Monday, December 3, 2012

Manhood, football and suicide

What prompted NFL tragedy?

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Jovan Belcher killed his girlfriend, then shot himself in front of team's staff, police say
Kevin Powell: We don't know what drove him to these desperate acts
Powell: In my own life, I fell into depression, thoughts of suicide after setbacks
He says we have to teach men to find ways to cope with life's challenges

Editor's note: Kevin Powell is an activist, public speaker and author or editor of 11 books, including "Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, and the Ghost of Dr. King: Blogs and Essays." E-mail him at kevin@kevinpowell.net, or follow him on Twitter @kevin_powell. Join him for a live chat on Twitter from 12:30-1 p.m. ET on Tuesday@CNNOpinion about his column.

(CNN) -- My cousin Aaron abruptly typed me the news while we were texting back and forth about other matters: a Kansas City Chiefs football player killed his girlfriend, then went to the team's practice facility and committed suicide in front of his head coach and general manager. Left behind was the couple's 3-month-old daughter, who was in another room when her mother was shot multiple times. Like so many Americans, we were stunned.

We would learn later that player was Jovan Belcher, 25-year-old starting linebacker for the Chiefs, a man and an athlete spoken of in the highest regard by everyone from his high school teammates and coaches to his fellow professional football players. They, too, were stunned.

Kevin Powell

Indeed, what would lead a man who, by all accounts, loved family, friends and football and had overcome great odds to make the National Football League as an undrafted pick out of the University of Maine to take such shocking actions? A man raised by a single mother, he had achieved so much in such a short period that he had widely been considered a great role model for what could be done through hard work, grit and determination.

A gun control halftime show: Should Bob Costas have spoken out on Belcher suicide?

Since the killing and suicide are so fresh, so recent, we do not really know what might have driven Belcher to such extreme and horrific actions.

NFL player kills girlfriend, himself

Tiki Barber: Chiefs seeking 'normalcy'

Photos: Jovan Belcher, Kansas City Chiefs

But the knee-jerk reactions have been rampant on the social networks. "Coward" is a term being used to describe Belcher. But that is too easy, far too simplistic, and name-calling never solves a problem.

Belcher was a man living in the supersized macho world of football, a world in which many of us American males reside, be it football or not. Too many of us have been taught manhood in a way that is not healthy. Be tough, men do not cry, man up -- these are the things I've heard my entire life, and I now cringe when I hear this relayed to boys or younger men by teachers, coaches, fathers, mentors and leaders.

Or we use derogatory and sexist or homophobic words to describe men or boys who do not meet the "normal" of what a male is supposed to be. Some of these male authority figures mean well, or are simply repeating what they were socialized to be or to do, and do not realize that they are unwittingly teaching that manhood has little room to express hurt, disappointment and sorrow.

Yes, they had been arguing, Belcher and his girlfriend, but in my work as an activist, including around gender violence prevention, I've seen the tragic pattern across our nation of men who, in the heat of rage, have killed their girlfriends, wives or lovers, as if they had no other vocabulary or emotion to deal with the disagreement or the break-up.

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We cannot forget Kasandra Perkins in this story. Because when men behave in this manner, it also says, bluntly, that the life of a woman is of no value whatsoever. Just the fact that much of the media has focused on Belcher and barely mentions Perkins by name speaks to this truth.

In the late 1990s, after achieving some level of success from my years on MTV's "The Real World" and as a feature writer for Quincy Jones' Vibe magazine, I descended into a dark period that included excessive drinking, painful bouts with anxiety, stress and depression, and, yes, I thought often of committing suicide.

I had been fired from Vibe. I had a terrible time coping with life back then, and I kept much of it to myself because we live in a world where men are not encouraged to express the hurts we feel.

News: NFL Chiefs play after murder-suicide

That is the problem for so many of us. We do not talk about much of anything, except sports, women and sex. Everything else is routinely ignored. Or repressed. Until we explode.

What eventually helped me get through those dark years, years that too were riddled with violence -- toward myself, toward others -- in various forms, was a renewed commitment to my spiritual foundation, a return to therapy in a very serious and consistent way, and surrounding myself with people, including men, who were willing and able to give me the safe space to talk about anything and everything.

For the past several years, I have privately advised and counseled several professional and amateur athletes, and entertainers, all men, all grappling with very warped definitions of manhood. The recurring theme over and over is fear of expressing themselves fully, fear of letting others down, fear of not being the tough and rugged men they were told they had to be. And on the inside so many of them are damaged as a result. The very definition of manhood they've embraced is more an emotional prison than anything else.

