police dispatcher had not understood his coded messaging, he may have ended up with worse than just a skull fracture. In 2017, doctors told Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) that he had been “within a minute of death” after being shot at a congressional baseball practice. Then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) also survived gunfire, but she has never fully regained the ability of speech after a 9-millimeter bullet cut through her brain in 2011.

A man made it just outside of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s house in 2022, armed with a pistol, knife, hammer, crow bar, and zip ties, but his assassination plot was foiled when he called the police himself, his second thoughts having taken over. Someone made it even closer to then-Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) one month later, climbing on stage during a gubernatorial campaign rally; thankfully, the attacker was armed only with a keychain. Quantifiably, according to a University of Maryland database, political violence since 2016 has been at its highest levels in the U.S. since the 1970s. Before 2016, the U.S. Capitol Police had never opened more than 1,000 threat investigations in a single year; last year, more than 8,000 threats against members of Congress were investigated. Similarly, “investigated threats against federal judges have risen every year since 2018,” according to the U.S. Marshals Service, while election officials are also facing an unprecedented level of menace.

The threats were all able to be foiled, but several — like the bullet that whizzed just inches away from Trump on Saturday — came horrifyingly close to fruition. And oftentimes, even as the politicians live, others become collateral damage of our toxic politics. Yesterday, at least one American was killed simply for attending a political rally of their preferred presidential candidate. [...] Rarely do Democratic or Republican officials stop to acknowledge that their own side might have a role to play in our divisive politics. Instead, when horrors like last night’s unfold, each side reliably finds a way to blame the other party, which only serves to exacerbate further the cycle of hatred and violence that brought us to this point. Even in their responses to tragedy, more toxicity flows loose.

Gabe Fleisher details in his Wake Up To Politics newsletter the history of close calls that would have resulted in the death of various politicians over the past decade and a half or so, such as Gabby Giffords, Paul Pelosi, Steve Scalise, Mike Pence, and most recently, Donald Trump.

[xtruss]

Scenes from Nazi Summer Camp

In the years leading up to WWII, children across the United States spent their summers learning archery and antisemitism.

— January 18, 2024 | Kirstin Butler

Children at a German American Bund camp stand at attention as the American flag and the Bund youth flag are lowered in a sundown ceremony in Andover, N.J., July 21, 1937. Associated Press.

Camp Wille und Macht—Will and Might—came first, in 1934, and was joined in New Jersey by Camp Nordland in Andover and Camp Bergwald in Bloomingdale. In Wisconsin, Camp Hindenberg claimed ground along the banks of the Milwaukee River, and children left their homes for Camp Siegfried in Long Island, the Deutschhorst Country Club in Pennsylvania and Sutter Camp in Los Angeles, California. Photographs and footage from the 1930s document those children pitching tents, cooking baked beans, hiking and singing songs. “It looks like any kind of Boy Scout camp or Girl Scout camp,” author Arnie Bernstein told American Experience. “But these were Nazi camps in America.”

The camps were owned and operated by the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi organization formed by U.S. citizens of German descent in the years leading up to World War II. With scores of chapters and thousands of members across the country, the Bund promulgated an antisemitic, isolationist agenda that sought to establish Nazi ideology in the new homeland. An important part of Bund policy was the creation of a program modeled after the Hitler Youth, the Nazi movement for young Germans. Bund parents enrolled children as young as six into the Jungvolk, which at age 14 split into the Jugendschaft for boys and Mädchenschaft for girls. The Bund camps became the main site for their indoctrination.

Most of the camps were located in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, but others sprouted up in locations like Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and California, with an estimated 15 to 25 camps distributed across the country, most in communities with a large German diaspora. Campers were dressed in uniforms featuring the Hitler Youth’s lightning bolt insignia, adorned with swastika pins and given knives inscribed with the phrase “Blut und Ehre,” or “blood and honor.” Daily activities also took on militaristic tones, including target practice and the Sieg Heil salute.

The Bund also published a German-language magazine for its youth members—first called Jung Sturm and then Junges Volk—whose pages featured campers’ accounts and photo spreads dedicated to selective parts of the camp experience. Not depicted, however, were activities that later became public knowledge—like forced nighttime marches that culminated in fireside renditions of the Nazi anthem—after an erstwhile camper testified in 1939 before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. (HUAC was originally formed in part to address concerns about the Bund, as well as other Fascist and Communist organizations in the U.S.) Its leader was ultimately charged with embezzlement, and the group’s assets were seized; some of its leaders and members deported. As the Bund’s troubles multiplied and membership dwindled, the camps closed.

But many of the camps’ archives survived, as did, presumably, children’s recollections of their time spent there and the messages that accompanied it. “It was an experience, a trip, that will remain in our memories forever,” Adirondacks camp director Gregor wrote in Junges Volk.

Four young boys peek out of their tent at the Deutschhorst Country Club, a recreational Bund site outside of Sellersville, Pennsylvania. July 26, 1937, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

“The German Youth Association will be opening a camp this summer… I’m looking forward to what we’re going to do. We’ll go swimming, play soccer, do gymnastics, go on rides, tell stories, go for walks, do outdoor activities and play lots and lots of games. And now the best part: get up at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning and bathe in ice-cold water.” - Edgar, 11, camper in Jungsturm

Bund youth raise a flag at half mast in tribute to Nazi Germany’s late President Hindenburg in Griggstown, New Jersey, August 1934. Getty Images.

“The bugle wakes you up for morning exercise, washing and raising the flag. After the stars and stripes and the camp flag have been hoisted, the pennants are put in their places, the daily motto is announced and a new camp day begins, filled with work and pleasure until curfew.” - Anita, 14, camper, in Junges Volk

The cover page of the inaugural issue of the Bund youth newsletter, first called Jungsturm. Image courtesy Leo Baeck Institute.

Bund youth group boys parade at Camp Siegfried, the largest Bund camp located in Yaphank, Long Island, in 1936. Alamy.

Female members of the Bund youth march at Camp Siegfried. The lightning bolt, or “sieg” rune, was the emblem of the Hitler Youth, and was meant to symbolize victory. 1936, Alamy.

“Just watch those long columns march past, their gaily colored flags flying in the breeze, their strong, tanned legs keeping time to the roll of the long drums, and you shall realize the value of the camp: training ground for the generation of tomorrow. This new generation used to the rigors of camp-life with its long marches, its lonely sentinel duty, its life in the open by rain and storm and hot, burning sun, will be fit to carry on the resurrection of the German in America.” - Paul M. Ochojski, Junges Volk columnist

The summer 1937 issue of the Bund youth magazine featured a gallery of images from its various camp sites—”unsere Jugendlager”—across the country. Image courtesy Leo Baeck Institute.

“We stayed at this fabulous lake for another week and a half, shot wild game and climbed the highest mountains, before it was time to go home. It was an experience, a trip, that will remain in our memories forever. Our youth group has been going to this wonderful mountain range for four years now to set up a summer camp there.” - Gregor, camper, in Jungsturm

Bund youth movement children give a Nazi salute onstage during a German Day celebration in honor of the first German settlers in America. October 5, 1936. Anthony Potter Collection/Getty images.

“We look with heartfelt reverence and sincere trust to the great leader of our old homeland, with the wish that God bless his new work—we are aware of our responsibility as German-American youth and will do our part to ensure that the new spirit of our times will once again become a force for the renewed health of our people. Rise up!” - Erna, camper, in Jungsturm

“This is our main goal, to create a large community of American-German youth, where all boys and girls who are of German blood pass through our youth movement. We want to ensure that the German race of the American people will be healthier and stronger, and from which the leaders of the nation will emerge.” - Junges Volk editorial, summer 1937

This image was part of Bund records seized by the Department of Treasury in 1942 in its investigation of the group’s finances. National Archives and Records Administration.

[mariacallous]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump chose not to attend the Republican Party’s first 2024 presidential primary debate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. But just like when Trump first ran for president, it was the insurgent candidate among the contenders onstage Wednesday night who became a foreign-policy punching bag.

Even though Trump’s absence took center stage, with the Fox News moderators quizzing the candidates on whether they would support the former president as the GOP nominee if he were to be convicted in any of the handful of legal probes he’s facing, the tone for the evening was set by differences on foreign policy. And the fighting over U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russia was particularly vicious.

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a political newcomer who has risen from the back of the field to a near-consistent third place in the polls, got the first major audience round of applause of the evening for saying the United States should stop aiding Ukraine.

“We are driving Russia further into China’s hands,” he said. Prior to the debate, Ramaswamy had called for the United States to allow Russia to retain control of some of the parts of Ukraine it has occupied militarily, in exchange for Moscow cutting ties with China.

With Ukraine’s counteroffensive flagging, support for Kyiv has become a major wedge issue inside the GOP. Last week, the top defense expert at the influential conservative Heritage Foundation think tank left the organization after being blindsided by an op-ed written by the organization’s president, Kevin Roberts. In the piece, Roberts blasted members of Congress for prioritizing Ukraine aid over the hurricane disaster relief (the article earned the indignation of a public fact check from X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter).

But more mainstream conservative voices believe the framing that Ramaswamy, Roberts, and others are posing is all wrong. “My opinion is you can’t treat assistance to Ukraine like it’s a gift or charity,” said Mark Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense for Democracies. “This is about U.S. national interests. We have to meet aggressive authoritarian behavior against beleaguered democracies at the point of friction, not step back and say, ‘at the next line, we’ll do something.’”

Ramaswamy’s position also put him in hot water with the rest of the GOP field onstage Wednesday, most of whom believe that the United States is getting a good bang for its buck by giving U.S. guns to the Ukrainians and thereby degrading the Russian military.

