AP Photo/David Goldman America loves its sports.  For many fans, sporting events add to the quality of their lives.  For others sports offer a temporary escape, providing a refuge from the challenges and problems life sometimes brings.  Yet there are times when even the games and tournaments, as powerfully appealing as they may be, cannot obscure the harsh realities of this thing called life.   Such was the case the week of July 4, 2016, when we as a nation endured yet two more fatal shootings by white police officers of African-American men – Alton Sterling, who was selling CDs in a Louisiana gas station, and Philando Castile, who was pulled over for a broken tail light in Minnesota.  The shootings spurred protests in various cities across the country, including in Dallas, Texas.   The day after the Minnesota shooting, a 25-year-old former Army reservist, reportedly acting alone, ambushed police officers following a peaceful rally organized to honor the lives of Sterling and Castile.  Five police officers were killed and another seven were injured in the well-planned, horrific attack.  Less than 24 hours later, at least three other officers were shot in separate incidents in Tennessee, Missouri and Georgia, one […]