This is probably why the one scene that is locked in for me is of Belcher thanking his coach and general manager for what they did for him. Then walking away and shooting himself in the head.

We must struggle, harder than ever, as men, as boys, as a nation, to reach the point where a heart-to-heart conversation is the first and only option, not a gun, not gun violence. The lives of Jovan Belcher and Kasandra Perkins will have been in vain completely if we do not go deeper within ourselves to teach and show our sons, our husbands, our boyfriends, our fathers, our men and boys, that there is another way.

'Superjumbo' A380 marks five years in the sky

HIDE CAPTION

A380 in numbers

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The Airbus A380 has just celebrated its fifth anniversary as a commercial aircraft
It's 15 meters wider than a Boeing 747 "Jumbo Jet"
There are now 89 A380s in service around the world, operated by nine airlines

Business Traveller is a monthly show about making the most of doing business on the road. Follow CNN's resident business travel news correspondent Ayesha Durgahee on Twitter.

(CNN) -- It was conceived in secret in the 1980s but it's difficult to miss the Airbus A380 these days.

The giant aircraft is a true leviathan of the sky and has just marked its fifth year of commercial service.

In October 2007 Singapore Airlines became the first airline to fly the A380, the world's longest commercial airliner at the time. That title is now claimed by the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental, but the A380 is still wider and carries more passengers.

Fake lottery winner may be Facebook's most shared image

This Facebook image of a man claiming to have won the $588 million Powerball jackpot was shared more than 2 million times.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Bogus lottery photo shared 2 million times on Facebook
Man claimed he had won $588 million Powerball and would share
Prankster's brother to newspaper: "I think he craves love"
Last year's most shared item on Facebook got 600,000 shares

(CNN) -- No, some guy named Daniels on Facebook didn't win the Powerball lottery. And, no, he's not really giving anyone $1 million of his winnings.

But that didn't stop a doctored photo claiming just that from becoming possibly the most-shared image in the site's history.

In the photo, posted on the social-media ubersite Thursday night, a grinning man identified as Nolan Daniels holds up a Powerball ticket with the correct numbers for the massive $588 million jackpot awarded Wednesday.

The caption that went along with it was the stuff of get-rich-quick daydreams: "Looks like I won't be going to work EVER!!!! Share this photo and I will give a random person 1 million dollars!"

Missouri Powerball winners come forward

And share they did. By Monday morning, more than 2 million people had clicked in hopes of a windfall. The problem, of course, being that the numbers on the ticket were out of sequence -- a tip-off that the image had been doctored.

Is this a Powerball winner?

And it didn't help when the two holders of actual winning tickets were found. Neither ticket belonged to Daniels, although one winner, like Daniels, is from the Phoenix area.

The photo, which is the only publicly shared item on Daniels' page, had gotten more than 27,000 comments by Monday morning. More than three days after the original post, some commenters were still oblivious to the hoax.

"You have given a lot of people hope at a wonderful time of year, what a kind and generous thing to do!" one user wrote. "Merry Christmas to you and your family!"

But most had taken a harsher turn, ranging from "Ha! Ha! You got us" to angrier fare.

"What a JERK ... this is FAKE!!!!" someone wrote. "All I can say is KARMA!!!!"

The story first gained traction on social media, then took off whenthe Savannah (Georgia) Morning News published an article Fridayon the activity surrounding Daniels' Facebook page. A man claiming to be Daniels' brother then left a comment on the Morning News' site, discrediting the accuracy of the photo.

"Even though most knew it was fake, people hang onto the most slim opportunities for some luck, some hope ...," wrote Derek Daniels in the post. "I hope people were able to shake it off. I'm sure the vast majority did. The idea of someone winning and then sharing in a second lottery is touching. Too bad ... this wasn't the case."

The Morning News contacted Derek Daniels, who told the newspaper his brother Nolan is a 35-year-old software engineer. He thinks his brother was just seeking attention, according to the paper.

"I think he craves the love from people," he said Saturday in a follow-up article published by the newspaper. "He did this to make himself feel better."

Nolan Daniels did not immediately respond to a message on Facebook on Monday seeking comment for this report.

Among the comments on his Facebook photo were at least dozens that recounted stories of personal hardship, from people with disabilities to tales of children diagnosed with terminal diseases. That, Derek Daniels said in his post, may be where a prank went too far.