“We will be next,” said former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who recently traveled to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian officials. Former Vice President Mike Pence tried to channel Ronald Reagan’s “peace through strength” mantra as the attacks on Ramaswamy continued, calling out Ramaswamy for having a “pretty small view of the greatest nation on earth.”

Under fire from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who accused the political newcomer of trying to side with a murderer in Putin, Ramaswamy tried to tar the rest of the stage as George W. Bush-era neoconservatives beholden to the defense industry. “I wish you luck in your future career on the board of Lockheed or Raytheon,” Ramaswamy told Haley.

But Haley, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, fired back quickly. “You have no foreign-policy experience and it shows,” Haley told Ramaswamy in one of the biggest applause lines of the night.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has tried to frame himself as a China hawk, mostly stayed silent during the back-and-forth on Ukraine, though he did say U.S. aid to Ukraine should be conditioned on European countries doing more to help. He previously called Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine a “territorial dispute.”

After Tim Scott bemoaned the deadly spread of fentanyl, DeSantis pushed to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organization, a label that carries the weight of U.S. sanctions, and promised to leave traffickers funneling drugs across the border “stone cold dead.” Pence pushed for the Pentagon to partner with the Mexican military to hunt cartels.

But agreement on border issues, and perhaps China, mask the major split on Ukraine. The problem, as Pence and other establishment Republicans saw it, was not that the nearly $50 billion tab for U.S. military aid to Ukraine was too much, but that it was too little.

“This makes it clear that we have to have a debate over this,” Montgomery said. “But my point is the debate should be won by those who believe in continued support to Ukraine.”

[fastrateauto23]

Best Auto Repair Services in Milwaukee, WI: A Comprehensive Guide

If you’re cruising through Milwaukee, WI, you know the streets can be as unpredictable as Wisconsin’s weather. A pothole here, a sudden brake check there—your car’s bound to need some TLC sooner or later. That’s where this guide steps in. Let’s explore how to find the best auto repair services in Milwaukee to keep your ride smooth and stress-free.

Why Quality Auto Repair Services Matter

Let’s face it: your car isn’t just a machine; it’s your trusty sidekick. Whether it’s getting you to work or helping you escape for a weekend adventure, you need it to be reliable. Choosing the right auto repair service ensures your vehicle stays in top shape, saving you from surprise breakdowns and sky-high repair costs. Plus, keeping your car safe and road-ready means peace of mind for you and your passengers.

Common Auto Repairs and Maintenance Needs

What’s on your car’s to-do list? Here are some common issues every car owner faces:

Brake Repairs: Squeaky brakes or longer stopping distances? Time to check those pads and rotors.

Oil Changes: Keeping your engine’s lifeblood clean is key to avoiding costly repairs.

Transmission Repairs: If your car’s struggling to switch gears, don’t wait to get it checked out.

Tire Services: Worn-out tires don’t just affect your ride’s performance—they’re a safety hazard.

How to Choose the Best Auto Repair Service

Picking a repair shop can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. Here’s what to look for:

Reputation and Reviews: Check Google and Yelp for glowing reviews—or red flags.

Certifications and Expertise: Look for ASE-certified mechanics who know their stuff.

Transparency in Pricing: Clear, upfront estimates? Yes, please. Surprise charges? No thanks.

Top Auto Repair Shops in Milwaukee, WI

Ready to meet Milwaukee’s auto repair all-stars? Here are some top contenders:

Shop A: Known for stellar customer service and quick turnarounds, they specialize in brake and suspension repairs.

Shop B: A favorite for transmission and engine work, with rave reviews for their fair pricing.

Shop C: If affordability and reliability are your priorities, this shop’s got you covered.

What Sets These Shops Apart

What makes these shops stand out from the crowd? It’s a mix of:

Exceptional Customer Service: They treat you like family, not just another ticket.

Advanced Technology: From diagnostics to repairs, they use cutting-edge tools.

Local Reputation: These shops are trusted names in the Milwaukee community.

DIY vs. Professional Repairs

Thinking about fixing your car yourself? Here’s the scoop:

DIY Pros: Save money and learn something new.

DIY Cons: Without the right tools or knowledge, you could make things worse.

When it’s time to call the pros? Anything beyond basic maintenance—like replacing spark plugs—is best left to experts.

Tips for Maintaining Your Car in Milwaukee's Climate

Milwaukee’s weather can be tough on your car. Here’s how to stay ahead:

Winter Maintenance: Invest in snow tires and check your battery regularly.

Seasonal Tire Changes: Swap out summer tires before the snow hits.

Preventative Care: Regular washes to remove salt and grime can prevent rust.

Conclusion

Your car deserves the best, and Milwaukee’s top auto repair shops are ready to deliver. By choosing quality services and staying on top of maintenance, you’ll enjoy a smoother, safer ride—no matter what the road throws your way. Ready to give your car the care it needs? Milwaukee’s got you covered.

First Rate Auto

5424 W State St, Milwaukee, WI 53208, United States

+14147743738

Get Direction From Google Map

[uwmarchives]

“Faster, Higher, Stronger”

To highlight the start of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, we again dig into the Albert Rainovic collection at UWM Archives, call number UWM Manuscript Collection 43. 

Pictured above is an image drawn by Rainovic that was published in the “Men’s and Recreation Section” of The Milwaukee Journal on Sunday, November 18, 1956. Find this image in Box 14, #459.

Clockwise, the featured Wisconsin athletes include Ken Wiesner, Del Lamb, Ralph Metcalf, and Don Gehrmann. The following caption is included with the image: 

Track and skating have provided Wisconsin with most of her Olympic stars, such as these from the last quarter century. Gehrmann ran eighth in the 1948 1,500 meter race. Wiesner placed second in the high jump in 1952. Lamb came in fifth in 1936 and tied for sixth in 1948 in 500 meter races. He was coach of the 1956 speed skating team. Metcalfe took second in the 100 meter dash and third in the 200 in 1932. He ran second to Jesse Owens in the 100 in 1936. - By Al Rainovic, a Journal Artist

In 1968, the Olympics Games were in Mexico City, Mexico, and Rainovic drew the above image to commemorate the event. Uncle Sam is drawn in a track and field uniform with the American flag in the background, and on the flag, are surnames of U.S. Olympians. This image was published in the Milwaukee Journal on October 25, 1968. The quotation reads: 

“Nothing is more synonymous of our national success than is our national success in athletics. Nothing has been more characteristic of the genius of the American people than is their genius for athletics.” 

- Gen. Douglas MacArthur (1928)

What Rainovic’s drawing does not capture amid the national triumph of Olympic gold, is the protest of Black American athletes during the 1968 Games. In what is now an iconic image (pictured below), Tommie Smith and John Carlos, sprinters in the men’s 200-meter race, raised their gloved fists in the Black Power salute during the U.S. national anthem. The gesture was done in solidarity with the Black Freedom Movement in the U.S. and was rewarded with the expulsion of Smith and Carlos from the Games because their action was deemed too political for the apolitical nature of an international sports competition, according to the president of the International Olympics Committee (IOC).

Smith, Carlos, and Australian sprinter Peter Norman also wore patches during the medal ceremony that supported the Olympic Project for Human Rights, an organization that protested against racial segregation in the United States and racism in sports. 

Find Rainovic’s 1968 drawing in Box 14, #448.

Jamee, Archives Graduate Intern

[magnetictapedatastorage]

Americans have been saying for a year they want to get back to normal. Tragically, they're getting their wish.

With the gradual return to public places comes a specter the country was all too willing to set aside as it grappled with a pandemic capable of killing thousands of Americans a day. Mass shootings are starting to make headlines again, and though their return is most unwelcome, they've proved to be an inextricable part of life in the United States.

The latest mass killing left 10 dead at a grocery store. For the past 12 months, Americans have been vigilant in grocery stores to avoid contagion. Monday's slayings in Boulder, Colorado, reminded them that even with pandemic hope on the horizon, they should remain vigilant for a different reason.

This is a hard thing to read, but important. Full text under the cut.

CNN | 3/24/2021 | Listen Analysis: Mass shootings signal a dubious 'back to normal' in America Analysis By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN

Updated: Wed, 24 Mar 2021 00:21:23 GMT

Source: CNN

Americans have been saying for a year they want to get back to normal. Tragically, they're getting their wish.

With the gradual return to public places comes a specter the country was all too willing to set aside as it grappled with a pandemic capable of killing thousands of Americans a day. Mass shootings are starting to make headlines again, and though their return is most unwelcome, they've proved to be an inextricable part of life in the United States.

The latest mass killing left 10 dead at a grocery store. For the past 12 months, Americans have been vigilant in grocery stores to avoid contagion. Monday's slayings in Boulder, Colorado, reminded them that even with pandemic hope on the horizon, they should remain vigilant for a different reason.

Americans shouldn't have to fret about dying in a supermarket, or at a spa, or anywhere for that matter. Catching a bullet should be far from their minds, but with a return to American normalcy comes the reality that anyone could die for nothing, just about everywhere.

Seven mass shootings in seven days

Just as the country is conquering a new pandemic, an old, familiar epidemic makes its return. The last week has been a harbinger of what "back to normal" means for the US.

The most recent string of senseless gun violence began March 16 when a shooter killed eight people at three Atlanta spas. The next day, a drive-by in Stockton, California, injured five people who'd gathered for a vigil.

Four people were hospitalized Thursday after a shooting in Gresham, Oregon. On Saturday, a pair of shootings at clubs in Dallas and Houston left a young woman dead and 12 people injured. Shortly thereafter, a shooter opened fire at what Philadelphia police termed an illegal party, killing one man and injuring five more.

