Ali

[outtamojo]

A moment to honor the one and only famous person I would have liked to meet.

[Anonymous]

Why does everybody have such a hard on for Muhammad Ali? I never did understand it. Sportscenter predictably going on for hours yesterday talking about him, suspending all other programs, as if the President had died.

[scaredyclassic]

he was really really cool.

[scaredyclassic]

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.
Muhammad Ali

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[SK in CV]

Ali was arguably the greatest heavyweight boxer ever. I say arguably, though I’m not really qualified to argue, I don’t know much about boxing or the history of boxing. But people who do, say he was the greatest ever. So maybe he was.

What he was, inarguably, was a radical with a platform. Much like Martin Luther King, he was, for a period, simultaneously, both the most hated and most loved man in the US. As the Viet Nam war became less popular, in both the early ’70’s and after the war was over, that shifted to mostly loved. He was an icon. He was one of the most important people in the US in the 2nd half of the last century. The attention is well deserved.

[FlyerInHi]

Considering the environment today, I’m surprised people are not talking about taking away his citizenship for converting to Islam and changing his name.

[Anonymous]

He was a single person who’s story captured the many facets of the social turmoil of the 1960s.

And he was an outright racist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVpfcq4pV5U

I found that gem on Reddit!

[FlyerInHi]

Auto play gave me a video about mixed races people being better.

[outtamojo]

[quote=harvey]He was a single person who’s story captured the many facets of the social turmoil of the 1960s.

And he was an outright racist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVpfcq4pV5U

I found that gem on Reddit![/quote]

He said some odd things in his younger years yes but the peace he found as he aged is a peace that escapes way too many of us . I just greatly admire those who become kinder and wiser as they grow older.

[svelte]

[quote=deadzone]Why does everybody have such a hard on for Muhammad Ali? I never did understand it. Sportscenter predictably going on for hours yesterday talking about him, suspending all other programs, as if the President had died.[/quote]

I don’t get it either.

That’s okay – I don’t have to get everything.

[Anonymous]

Obviously a big part of it is the fact that he has been completely out of the public view for 30+ years with his Parkinsons. I am in my 40s and have no memory of ever seeing him fight, or even being interviewed like normal retired athletes.

In other words, for todays generation(s) he is more of a mystery, or even myth due to his being off the radar, as if he were already dead, for 30+ years.

Take away the Parkinsons and he would not be nearly as big of a deal.

[outtamojo]

For me, his boxing was just a sideshow. For many, he made this world a much much better place. True he has his detractors but I would guess they are mostly among those who wish to turn back the clock.

[Author]

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