Kobe Bryant admits to his wrong and apologizes

In a game against the San Antonio Spurs, where the pressure was on to win the game, Kobe Bryant made a costly mistake.

In the third quarter Bryant was called for a foul where he disagreed and received a technical foul for excessive complaining. As he sat upset on the bench staring down the referee who called the foul, Bryant was caught on camera yelling at the referee a offensive slur rhyming with maggot.

At the moment no one reacted to the incident but today the incident was the talk of the nation as Human Rights Campaign publicly criticized Bryant's actions and demanded a apology for the gay and lesbian communities.

Bryant made a public apology before being fined $100,000 by the NBA. He said in his apology, basketball is a emotional sport.

"What I said last night should not be taken literally. My actions were out of frustration during the heat of the game, period," he said. "The words expressed do NOT reflect my feelings towards the gay & lesbian communities and were NOT meant to offend anyone."

The Laker fans, the Lakers and Bryant was in the moment and with one misfortune against him and the Lakers, he lost his focus for a second and the word slipped out. He did NOT intend to use that specific word in a way to offend the gay and lesbian community. He was frustrated with the call the referee made and he purposely tried to insult the official. The word he might wanted to use was the other f-word.

Give the man a break, he publicly apologized and accepted his wrong actions.

Bryant again publicly apologized as he went on air with John Ireland and Steve Mason on AM 710 ESPN Los Angeles this afternoon.

He said he is going to work with the different gay and lesbian organizations to create awareness that it is not OK to use words such as what he used last night. He wants his actions to be an example to other NBA players and children that it is not OK what he did. A $100,000 fine is too much of an punishment but the NBA did take their action on the situation and Bryant did as well.

It is unfortunate for the word choice he made but this can become a great outcome. Bryant can show he understands and know what he did was wrong by teaming up with the Human Rights Campaign and other gay and lesbian organizations and do a lot of great work with the status he has.

His apology was heartfelt and truthful and in no means did he want what he did last night to become what it has today. Bryant is a man of his word and he will accomplish and follow through what he said he will do to resolve his mistake.

A side note: It is unfortunate that a camera was on Bryant when he said that but there are a lot more professional and non-professional athletes who use that word and many other harsh and harmful words on each other because they are humans and they are competitors who try to take a advantage of each other.

Times up! Shutdown Averted!

With less than an hour to spare, the government shutdown has been averted! At least for the time being.

It is hard to swallow the idea that in order to come to a conclusion on where the federal funding should be placed and where it should be cut, federal programs have been hanging in the balance just to come up with answers in the nick of time. 

The public relations, official statements and the backlash from the drawn out discussions of where the budget should stand and whether or not the government shutdown would occur has been like a badly played out high school drama of a he said she said blame game. 

The question should really be, would the financial battle have been resolved in a timely manner if there had been less focus on passing blame and a tighter grip on what needed to be accomplished. 

The truth is that Federal agencies throughout the country and specifically the Washington D.C. Metro area spent Friday into the late hours preparing for the fall out of the possible shutdown. Wasted time and efforts to run damage control just in case the shutdown had to take place, when it is evident that the federal funding should have been resolved prior to the last waking minutes of the deadline.

With all the jumbled statements from President Obama and the congressional leaders the only statement that rang true over the last week consistently is that no one wanted to see the government shutdown occur. 

There is little solace that the common goal was voiced and achieved. The timing is just a little too close for comfort. 

It has been said, this is a temporary budgetary solution. The financial status of the country will be re-evaluated at the end of the fiscal year. 

With the state of the economy and the stress of rising unemployment, rising foreclosure rates and increased failing businesses, the anticipation of a shutdown of federal programs has been like driving the final nail into the coffin of hope that economic recovery will ever be within the realm of possibilities.

The dying hope of financial triumph and security throughout the country will only begin to heal when citizens can look at the government and understand the direct goals that are being approached and see direct results reflect the original goals.

The drawn out frustration on how the budget would be resolved was over shadowed by the possible federal shutdown, drawing greater concern for a meltdown and losing support in the governments ability to follow through with the task at hand.

There is still the slight glimmer of hope that when the new fiscal year budgets need to be re-evaluated that history will be looked upon instead of repeated by congressional leaders and President Obama.

Only time will tell.