Now, Boulder makes seven in seven days. When the gunfire at King Soopers stopped, 10 lay dead, including hero officer Eric Talley, the first policeman on the scene. His wife and seven children will pay an astronomical debt for their dad's bravery.

"Flags that have barely been raised back to full mast after the tragic shooting in Atlanta that claimed eight lives and now the tragedy here, close to home, at a grocery store that could be any of our neighborhood grocery stores," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said Tuesday.

The King Soopers location where the melee unfolded is one of about 1,000 providers in Colorado working to repel the killer Covid-19.

Steven McHugh's son-in-law had queued for a dose of vaccine, like more than a million other Coloradoans. He was third in line, and his daughters chatted with their grandmother on the phone as he waited, McHugh said.

When the gunfire erupted, a bullet found its way to the woman at the front of the line. Her fate is unclear, as is much about Monday's shooting. Authorities haven't divulged a motive, but history tells us it won't make sense.

McHugh's son-in-law fled with the girls -- one in seventh grade, the other in eighth -- to an upstairs staffing area above the pharmacy and hid in a closet. Dozens more shots rang out, McHugh said, citing his son-in-law.

It was "extraordinarily terrifying," the grandfather told CNN, "and of course the little one's saying, 'The coats weren't long enough to hide our feet,' as they were standing behind the coats in the closet."

'A normal we can no longer afford'

The US government doesn't have a centralized database to track mass shootings, but anecdotal accounts indicate they were down during the pandemic as Americans were encouraged to stay home and many of their favorite gathering places were shut down.

Former President Barack Obama called for action Tuesday, expressing disbelief that only Covid-19 could quell the gun violence the country has long endured.

"A once-in-a-century pandemic cannot be the only thing that slows mass shootings in this country," he said. "We shouldn't have to choose between one type of tragedy and another. It's time for leaders everywhere to listen to the American people when they say enough is enough -- because this is a normal we can no longer afford."

For the mass shootings that did unfold amid the pandemic, their locations were frighteningly familiar: a Buffalo, Minnesota, health clinic; a bowling alley in Rockford, Illinois; a Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, mall; parties in Rochester, New York, and Washington, DC; and a brewery in Milwaukee where, authorities would learn later, the gunman had been employed.

Gun violence is not a uniquely American phenomenon, but part of the rich American tapestry are threads of evil and violence: people (almost always men) who use weapons (often firearms) to snuff out innocents. Sometimes they're mentally ill, but more often they're just angry or vicious.

Their reasoning -- when it's attainable -- fails to provide closure. Outrage invariably erupts after each massacre. One side demands stronger gun laws. They're labeled un-American. Their opponents tout the Second Amendment. They're labeled callous. A stalemate ensues until the next killing, then repeat.

Within an hour of the Boulder killings, the National Rifle Association tweeted the Second Amendment. It later retweeted it. Nothing more.

It should surprise no one that a special interest group champions the Second Amendment. The amendment is a promise to every American, but 15 years prior to its ratification, the Declaration of Independence brought other promises of rights deemed "unalienable."

The full guarantees of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" will never be achieved by Officer Talley, Tralona Bartkowiak, Suzanne Fountain, Teri Leiker, Kevin Mahoney, Lynn Murray, Rikki Olds, Neven Stanisic, Denny Strong, Jody Waters -- or any of the thousands of victims who fell before Monday in Boulder.

'Part of the American experience'

In all likelihood, another person died by a gun while you were reading this. Despite the media's breathless focus on mass shootings, gun violence takes myriad and frequent forms.

According to numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the country saw 14,414 homicides in 2019 -- about one every 36 minutes -- while another 23,941 souls fatally turned guns on themselves -- roughly once every 22 minutes.

In his statement, Obama called out other scapegoats: disaffection, misogyny, hate. The United States has monopolies on none of these, though it has special brands that can be pernicious.

Sandy Phillips, who co-founded the organization Survivors Empowered to console and guide survivors of gun violence, pointed to the victims who suffer in silence, because the killings of their loved ones are seemingly not important enough for the newspapers or the nightly news.

Doubt her? Google the details about last week's shooting in Stockton, California, one of the most racially diverse cities in the nation.

"We have mass shootings in slow motion every day in this country, in other neighborhoods that never get the press, that never get the opportunity to speak out about what's happening in their communities -- and we need to change that," Phillips, who lost her 24-year-old daughter Jessica Ghawi in 2012 to gun violence in Aurora, Colorado, told CNN.

Those neighborhoods often belong to minorities, who have had a particularly rough time of the pandemic as well. It's another crushing American axiom that society's ills tend to home in on people of color, and those victims must yell so much louder to be heard.

There will be much yelling in coming days, perhaps weeks. Obama is right when he said Americans possess the ability to "make it harder for those with hate in their hearts to buy weapons of war. We can overcome opposition by cowardly politicians and the pressure of a gun lobby that opposes any limit on the ability of anyone to assemble an arsenal."

The margins are thin, though, and the complexity of that American tapestry will be on display. A Gallup poll from late last year showed 42% of Americans had guns in their homes, a number that's risen since 2019. Another Gallup query indicated 57% of Americans want stricter gun laws, a percentage that's on the decline.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said "absolutely nothing" will stop the country's return to pre-pandemic mass violence if lawmakers refuse to curb access to the weaponry.

"This has become part of the American experience, and let's not forget: It's completely unique to us," he told CNN. "There's not another similar country on Earth that experiences the same number, the frequency of mass shootings as we do, and it is directly attributable to the profusion and the availability of guns, particularly high-powered assault-style weapons and how easily pretty much anyone can acquire them here in this country."

[seabasszens]

Week 1--About Me

My name is Sebastian Zens, and I am a new transfer student at UW-Milwaukee studying political science.  I have enjoyed learning about the subject, specifically international relations, since social studies have been a part of my curriculum and started focusing on it while participating in Model United Nations in high school.  Although a better word for “design” in most of international relations is “draft”, i.e., documents, treatises, pacts, etc., there are a couple of areas where design and political science overlap that have fascinated me for as long as I can remember, namely the design of maps as well as flags.  From sea charts and illuminated maps to subway maps and globes embellished with the elevations of mountain ranges, the history of mapmaking as it intersects with both the evolution of art and its various styles and eras as well as the advances in the science and technology necessary to further refine and enhance cartography has always been a source of personal curiosity and bemusement in drawing parallels to and understanding the human world more broadly.  Similarly, the history of flags as a means of communication and identification is interesting to me between the utilitarianism of signaling and racing flags and the artistry, subjectivism, and symbolism associated with flags of group, national, cultural, political, etc. identity.  

In taking this class, I’m hoping to learn some of the context and schools of thought within art and design during these different periods that saw new maps and flags arise, whether out of necessity to solve a new problem or to refine previous work to whatever standard of design and/or precision was held at the time. I am also in this class to sate a more general desire to learn about the subject, as I enjoy making and taking in art and would like to know more as to how and why the world around us is designed the way it is.  Living in downtown Madison, WI, one is surrounded by different styles of architecture and product design, often overlapping, and melding into one another, and learning when and how these styles came about can paint a more vibrant history for me of Madison, Wisconsin, the United States, and the world more broadly, and all the people therein.

[boostjrpinusa]

Boost mobile winchester

Looking for Boost Mobile store hours? Find here the deals, store hours and phone numbers for Boost Mobile store on 820 Berryville Ave, Winchester VA. Boost mobile chambersburg, boost mobile chambersburg , boost mobile hagerstown , boost mobile in winchester , boost mobile martinsburg , boost mobile phone repair , boost mobile repair , boost mobile winchester , boost prepaid phones , cell phone repair hagerstown , phone repair hagerstown. Visit here for More info- http://boostjrp.com

This is a shiny new 800MHz (in certain nations, individuals likewise call it 850MHz) wireless sign promoter unit, which can work in USA, and any remaining 800MHz organization on the planet. 2000 square meters inclusion territory. Ground-breaking enough to work for a few indoor roof radio wires. ESPOW Electronics has recently delivered another rendition of the ESPOW wireless repeater. The new ESPOW speaker takes after its two elder siblings, the ESPOW and sports two new control handles for changing the addition on both the 800MHz and 1900Mhz frequencies. This is a pleasant improvement and will help the new DB Pro intensifier to be all the more effectively arrangement in close places.

The new ESPOW speaker has been placed into the ESPOW. These two packs are intended to be savvy frameworks to support and improve wireless signs in little homes and structures with 1 or 2 rooms. Both these units are accessible at the accompanying areas. Boost mobile chambersburg, boost mobile chambersburg , boost mobile hagerstown , boost mobile in winchester , boost mobile martinsburg , boost mobile phone repair , boost mobile repair , boost mobile winchester , boost prepaid phones , cell phone repair hagerstown , phone repair hagerstown. Boostjrp provides 2G, 3G, GSM, DCS and CDMA Mobile Signal Boosters in USA. #USA for increasing your Network Signals at your Home, Offices and other remote places.Visit here for More info- http://boostjrp.com

Establishment and Working:

The establishment strategy for mobile phone supporters may fluctuate as per the item. The ordinary advances included may comprise of the accompanying:

1. Recognize the most reasonable area with the most grounded signals, to introduce the outer radio wire. You can do this by taking a gander at the sign strength pointer on your cell phone handset.

2. Utilize the mounting sections and to vertically introduce the recieving wire, at any rate three feet from metallic articles like cooling units and lines.

3. Take the coaxial link and connect it to the base of the sign reception apparatus.

4. By utilizing a discretionary window section pack, you can run the opposite finish of the coaxial link through your window and join it to the base unit which is kept inside.

5. Guarantee that the base's recieving wire is at a 90 degree point to the base unit.

Associate the force supply to the base unit. You should change the distance between the two radio wires to dispense with any mistake signs.