With 2 million-plus shares, the image may be the most-shared item in the eight-year history of Facebook. A photo of President Barack Obama hugging his wife, Michelle, posted after his re-election victory last month, received 581,000 shares. And Facebook's most-shared item last year was a New York Times photo gallery of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. It was shared about 600,000 times.

A Facebook representative did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Photo appears to show Zimmerman bleeding after Trayvon Martin killing

A photo posted online Monday, December 3, shows George Zimmerman with blood on his nose and lips. His attorneys say it was taken the night unarmed teen Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman, 28, faces second-degree murder charges in the death of Martin in Sanford, Florida, on February 26, 2012. Other evidence photos were released earlier this year:

HIDE CAPTION

Trayvon Martin evidence

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

The photo shows Zimmerman apparently bleeding on the night of Martin's killing
Prosecutors previously provided a black-and-white copy, Zimmerman's defense says
Zimmerman claims he killed Trayvon Martin in self-defense
Martin's defense team says he was killed "in cold blood"

(CNN) -- A photo posted online Monday shows George Zimmerman with blood on his nose and lips. His attorneys say it was taken the night unarmed teen Trayvon Martin was killed in Sanford, Florida.

Zimmerman says he shot Martin in self-defense. Martin's attorneys say he was shot and killed "in cold blood."

Prosecutors have charged Zimmerman with second-degree murder for the February 26 killing.

Zimmerman's attorney speaks about case

Stigma for town in Trayvon Martin killing

Zimmerman's mom: 'I believe in justice'

The picture, posted Monday on Zimmerman's defense website, was taken by a police officer, Zimmerman's attorneys wrote.

The state had previously provided a black-and-white copy of the image, the attorneys wrote on the website. "This high resolution digital file was finally provided to the defense on October 29."

A police report from the night of the incident said Zimmerman was "bleeding from the nose and back of his head."

The 28-year-old volunteer neighborhood watchman was driving through his gated community when the incident occurred. Martin was walking through the neighborhood to his father's girlfriend's house.

Zimmerman has claimed that after the two exchanged words, Martin charged at him, knocked him to the ground and banged his head repeatedly against a concrete sidewalk.

Martin's family says Zimmerman attacked the teen, who had done nothing wrong.

Martin's death sparked nationwide protests and inflamed public passions over race relations and gun control, as well as Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law, which allows the use of deadly force when a person perceives a threat to safety.

In August, a new judge was named to oversee the case, after an appeals court agreed to a request from Zimmerman's defense team. The attorneys had argued the previous judge had made remarks putting Zimmerman in reasonable fear of an unfair trial.

Voyager spacecraft finds solar system is bigger than thought

An artist's concept of NASA's Voyager spacecraft, which is now about 11 billion miles from the sun, NASA said.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles from the sun and was launched in 1977
Voyager 1 finds new region of solar system, rather than the edge as scientists had predicted
Voyager 2 is about 9 billion miles from the sun on a different flight path

(CNN) -- Are we there yet? If you're Voyager 1 and you're looking for a spot beyond the end of our solar system, the answer is no.

NASA officials have been saying for months that Voyager 1 is almost there when it comes to interstellar space as it continues the longest road trip in the history of mankind.

Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 took off 16 days apart in 1977, and Voyager 1 is now about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from the sun.

On Monday, project officials said new information sent back from the ship yielded a surprising result.

"If we would have only looked at particle data alone, we would have said we're out of the solar system," said Tom Krimigis, a scientist from Johns Hopkins University who examines data on low-energy charged particles. "But nature is very imaginative, and Lucy pulled up the football again."

The Voyager team believes this region is where lines of magnetic particles from the solar system are meeting particles from interstellar space.

Because the direction of the magnetic lines is unchanged, the project members count this as part of the solar system. When the direction changes, Voyager 1 will finally be in interstellar space.

"We believe this is the last leg of our journey to interstellar space," said project member Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology. "Our best guess is it's likely just a few months to a couple years away. The new region isn't what we expected, but we've come to expect the unexpected from Voyager."

The spacecraft entered the new region in July, fueling predictions it was getting close to the edge of the solar system.

Voyager 2, which is on a different flight path, is a few billion miles closer to the sun.

The economy: What to expect in 2013

Forecasting the economic outlook and the financial markets can be tricky, but there are steps you can take to keep your money growing.