Further Reading:

Verizon Wireless:

Verizon utilizes both the 800 and 1900 MHz recurrence band in their cell organization. To locate the right repeater for you, we give some counsel howl.

800 MHz repeater Kits for Verizon Voice Coverage.

1900 MHz repeater Kits for Texas, Florida and Verizon EVDO administration.

Dualband Repeater Kits for both Voice and EVDO Data.

AT&T:

AT&T's intricate organization foundation uses both 800 and 1900 MHz frequencies. Consequently, the most basic arrangement is to pick a double band cell repeater, which will consistently work with the AT&T Network.

By and large, AT&T utilizes the 800 MHz band for voice administrations.

AT&T for the most part utilizes the 1900 MHz recurrence band for its HSDPA/UMTS broadband information administration (for both mobile phones and broadband information cards).

Alltel:

Alltel uses both 800 and 1900 MHz signals inside its phone organization.

In numerous states (Arkansas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Texas, North Dakota, Utah, Nebraska, Wyoming), Alltel utilizes 800 MHz recurrence flags as it were.

In different states, Alltel uses both 800 and 1900 MHz recurrence groups in various territories. The equivalent applies to their EVDO broadband information administration. On the off chance that you require a cell repeater for one of these states we suggest you for a double band repeater unit.

US Cellular:

US Cellular utilizes both 800 and 1900 MHz recurrence signals. In this manner, to choose an appropriate repeater to improve the sign for the US Cellular organization, you need to learn the recurrence US Cellular utilizes in your general vicinity.

800 MHz Coverage:

California: Eureka

Indiana: Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Des Moines, Water Lou

Maryland: Coverage Pending

Missouri: St. Joseph, Columbia

North Carolina: Asheville, Wilmington, Jacksonville

Oregon: Medford

Pennsylvania: Coverage Pending

Tennessee: Knoxville

Virginia: Roanoke, Charlottesville, Lynchburg

Washington: Yakima, Richland

West Virginia: Hagerstown, Cumberland

Wisconsin: Sheboygan, Green Bay, Janesville, Racine, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton

[city-flag-tournament]

✯ Round 4 ✯ Match 2 ✯

The current flag of Volenskoe Municipality, Voronezh Oblast, Russian Federation

Propaganda:

None

vs.

A proposed flag for Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

Propaganda:

While it isn’t the official flag of Milwaukee and was rejected by the city council for no reason, it is a beautiful flag that is beloved by its city. It doesn’t need to be official to be the true flag of the city.

Tournament Policies:

✯ Choose the flag that's more meaningful to you!

✯ Be respectful of place names and cultural symbols in your commentary!

✯ If you want to submit propaganda, you may do so at the submission form linked in the pinned post. It will only be included if it is submitted before the next post with that flag is drafted and will be included in all subsequent posts the flag is featured in.

[dipulb3]

Analysis: Trump makes baseless claims about pandemic in final stretch as Covid cases rise

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/analysis-trump-makes-baseless-claims-about-pandemic-in-final-stretch-as-covid-cases-rise/

Analysis: Trump makes baseless claims about pandemic in final stretch as Covid cases rise

“Our doctors are very smart people. So what they do is they say, ‘I’m sorry but everybody dies of Covid,’ ” Trump said at a rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, on Friday. Unearthing conspiracy theories from the bowels of the Internet, the President claimed with no evidence that doctors from other countries list underlying diseases as the cause of death, while US doctors choose coronavirus.

“With us, when in doubt — choose Covid,” Trump said. “Now they’ll say ‘Oh that’s terrible what he said,’ but that’s true. It’s like $2,000 more, so you get more money.”

Campaigning with Biden in Michigan Saturday, former President Barack Obama was sharply critical of Trump’s comments about doctors — and incredulous that attack was part of the President’s closing argument.

“He’s jealous of Covid’s media coverage and now he’s accusing doctors of profiting off this pandemic—think about that,” Obama said. “He cannot fathom, he does not understand the notion that somebody would risk their life to save others without trying to make a buck.”

“If Trump were focused on Covid from the beginning, cases wouldn’t be reaching new record highs across the country,” Obama added, noting that some areas where Trump has held rallies have seen spikes in cases “after he leaves town” and mocking Trump’s “obsession” with crowd size in the midst of a pandemic.

“You know when a country is going through a pandemic that’s not what you’re supposed to be worrying about,” Obama said. “And that’s the difference between Joe Biden and Trump right there. Trump cares about feeding his ego. Joe cares about keeping you and your family safe. And he’s less interested in feeding his ego with having big crowds than he is making sure he’s not going around making more and more people sick. That’s what you should expect from a president.”

Obama and Biden spent the day together in Michigan on Saturday, where Trump — who narrowly won the state in 2016 — had been the day before. Biden leads Trump 53% to 41% in Michigan, according to a Appradab poll released Saturday, which is a wider margin than most public polling there, but the results for each candidate are within the survey’s margin of error of the average estimated support for that candidate.

Even with some voters drifting away from the President because they disapprove of his handling of the virus, he has continued to insist on holding huge rallies — including four in Pennsylvania on Saturday alone — which only draws attention to the fact that he is dangerously flouting the safety guidelines of his own experts at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, daring Americans to hold him accountable for it on Election Day.

During his first Pennsylvania stop Saturday, Trump continued to downplay the impact of the coronavirus on the nation, noting that he and first lady Melania Trump recovered — without acknowledging that they received the highest caliber of medical care in the country and that he had access to experimental treatments that are not available to most Americans.

Underplaying the grave risk of the virus to Americans with pre-existing conditions, Trump falsely claimed that “because of our relentless efforts, the recovery rate right now on Covid, or China virus, or the China plague, is 99.7%,” using a racist term to describe the virus.

Not only did Trump ignore the thousands of Americans who have died from the virus, but there is not enough data yet to understand the long-term consequences on patients who have contracted the disease. Trump, who pledged to “terminate” the virus with “science, medicine and groundbreaking therapies,” was also critical of Biden’s relentless focus on Covid-19 during his visit to Pennsylvania Saturday.

“All he does is talk about Covid, Covid,” Trump said of Biden in Bucks County. “He has nothing else to talk about…. We agree it’s serious and we’ve done an incredible job. And at some point they are going to recognize that.”

Trump’s claims about profiteering doctors sparked a backlash beyond the campaign trail. Susan Bailey, the president of the American Medical Association, said in a statement that the claim that doctors are overcounting Covid-19 patients or “lying to line their pockets is a malicious, outrageous, and completely misguided charge.”

“Covid-19 cases are at record highs today,” Bailey said as Friday marked the highest single day of cases in the United States since the pandemic began. “Rather than attacking us and lobbing baseless charges at physicians, our leaders should be following the science and urging adherence to the public health steps we know work — wearing a mask, washing hands and practicing physical distancing.”

Emergency physician and former Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen told Appradab’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday night that doctors are risking their lives at a time when one person is now being diagnosed with Covid-19 every second.

“We have one American dying of coronavirus every two minutes, and that number is increasing,” Wen said on “The Situation Room.” “In some states, one in two people who are getting tested are testing positive. That means that we’re not doing nearly enough testing, and that every person who tests positive is a canary in a coal mine.”

Wen added that there are likely to be “many more dozens of other cases that we’re not detecting, and that escalation is going to increase in the weeks to come.”

Trump rails against nation’s Covid-19 focus

The angry tone of Trump’s rallies and his attacks on doctors stem in part from his frustration that the country is so focused on the pandemic in the closing days of the election. Poll after poll has shown that coronavirus is the top issue on the minds of American voters and a broad majority of the electorate disapproves of Trump’s handling of the virus.

While Trump has gotten away with holding large rallies in other states, Minnesota has been particularly vigilant both with enforcement and contact tracing, and Trump lashed out on Friday at Minnesota officials who curtailed the size of his rally due to safety concerns.

The Minnesota Department of Health reported three Covid-19 outbreaks related to Trump campaign events held in the state in September. The state’s health department has linked at least 23 cases to Trump campaign rallies with the President in Bemidji and Duluth and a rally with Vice President Mike Pence in Minneapolis, according to information the department provided to Appradab in an email last week.

But dismissing safety concerns as irrelevant, Trump argued that state officials, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, have created two sets of standards — one for the protesters who demonstrated against police brutality after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May and a different set for his supporters.

“Keith Ellison sided with flag burning extremists over law-abiding Americans. He treats you like second-class citizens,” Trump said in Rochester, Minnesota, on Friday night where state officials limited the crowd to 250 people. “He believes that the pro-American voters have fewer rights than anti-American demonstrators.”

As part of that argument, Trump once again conflated Black Lives Matter demonstrations, which were largely peaceful across the country this year, with the far smaller number of protests that turned violent and have served as a helpful foil as he tries to argue that Biden would coddle criminals while fomenting what he described as “vile anti-police rhetoric.”

Speaking in Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, Biden refuted that argument by zeroing in on the difference between peaceful protesters and violent agitators who took advantage of this year’s movement for racial justice.

“Burning and looting is not protesting, it’s violence clear and simple — and will not be tolerated,” Biden said at his event, which he said was seven miles from where Floyd was killed by a police officer. “But these protests are a cry for justice.”

The former vice president argued that Trump’s divisive language about the protests and his effort to pit Americans “against one another based on race, gender, ethnicity and national origin” are part of an effort to distract from his handling of the pandemic.

During his final event of the day in Milwaukee on Friday, Biden noted that the state is now experiencing a record level of coronavirus hospitalizations.

“This week, Wisconsin, like other states, set a new record for daily cases. Hospitals are running short on beds, just had to open a field hospital. That’s what we’re facing. We’ve now hit 9 million cases,” Biden said Friday night. “Millions of people out of work; on the edge and they can’t see the light. They’re not sure how dark it’s going to remain … and the thing that bothers me the most was a President who gave up.”

[illionoisprelawland-blog]

Confederate Statues In America’s History

By Meera Gosavi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Class of 2022

July 25, 2020

With a relatively young life, the United States has seen significant changes in civil rights. These changes have been immortalized in statues and monuments across the country, and often times they are of those who have played pivotal roles in the suppression of minority groups. In recent weeks, there has been a surge in demonstrative protest in the form of removing symbols of those who have taken part in slavery, forced colonization, and other acts of suppression. In the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black American killed during an arrest by a white officer, many Americans are reconsidering the role of remains from the Confederate States, which historically supported states’ rights to slavery. This movement has also encompassed other minority groups, leading to the forced removal and defacing of statues of Jefferson Davis, Columbus, and other Confederate leaders [i].

In 2003, the Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act was enacted, which stated that anybody who “willfully injures or destroys, or attempts to injure or destroy, any structure, plaque, statue, or other monument on public property commemorating the service of any person or persons in the armed forces of the United States shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both” [ii]. Individuals who defaced statues during the George Floyd protests were charged under this act, for inciting riots, and other threats to public safety. These memorials were further legally protected on June 26th, 2020, when President Donald Trump issued an executive order protecting American monuments, memorials, and statues. Under the country’s responsibility to protect “domestic tranquility,” Trump asserted that recent protests and riots were threatening the country’s history and promote anarchy. As part of the executive order, “It is the policy of the United States to prosecute to the fullest extent permitted under Federal law, and as appropriate, any person or any entity that destroys, damages, vandalizes, or desecrates a monument, memorial, or statue within the United States or otherwise vandalizes government property”[iii].

Trump’s reasoning behind protecting national monuments echoes the sentiments of about 44% of Americans [iv]. The main justification behind keeping Confederate statues up is their place in the history of the United States. Regardless of personal belief and conviction for the morals behind the war, the Civil War was a pivotal moment in the country’s history, and the historical actors in it integral. Some Americans say that removing the statues would be rewriting history and akin to ignoring the evils and struggles of the past. U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany is among those and says “[a]ny country that erases its history is doomed to repeat it. I want to make sure that my children never forget our ancestors’ struggle to end slavery and these statues are a part of that story” [v].

On the other side of the debate, some states have already started the process of removing Confederate statues, sharing the concerns of American protesters and activists. The mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, broke an ordinance and incurred a fine in order to remove several Confederate statues, the governor of North Carolina removed three monuments on the grounds of public safety, and numerous corporations, sports teams, and even the U.S. Army have rebranded through changing names, outlawing Confederate flags, and changing their policies [vi]. However, because of the current laws in place protecting historical monuments and the president’s executive order, some states are having difficulties removing these statues. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has been challenged in his removal of a giant statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate Commander during the Civil War, by William C. Gregory, who claims the statue is in his name and he has a duty to guard it [vii]. The national discussion has even found its way into the federal government, where the lower chamber recently approved, 305-113, legislation to replace pro-slavery politicians’ statues and busts [viii].  

Supporters of the removal of Confederate statues challenge the effects of these actions. “The point of removing the monuments is to move from symbolism of racism to the substance of racism,” say Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Harvard University professor of history, race, and public policy [ix]. Keeping the statues further perpetuates the “Lost Cause” perspective of the Civil War, which euphemizes the war into a struggle of cessation, not slavery, and shows slaves, Southern women, and other marginalized groups as loyal to the cause, and places Confederate soldiers on a pedestal [x]. Most of the statues were erected during the period immediately following the Civil War, when white southern Americans wanted to remember an idealized success that never happened [ix]. There is a major difference between destroying monuments to erase the past and removing remnants of a heavily romanticized history that is destructive to a large part of the population. There is a similarity in supporting the removal of Confederate statues and the Black Lives Matter movement in that both seek to reclaim the narrative of American history for what it is, not glamorizing it in either direction.

The statues of Confederate soldiers, Christopher Columbus, and other polarizing historical figures are widespread in the United States. It is clear that they are important historical figures, but the version of history they portray is what is so divisive for Americans. How should the country perverse the “right” side of history? And where should legislators draw the line in protecting these statues? If Confederate statues are protected, it seems as though Confederate flags would be next, and potentially other forms of hate speech. The George Floyd protests have once again opened the door to a country wide review of oppressor’s roles in history, and whether or not they have a place in today’s discussion of history.

________________________________________________________________

[i]“Confederate and Columbus Statues Toppled by US Protesters.” BBC News, BBC, 11 June 2020, www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53005243.

[ii]Veterans’ Memorial Preservation and Recognition Act of 2003. Pub. L. No. 108-29, 117 STAT. 772 (2003) Authenticated U.S. Government Information, https://www.congress.gov/108/plaws/publ29/PLAW-108publ29.pdf

[iii]“Executive Order on Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, and Statues and Combating Recent Criminal Violence.” The White House, The United States Government, 26 June 2020, www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-protecting-american-monuments-memorials-statues-combating-recent-criminal-violence/.

[iv]Impelli, Matthew. “44 Percent of Americans Say Confederate Statues Should Remain Standing, Poll Shows.” Newsweek, 11 June 2020, www.newsweek.com/44-percent-americans-say-confederate-statues-should-remain-standing-poll-shows-1510282.

[v]Garfield, Molly Beck and Allison. “2 Wisconsin Republicans Vote against Removing Confederate Statues from Capitol While Ron Johnson Blocks Juneteenth Holiday.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 23 July 2020, www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/07/23/2-wisconsin-republicans-oppose-effort-remove-confederate-statues/5492876002/.

[vi]“Removal of Confederate Monuments and Memorials.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 July 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_Confederate_monuments_and_memorials.

[vii]“Judge: No Immediate Ruling on Robert E. Lee Statue Removal.” WTOP, 23 July 2020, wtop.com/virginia/2020/07/hearing-set-in-suit-over-robert-e-lee-statue-removal-plan/.

[viii]Touchberry, Ramsey. “113 House Republicans Vote Against Removing Confederate Statues from Capitol.” Newsweek, 22 July 2020, www.newsweek.com/112-house-republicans-vote-against-removing-confederate-statues-capitol-1519794.

[ix]Aguilera, Jasmine. “Confederate Statues Removed Amid Protests: What to Know.” Time, Time, 24 June 2020, time.com/5849184/confederate-statues-removed/.

[x] Janney, Caroline E. “The Lost Cause.” Enclopedia Virginia, Virginia Humanities, 27 July 2016, https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/lost_cause_the#start_entry.

[kentonramsey]

Meet Opal Lee, the 93-Year-Old Who’s Making Sure Juneteenth Finally Gets Its Due

Opal Lee has been campaigning to make Juneteenth a national holiday for years. Photographer Antonio Chicaia visited her yesterday to take her picture, and talk about her history with the upcoming holiday and her plans for this year.

I’m Opal Lee. I’m a 93 year old. I’ll be 94 in October. My parents brought me to Fort Worth from Marshall, Texas in 1937, when I was 9 or 10.

We had big Juneteenth celebrations in Marshall when I was growing up. We’d go to the fairground. It was like Christmas or Thanksgiving to be able to go on the 19th of June to celebrate freedom. I didn’t know much about freedom when we came to Fort Worth.

Starting around 1974, I went to Juneteenth celebrations in a tiny little place called Sycamore Park between Vickery Street and Rosedale Street—30,000 people, 10,000 people a day for three days. That was a glorious time. Our historical society had some educational material that we took to Sycamore Park. I don’t think many people noticed it, though. They were having such a good time.

I have three boys and a girl. The girl’s the oldest. She’s about 76 now. Her brothers are two years younger—74, 72. I lost a child. All my boys served in Vietnam at the same time. They all came home, but I will always believe my youngest son came into contact with Agent Orange. He was paralyzed before he died. He never got a VA benefit. He was honorably discharged, never got any medical attention from the VA or anything. Nothing. But water under the bridge.

I taught for 10 years. I love teaching. I tell you, I taught so long I was beginning to act like them kids. Then they give me another job. They said: “You’d be better at doing the social work.” They called it “visiting teacher,” but I didn’t have to teach nobody. I had to find out what was wrong and keep them in school.

I started out walking 1,400 miles from Fort Worth to Washington, DC. I did two and a half miles in the morning and two and a half in the evening, to signify that slaves didn’t know they were free for two and a half years after the emancipation. I walked the two and a half miles morning and evening from Fort Worth to Arlington to Grand Prairie to Dallas to Box Springs and Joppa.

I was invited all over the United States. I went to Shreveport and I went to Texarkana and Little Rock, Fort Smith, Denver, Colorado, Colorado Springs, Madison, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I went to Atlanta and to North or South Carolina. I’ve been to Virginia. I’ve been to over 20 cities so far. Austin, Texas, all these places, making people aware, some who never knew anything about Juneteenth. I’m delighted that Juneteenth is getting some momentum.

This year, for Juneteenth, we’ve already done a flag raising, and we’ve had our breakfast of prayer. Now, you’re not to confuse our breakfast of prayer with a prayer breakfast, where you sit down and eat a lot of food. We are planning a caravan that will start downtown at the Convention Center on Commerce. We’ll go to Lancaster all the way to Will Rogers Auditorium, and that will be two and a half miles, to symbolize that slaves didn’t know they were free for two and a half years after the Emancipation. I’m going to do the walking and everybody else is going to be in their car. Then, when they turn around, they’ll come back, and we’ll have some food trucks, and people can order, get their food, all that kind of good stuff.