(Money Magazine) -- When you find yourself on a precipice, the standard advice for keeping calm is to not look down. Next year, don't look up.

At the 30,000-foot level, the world's economy appears as stormy as it's been since the financial crisis blew over. Europe remains mired in debt. China faces a slowing growth rate and an expanding housing bubble.

Here at home, fears about how the government would handle the fiscal cliff -- the tax hikes and budget cuts that were set to start kicking in at year's end -- frightened businesses into delaying capital spending and hiring, erasing what little momentum the economy had going into 2013. Tilt your gaze toward ground level, though, and the picture brightens. Dark shadows that cast a pall over consumers are beginning to lift as the housing and job markets slowly warm. Prepare correctly, and these strange conditions present opportunity.

In Money magazine's Make More in 2013, you'll learn how to get moreinvestment income at a time of super-low rates, why, as a prospectivehome seller or buyer, you need to stop sitting on your hands, and how you can start exploring job opportunities again. Up first: A look at the U.S. economy and what's contributing to a rosier outlook for growth.

The economy

Why is the view from terra firma so much better than from up high? Three words: employment, debt, and housing.

Jobs are coming back. Hiring is hardly robust yet, but the unemployment rate is well off its 10% peak. By this time next year, the economy should be adding 173,000 jobs a month, up from this year's 157,000, according to the National Association for Business Economics.

"We'll see a slow but steady increase in employment throughout the year," says Sean Snaith, economics professor at the University of Central Florida. "The pendulum is shifting toward workers again."

How quickly that pendulum shifts depends in part on how soon the fog over taxes and budget cuts lifts. Businesses are in a holding pattern, but they're in far better financial shape than since the credit crisis.

Consumer debt is shrinking. The balance sheets of American families look fairly healthy too. Consumers have been working down their levels of installment debt, and that, combined with low borrowing rates for houses and cars, has eased payment burdens significantly.

"We're not going to be another Japan, which lost two decades dealing with debt," says Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Trust. "In the corporate and household sectors, that's s already taking place."

Finally, housing is coming back. For five years the real estate market has cast the longest of shadows. Now the sun is overhead.

In many areas, the inventory of homes on the market is down 20% or more from just a year ago. Nationwide, there are 1.8 million houses for sale. At the peak, in the summer of 2007, that figure was more than twice as high. Sales of existing single-family homes, meanwhile, jumped 11% in the 12 months through September. Demand should remain elevated as the Fed keeps buying bonds so mortgage rates stay low.

And for most families, their home -- not stock portfolios -- is their biggest asset.

"The wealth effect tied to housing can be quite powerful," says Diane Swonk, chief economist for Mesirow Financial. No wonder consumer sentiment is as high as it's been since 2007.

A boom in new-home construction would fuel jobs -- and vice versa, says Patrick Newport, economist at IHS Global Insight. Each new home that's built creates an average of three jobs for a year. That's not factoring in the ripple effect -- for instance, among retailers as folks buy furniture and appliances for their new homes.

The good news: Housing starts surged to an annual rate of 872,000 this year, the highest since the financial crisis. And that's expected to rise to 900,000 in 2013.

The timing couldn't be better. Many economists think Congress and the White House will eventually settle on a package of belt-tightening measures -- to cut the deficit -- amounting to 1% to 1.5% of GDP.

Historically, housing has accounted for 5% of GDP. Today it's half that. If real estate investments jump by a percentage point or slightly more of GDP next year, the economy could absorb the shock of austerity and hit its expected 2% growth rate. Not great, but not a disaster.

The Money tracker: What can upset the forecast in the year ahead...

A military strike on Iran. An Israeli attack against Iran, to keep Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from getting a nuclear weapon, would push gas above $5 a gallon, tapping the brakes on growth.

Grownups take over. Who's to say that the White House and Congress can't hash out an agreement on taxes and spending -- or at least kick the can far down the road?

New world governments. The global economy's road to recovery could be detoured by a change in leadership in Beijing this year and elections in Germany and Italy in 2013.

A rebounding euro. A rising euro would not only boost the U.S. manufacturing recovery, but also currency gains would signal Europe's crisis is abating.

Spain refuses aid. The European Central Bank is willing to buy Spain's bonds to keep the troubled nation from a debt spiral. Will Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy be too proud to ask for help?

A trade war in Asia. A dispute over who owns tiny islands in the Pacific has touched off a feud between China and Japan. An escalation could suppress trade in one of the few regions that are growing.