What I’m seeing in the protests right now is that it’s not just black people or white people, it’s all kinds of people coming together. And this is what I dream for Juneteenth—that all kinds of people will come together, that we will celebrate freedom from the 19th of June to the 4th of July. If we put our collective stuff together, we can make this the greatest country on Earth.

To learn more about Juneteenth, start with this New York Times article. Go here to sign Opal’s petition to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

As told to Antonio Chicaia.

The post Meet Opal Lee, the 93-Year-Old Who’s Making Sure Juneteenth Finally Gets Its Due appeared first on Man Repeller.

Meet Opal Lee, the 93-Year-Old Who’s Making Sure Juneteenth Finally Gets Its Due published first on https://normaltimepiecesshop.tumblr.com/ Meet Opal Lee, the 93-Year-Old Who’s Making Sure Juneteenth Finally Gets Its Due published first on https://mariakistler.tumblr.com/

[conanaltatis]

Donald Trump

Colin Kaepernick

Colin Kaepernick, 32, protested against police brutality and racial inequality in the United States by kneeling during the national anthem. Donald Trump Sr., 74, the 45th U.S. president, is one of those who do not agree with this method of protest.

“There are plenty of things you can protest,” Trump told Sinclair Broadcast Group chief political correspondent Scott Thuman in a recent interview. “I don’t want to see people kneel for the national anthem, for the American flag. You stand, be proud, put your hand on your heart, salute if you’d like to do that but you have to show respect.”

Trump weighed in on Kaepernick’s future as a professional football player. He played in the National Football League from 2011 to 2016 as a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers.

“I would love to see him get another shot but obviously he has to be able to play well,” Trump said of Kaepernick. “If he can’t play well, I think it would be very unfair.”

Like Trump, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell believes that Kaepernick deserves another shot in the NFL. On June 15, 2020, Goodell said on the ESPN show “The Return of Sports” that if Kaepernick wants to resume his NFL career, “then obviously it’s gonna take a team to make that decision.”

The regular 2020 NFL season is set to start on September 10, 2020 and end on January 3, 2021. The playoffs will start on January 9, 2021 while the Super Bowl LV is scheduled for February 7, 2021 at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, USA.

NFL executives and coaches are considering Kaepernick as a potential backup ahead of the 2020 NFL season. There was some interest in 2019 but it feels like there is more interest now, according to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network.

“Whether or not Colin Kaepernick gets signed, I do not know,” Rapoport said. “But the interest in potentially signing him to be a backup or compete for a backup job is very real.”

https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1273308933403353091

  Kaepernick was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA on November 3, 1987. His father is of Ghanaian, Nigerian and Ivorian descent while his mother is white.

When Kaepernick was 8 years old, he started playing youth football as a defensive end and punter. He was a 4.0 GPA student at John H. Pitman High School in Turlock, California, USA, where he played not only football but also basketball and baseball.

As a civil rights activist, Kaepernick has been one of the strongest supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement. On June 6, 2020, the NFL commissioner shared a video to express the league’s support for the movement and to admit that league was “wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier.”

https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1269034074552721408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1269034074552721408&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nj.com%2Fgiants%2F2020%2F06%2Fnfls-roger-goodell-finally-gets-it-right-apologizes-to-players-colin-kaeperick-who-kneeled-to-protest-police-killing-black-people.html

Donald Trump: I’d love to see Colin Kaepernick get another shot Colin Kaepernick, 32, protested against police brutality and racial inequality in the United States by 

[steenpaal]

George Fried - Wikipedia

This article is about the US sea captain. For the British footballer of subtly different spelling, see

George Friend

.

George Fried, (August 10, 1877 – July 25, 1949) a sea Captain with service in both the US Navy and Merchant Marine, is best remembered for his valiant rescue of the crews of the British steamship Antinoe in 1926 while captaining the luxury liner SS President Roosevelt and three years later the Italian freighter Florida while in command of the luxury liner USS America. Both of the ships he captained during the rescues were owned by the large United States Lines. Fried became familiar to thousands of Americans when his syndicated column "My Thirty Years at Sea", which chronicled his life and ocean adventures, was featured in major newspapers beginning in 1929.

Early life

Fried was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on August 10, 1877, and attended the Belmont and Dix Street Schools. He worked on a local farm from ages twelve to fifteen, harvesting beets and corn, but from an early age had a desire to sail the seas.[1][2] He entered Army service at the age of twenty-one during the period of the Spanish–American War and served from 1898 to 1900.[3]

Early Naval career

USS

Kentucky

circa 1905–08

After his brief stint with the Army, Fried enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1900 in New York. His first naval assignment was with the historic USS Hartford, a 255-foot steam and sail-powered sloop of war, which had seen service in the Civil War. As a fledgling US Naval seaman, he began service swabbing the Hartford's decks, working the coalroom, and trimming sails.

During many of the summers from 1900–12, the Hartford took US Naval Academy midshipmen on a cruise to gain hands on experience with essential seafaring skills. During several of these cruises, Fried worked in the deck area where navigation was being taught. In his spare time, he began to study navigational formulas and was assisted by officers, until he had begun to grasp the fundamentals of the science of navigation. During five years of service aboard the Hartford from 1900–05, he progressed from ordinary seaman to coxswain, quartermaster, and finally chief quartermaster, with each position developing and refining what would become his remarkable navigation skills.[4]

In 1916, after short rotations aboard various cruisers and battleships, Fried became third officer aboard the USS Solace (AH-2) as a member of the Merchant Marines. Solace was a 377-foot hospital ship and part of the Atlantic fleet.[5]

After serving on the Solace, he was recalled by the Navy and became an ensign in the North Atlantic aboard the pre-dreadnought battleship USS Kentucky (BB-6).[6] Fried served with the Navy between 1916 and 1921 and reached the rank of Lieutenant (junior grade)[7] aboard the USS Petrel, a 188-foot gunboat. At the outbreak of World War I, Fried was promoted to full Lieutenant and placed in charge of the cargo ship USS Zuiderdijk as she carried supplies from New York to France.

Mid-career and historic rescues

SS

President Roosevelt

, 1920s

Fried's service with the United States Lines after 1921 was as a member of the Merchant Marine. He served as chief officer on the United States Lines' luxury liner SS President Grant and briefly in this position as well on the USS America. He married Laura Parmenter on March 21, 1922 in New York.

In 1922, Fried was promoted to the captaincy of the luxury liner SS President Roosevelt.[3] On January 20, 1926, with Fried as captain, Roosevelt received an SOS from the British steam cargo ship Antinoe. After several attempts amidst violent snowstorms and rough seas, Roosevelt succeeded in rescuing her crew of twenty-five on midnight of the following day. The rescue was made memorable by the Roosevelt's persistence in remaining with the sinking Antinoe despite rough seas, snow, and bitter cold. After completing the rescue of her crew, Roosevelt left the listing, damaged Antinoe abandoned with no electrical power. On her return to Hoboken Pier, Roosevelt was greeted by local dignitaries, including New Jersey Governor Harry Moore, who gave an address. Roosevelt's officers and crew were entertained by a band, received a twenty-one-gun salute, and were welcomed to New York by Mayor Jimmy Walker, after a stay at the Roosevelt Hotel and a ticker-tape parade. For his heroic efforts, Fried was awarded the Navy Cross and both he and members of the Roosevelt's crew were decorated by the British government.[3][8]

Fried took command of the SS America in 1928. Only three years after his previous rescue, while serving as captain of the SS America, Fried rescued the thirty-two man crew of the Italian steamship Florida in freezing weather and violent snow squalls. America was heading to New York from France. As she battled her way through a major storm, the liner picked up distress signals from Florida. Navigating with the aid of a radio direction finder, the America fixed a location on the Italian ship, and late the following afternoon on January 28, 1929, sighted the endangered vessel.

Pulling alongside of Florida's weather beam, America launched a lifeboat, commanded by her chief officer, Harry Manning, with an eight-man crew. Manning's crew rowed the lifeboat to within fifty feet of the listing Florida, and a line was thrown to the frantic crew of the freighter. One by one, men from the Italian ship came across the rope. By the time the Florida's captain had been pulled on board the lifeboat as the last man, winds were gale force, and the seas were rough and high. After rowing the lifeboat back to the America, her sailors helped haul aboard the survivors of the Florida using ladders, ropes, cargo nets, and two homemade breeches buoy. The breeches buoys were basically zip lines tied from America's large life raft containing the rescued crew of the Florida to the waiting America. Fried became a national hero when his account of the story was widely distributed by newspapers.[9][10]

In 1931, Fried rescued Lew Aichers when his plane crashed fifteen miles off the coast of Ireland. On November 30, 1931, Fried took command of the United States Lines' SS Manhattan, launched from Camden, New Jersey. She was a 705-foot long, 30,000-ton merchantman. During his career with United States Lines, Fried also captained the SS Leviathan for three trips during the illness of her Captain A. B. Randall.[3]

With his exceptional career well established, Fried commanded the luxury ocean liner SS Washington, first launched on August 20, 1932. She would become the flag ship of the United States Lines from 1934–40.

Retirement

After nearly half a century with the Navy and Merchant Marine, George Fried retired in 1946.[9] In retirement, he enjoyed reading, gardening, and spending time with his wife Laura. He died in Yonkers, New York on July 25, 1949,[11] and was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery at Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.[2]

References

^ Fried, George, "My Thirty Years at Sea", Prescott Evening Courier, pg. 3, Prescott, Arizona, 25 February 1929.

^ a b "Captain George Fried". Find-a-grave. Retrieved 18 April 2015.

^ a b c d "Hero of Many Sea Rescues Will Get Coveted Position as Commander of Big Ship", The Evening-Independent, pg. 18, St. Petersburg, Florida , 30 November 1931.

^ Fried, George, "My Thirty Years at Sea", Ludington Daily News, pg. 5, Ludington, Michigan, 26 February 1929.

^ Fried, George, "My Thirty Years at Sea", Prescott Evening Courier, pg. 5, Prescott, Arizona, 6 March 1929.

^ Navy Departiment, United States (1968). Dictionary of American Fighting Ships, vol. 3. Washington DC: Government Printing Office. pp. 626–628.

^ Navy Department, United States (1918). "Navy Directory". Navy Directory:Officers of the United States Navy. July 1: 80.

^ Fried, George, "Nation Opens Arms to Captain and Crew of America", Herald-Journal, pg. 1, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 15 February 1926.

^ a b Poling, Dr. Daniel A., "Salute to George Fried-Sea Captain", Herald-Journal, pg. 4, Spartanburg, South Carolina, 31 August 1946.

^ Knight, Austin M., Modern Seamanship (1930), D. Van Nostrand Company Inc., pgs. 802��05.

^ "In a Sleety Gale, Captain George Fried Accomplished His most Memorable Rescue", The Milwaukee Sentinel, pg. 30, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 16 April 1950

External links

[allofbeercom]

From Manchester City to Oklahoma: how a rejected footballer kept the dream alive

Laurie Bell became one of the most expensive 12-year-olds in British football history when Manchester City signed him from Stockport County, but he had to wait a decade and move 4,000 miles away to make his professional debut

In the dressing room of a baseball stadium in the American South, I fiddled with orange shinpad tape, yanked my heels to my buttocks to stretch already-limber quadricep muscles, and tap-danced impatiently on plastic studded football boots. Ten more debutants in creaseless kits waited in line. A dipping Oklahoma sun peeked inside the tunnel, beckoning. When the referees eventually signalled that it was time, we marched out. First on red clay, then green grass, then across the straight white lines of a freshly painted football pitch. In the stands, 8,000 soccer rookies rose to their feet, waved homemade flags, and glugged half-price cans of Modelo beer. Up in the posh seats, the clubs hierarchy were given a first tangible taste of a team that had been two years in the making.

It was a momentous walk for all of us: the first action on the first night in Tulsa Roughnecks history. For me, it proved the last, improbable leg of a 14-year journey that had transported me 4,000 miles from my English home. At 22 years old, after a sequence of rejection and lateral footballing progress, my professional debut had finally arrived.

Men in military uniforms trumpeted out a national anthem. For a moment, a reverential hush cloaked the excitement for soccer pulsing through this old oil city. Stood by the halfway line where short stops might field on baseball-playing days I considered how we all arrived here. How had this brand new team leapt into existence? What did this crowd expect? Was our flung-together squad any good? Whats that centre-backs name again? And, of all the football clubs in all the world, how the hell had I ended up in Tulsa, Oklahoma?

This wasnt English football. This hadnt been the plan.

Tulsa Roughnecks players sign autographs for their fans. Photograph: Lori Scholl

Statistically speaking, the first match in the Roughnecks record books ended in a 1-1 draw. But as sunburned schoolteachers and hoarse local lawyers joined kids clamouring for autographs at the perimeter of the field, that balmy night in March 2015 felt decidedly like a victory. Shirts sold, fireworks crackled and fans fell in love. Giddily unpracticed, I signed programs, iPhone cases and exposed forearms. Opening night was a win for the Roughnecks and for football in the city.

There was immediate evidence of both a passion and market for soccer in Tulsa, like there is in increasing numbers of cities across North America. In the past two seasons across the top three leagues covering the US and Canada the MLS, NASL and USL 24 new professional soccer clubs have founded. Tulsa Roughnecks is one part of professional soccers recent proliferation in the US. This is one players insight into life at a brand new club.

Describing Tulsa Roughnecks FC as brand new is only partly true. In 1983 a professional outdoor team from Tulsa named the Roughnecks was crowned king of the North American Soccer League. They beat the Toronto Blizzard in Soccer Bowl 83 in front of 53,000 fans.

The glitzy NASL attracted footballing greats such as Johan Cruyff, George Best, Pel and Franz Beckenbaur. Their presence helped draw impressive attendances at stadiums nationwide, with thousands more fans tuning in on TV. Even without a bona fide superstar, the Roughnecks enjoyed a strong local following and considerable onfield success. But when the league folded and soccers grip on the imaginations of the American people loosened, the team followed suit.

Having been founded in 1978, the Roughnecks disbanded six years later, the season after they won the championship. A few upstarts tried to bring the sport back to the city but they were unsuccessful and Tulsa was largely soccer-less for the next three decades until 2013, when Mike Melega, General Manager of the Tulsa Drillers baseball franchise, picked up his newspaper.

I saw in the paper one day that Oklahoma City was getting professional soccer, said Melega, the picture of an American sports executive: khaki trousers below a club-crested polo shirt and dark brown hair cropped neatly around the back and sides. At the time time, Melegas only title was GM of the Drillers, a feeder club affiliated with a Major League Baseball team, but his staff was also tasked with managing the Drillers under-utilised ONEOK Field, a three-year-old, $40m stadium in the heart of downtown Tulsa.

Youre always keeping your eyes open for trends and opportunities, continued Melega. Professional soccer in America is growing and I thought our city needs to be at the forefront of that.

Tulsa and the state capital, Oklahoma City, are 100 miles apart: neighbours by American standards. Melega discovered that the same ownership group had already purchased expansion rights for soccer teams in both cities. An attractive new sports franchise and a lonely stadium: the GM foresaw a marriage. Melega, along with Brian Carroll, vice president of media and PR, convinced the Drillers owners brothers Jeff and Dale Hubbard to fund a wedding.

Dale Hubbard is a former professional baseball player who had never watched a game of soccer. But Melega is persuasive and, trusting his judgment, the Hubbards purchased a majority share in their citys expansion rights. A crazy, crazy year and a half of preparations followed. But on 18 December 2013, addressing a room of reporters and early self-declared supporters, Melega held a scarf above his head and announced that soccer was returning to Tulsa. In 2015, the team would compete in the United Soccer League, the third tier of US soccer.

Laurie Bell playing for Tulsa Roughnecks. Photograph: Lori Scholl

That same afternoon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin I completed a Media Law exam. I was 21 and two-and-a-half years into a university soccer scholarship. Five days earlier I had been named in college soccers team of the year (making this Mancunian an All-American), having enjoyed my finest season as a footballer. From central midfield I scored 13 goals, captaining my Division One team to league success, record home crowds and a coveted spot in the NCAA national tournament.

I finished the exam then packed a suitcase to return to my parents home in England for Christmas. On the flight, early visions of playing professionally in the US pushed law out of my mind. At the time, I couldnt point to Oklahoma on a map.

Every time I touch down at Manchester Airport, Im struck by the abundance of white rectangles painted on to patchwork grass fields below. There are football pitches everywhere. While the game gains popularity in the soccer-hungry landscape of 2016 America, there remains just one other professional team within 250 miles of Tulsa. By contrast, within 25 miles of the Manchester runway sit nine professional clubs, with almost double that number at semi-pro level. Before my 18th birthday, I had represented three of them.

I was scouted by Stockport Countys School of Excellence as an eight-year-old and excelled in their navy colours for the next four seasons, building up a reputation in the region. So when Manchester City offered me a spot in their world-renowned academy, a tribunal ruled that hefty compensation was to be paid to County, making me one of the most expensive 12-year-olds in British football history.

A lifelong City fan, I gladly committed my teenage years to the academys Platt Lane training complex, where prodigies progress and dreams come true. Every Tuesday and Wednesday I was excused from school and reported to the same fields and the same coaches that reared my City heroes: Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland, Micah Richards and Joey Barton. On Saturdays after my own matches I ball-boyed at the stadium. From pitch level, I watched Daniel Sturridge and Michael Johnson make Premier League debuts, convinced that one day Id be out there too.

But the fantasy of playing professionally for my boyhood club ended when I was 16, graduated from high school and deemed not fast enough to mix it with the latest crop of demi-stars scouted from across the globe.

Two years later, a second door to dreamland shut firmly in my face. I had completed a two-season youth team apprenticeship at Rochdale AFC, a club 108 years older than the current Roughnecks. Desperate to land contracts, my team-mates and I fought to impress The Gaffer by whatever means necessary. On the pitch, we scrapped to a Youth Alliance league title. Off it, we completed chores: filling wheelie-bin ice baths with freezing water, packing training equipment into The Gaffers Nissan Navara and obediently scrubbing the first teamers boots we wished to fill.

I regularly trained with the professionals, played alongside them in the reserves, and appeared in a first-team pre-season match. When I was named the clubs Youth Player of the Year in 2011, I became quietly confident about my chances. But money wasnt flowing through the grey, north Manchester town. And the first-team was stacked with experienced central midfielders. I just dont see you replacing them next season, rang The Gaffers crushing message in May 2011.

On the drive home I pulled into a Chadderton layby to call Dad. As the call connected, I turned off the wipers and watched raindrops slide slowly down the windscreen. How much of my cracking voice he made out Im not sure. But he got the message.

We knew this was a possibility, so just keep your head up, mate, he reassured me. Were going to find you a club. This is not the end. Another, maybe even a better, opportunity is going to come along for you.

It would do, not that I could see it then. I was 18 and after a decade on the English academy track thought I was finally nearing destination professional football. As it turned out, I was just setting sail on the scenic way around.

Team-mates found non-league teams and workaday employment. School friends packed for universities. My academics, which I had managed to successfully attain alongside football, earned offers from a number of prestigious British schools. But none interested me. I needed football. If not, adventure.

When the tears dried, I impressed at a showcase match in front of scouts from across the globe and was presented with an opportunity that ticked both boxes: Soccer! In America!

I agreed to play on a four-year football scholarship at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee that would cover tuition fees and provide help towards rent and textbooks.

My flight to Americas Midwest region connected at JFK. On approach to landing I looked down: baseball fields everywhere. I sneered, silently judging a sport I didnt understand, never imagining a few years later I would be playing on top of a matching red clay diamond.

By late 2014, Tulsas new club had fans, a crest and a name. A competition carried in Tulsa World, the local newspaper, allowed readers to decide what the franchise would be called. Future fans voted for a Roughnecks resurrection. The club assembled a supporters group The Roustabouts from the most enthusiastic responders to the newspaper poll and drew up diagrams of how to squeeze a football pitch on to a baseball field.

Mike Melegas vision was taking shape. The Drillers had erected a soccer club from nothing. All that remained missing was an entire squad of players and a head coach to scout then train them. But as the baseball staff believed: if you build it, they will come.

The Roustabouts show their support. Photograph: Lori Scholl

David Irving already knew Tulsa well when Melega first made contact. The 63-year-old Englishman had played for the NASL incarnation of the Roughnecks for a season in 1980, following a career scoring goals in the UK for Workington, Oldham Athletic and Everton. He also knew the USL, having coached in the league for 16 years. He led Wilmington Hammerheads to a title in 2003 and set Glenn Murray on a course to the Premier League in the process.

Irving was appointed in November 2014 and handed keys to a renovated locker room full of empty seats. The search for a squad took him and Tom Taylor, his assistant coach, across half the northern hemisphere.

For the first two months I was just travelling, trying to recruit players and set up combines and look for players, said Irving, Cumbrian tones still heavy despite a quarter-century living in America. That was my priority and everything else would just kind of fall into place. I started during Thanksgiving. I went to combines in Chicago, to Fort Lauderdale, San Diego, LA, Vegas, Orlando, all over. Tom was in Ireland, I couldnt make that one. So we went all over. Its a process, and it was challenging putting a team together for February of 2015 when we started pre-season.

On their travels, the pair realised they were recruiting for a much different USL than the league they had worked in before.

In 2015, 13 newly founded expansion teams competed in the USL. The inflated league rebranded and restructured into two conferences an east and a west instead of one. Another five clubs began USL play in 2016, making the new-look league 29 teams strong, with yet more committed to join in 2017.

The influx is a product of two factors: the demand for professional soccer in more cities across America and the leagues alliance with Major League Soccer in 2014. Twenty-one of the current 29 USL teams have MLS affiliations. The relationship allows players to be loaned between teams, imitating the Spanish model, in which La Liga clubs field second rosters in divisions below.

At its core then, this evolving league is a developmental one. Evidence is in the young squads the average age of the Roughnecks 2015 team was 23 and the five substitutes a coach can field per match. Players generally sign modest contracts (with housing usually included) lasting the duration of the seven-month season, after which theyre on their own financially. According to Irving, change is good for US soccer.

Obviously its great to have the MLS teams entering the league, he said. It brings the whole thing up to a new level. I think every team has a different philosophy, whether theyre going to use the USL for development or for senior players to get time, or a combination of both or for academy players. Whichever, the league is getting better.

Laurie Bell playing for the Tulsa Roughnecks. Photograph: Lori Scholl

Bigger and better: the USL is growing in a very American way. And with professional soccer proliferating across the nation, more opportunities are opening up for players. However, spots for non-US citizens remain limited to seven per team, driving competition high between foreigners chasing their American dreams. Last year, I realised mine in Oklahoma.

The week before Irvings official appointment, my college soccer career ended in a 1-0 loss on a bitter winter night at Cleveland State University. Rooted inside the frosty centre-circle, I looked out into the Ohio abyss and wondered where football might take me next.

My sights were set on Major League Soccer and weeks later I was invited to the MLS combine, an annual three-day showcase attended by head coaches from each team in the top US league. I spent the winter preparing: first, alone on frozen Wisconsin astroturf pitches as I finished my university semester, then in England with Blackburn Rovers first team. But while with Blackburn, I suffered a cruel recurrence of the patella tendonitis that had haunted me as a teenager. In January 2015, I arrived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with a suitcase full of painkillers and doomed hopes for a miraculous recovery.

As a foreigner, I was already vying for one of a limited number of international MLS spots. That season, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, David Villa and Andrea Pirlo would claim four of them. To land a contract, I needed to at least outshine my college-age competition. Instead, in front of American soccer royalty, I winced through three forgettable 45-minute appearances. On draft day, the MLS commissioner called 84 names. Laurie Bell wasnt one of them. Rejection stung afresh.

I returned to Milwaukee questioning. Why had no club ever taken a chance on me? Was something fundamental holding me back? How long could I continue failing at chasing a dream? And was there anywhere left to try?

Some of these USL expansion teams still need players for this season, offered my college coach Kris Kelderman. Theyre putting together whole rosters from nothing. What do you think?

Not knowing what to think, I landed in Tulsa in late February and reported for a pre-season trial. A pair of tornadoes during the week did little to reassure me I was in the right place.

If I had hesitations about the wilderness of this new USL, they evaporated upon walking into the Roughnecks upmarket ONEOK Field home. I found my name fixed to a locker in Premier League-class changing rooms, a kit printed with my chosen No4, and was given a comfortable flat to sleep in. I met a young group of players who were impatient to prove themselves and a staff that was building from the ground up. Immediately, I wanted in.

Irving was familiar with me through a recommendation from another English coach I had played under the previous summer. As long as you dont want too much fucking money, he said, half-smirking, fully serious, as I sat trembling in his underground office at the end of my trial, wed like you to join us here this season.

I squirted a response, agreeing to become the 11th signing in Tulsa Roughnecks history then floated back to my new apartment. With no Wi-Fi installed yet, I hurried a mile to the nearest Starbucks to Skype my parents. As the call boop-boop-booped into life, the clouds broke and an orange sun bounced through the windows. Two expectant faces 4,000 miles away squeezed together inside my phone screen.

They want me, I announced, as relief as much as joy plastered all our faces. Im going to be a Roughneck. In the most improbable location a baseball arena in tornado alley, USA I had finally found my first professional football home.

Upon signing for enough money to contentedly live on, but not too fucking much I became part of a unique squad. Given the clubs new status, no players had past experience in Tulsa, resulting in an utterly egalitarian dressing room. No captains, no cliques, no hierarchy. And initially, not much leadership, conversation or banter either. Far from the abusive pre-season initiation stories Id heard from English first year pros, I took a seat at my locker, one of 21 equal parts. In Tulsa, rookies might have pumped up the balls, but our own were left unharmed.

The Roustabouts. Photograph: Lori Scholl

Almost inevitably, this unfamiliarity resulted in a slow start to our season. But form steadily improved and, ultimately, playing for a brand new club proved much like playing for any other. We won as many games as we lost, the squad united through plane rides, card games and nights out on away trips to Arizona, Washington and California, and we put ourselves in contention for post-season playoff qualification. After winning our final fixture 2-0, the fate of our season hinged on Austin Aztex beating Seattle Sounders 2 our rivals for a playoff berth one week later.

When the game arrived, Melega, Irving and the rest of the organisations staff suggested we watch together. Over the course of the year, players had grown close to the creators of a club at which most of our contracts were close to complete. So, on a hot September night we gathered inside Empire Bar, where orange Roughnecks scarves entwined with more faded football memorabilia on the walls. We knew our chances of progress were slim and the whole night shimmered in end-of-term affection. One midfielder had landed after-season work at the pub and nipped behind the bar to pull me a pint. By kick-off time, a Twitter invitation lured hundreds of Roustabouts cramming through the doors.

So we watched together. The staff, who had turned a fanciful idea to fill a stadium into a real life football club. The fans: regular Tulsa townsfolk wholeheartedly embracing their new hobby. And the cluster of coaches and players parachuted into this baseball playing southern US city from all corners of the globe and tasked to get the football rolling.

We did, but there would be no fairytale finish to Tulsas first season in the USL. Seattle won 3-2 and the settled table ranked us seventh best in the Western conference. On paper then, several of the 24 North American expansion clubs were more successful than Tulsa in 2015.

But as nail-biting TV-watching evolved into a lively end of season party, there felt like plenty to celebrate for all involved in the Roughnecks organisation. League positions and trophies are important goals for a football club. But truer measures of success for a start-up sports team are surely its reception by a city and integration into local culture.

To my mind, that has been the Roughnecks chief success, one that makes the club a model for future expansion teams. Irving placed as much importance on us bonding with fans signing every autograph and sharing post-match drinks in local bars as any onfield tactics. Melegas staff appointed The Roustabouts de facto club ambassadors and organised the squads appearance at several community events.

The result was that a diverse ONEOK Field crowd produced the fifth highest average attendances in the league nationwide, a remarkable feat in the clubs first season. When jogging through downtown on cool down days, workers banged on office windows, kids hi-fived us, and pick-up truck drivers affectionately tooted horns. And one year on, now plying my trade in Sweden, I still receive regular well wishes from Tulsans via Twitter.

As the afterparty staggered to Legends the citys resiliently popular country dancing hall and players, coaches, club staff and supporters joined cowboy-booted locals on the dance floor, the assimilation felt complete. To sustain this professional soccer proliferation, each new North American club must dance to its own beat. And thats how I learned to Tulsa two-step.

This article appeared first on In Bed With Maradona Follow Laurie Bell and In Bed With Maradona on Twitter

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/from-manchester-city-to-oklahoma-how-a-rejected-footballer-kept-the-dream-alive/