General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsOdin2005
(53,521 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,808 posts)LiberalElite
(14,691 posts)as a teenager then, I thought "wow you can say that?" I learned a lot about integrity from Ali.
to the integrity.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)it was a freakin' shit hurricane. He stood up and faced it.
rurallib
(62,426 posts)It would be bad true - but the real thing was bad too.
world wide wally
(21,744 posts)Sports, politics. racial tolerance, reaching out to others, generosity, and yes... even trash talking for fun.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,014 posts)Thanks, Ali,for being such a big voice resisting the insanity of Vietnam.
You will be missed.
scottie55
(1,400 posts)Ali was smart enough to know who his real enemy was.
White Racists who wanted to keep him and his friends as slaves for eternity.
my enemy is the white people, not the Vietcong.
Some folks simply refuse......
llmart
(15,540 posts)My father had many things about him that weren't admirable, but he was anti-war and when Ali took this stance, my father had nothing but excessive praise for the man.
Albertoo
(2,016 posts)What difference with Trump saying my enemy is the Mexican people
or my enemy is the xxx people with the xxx of your choice?
Ali was brave, strong willed, but some of his attitudes sucked.
scottie55
(1,400 posts)There is a lot of difference between someone telling the truth, regardless the cost, and one trying to become the next Hitler.
Albertoo
(2,016 posts)qdouble
(891 posts)a rich billionaire saying that today? Of course not. There's a huge difference between the oppressed telling the oppressor to go fuck themselves vs the oppressor saying it.
The Blue Flower
(5,442 posts)He changed my world view.
Ligyron
(7,635 posts)I remember thinking maybe he was "chicken".
Man was I ever wrong and my parents and their friends? Way, way wrong.
Man is an Icon and rightly so - the years have proven the correctness of his stance. A brown eyed, handsome man for sure and a beautiful human being.
The world doesn't need a "big powerful America".
scottie55
(1,400 posts)Who's corporations have their jack boots on the throats of every citizen on this planet.
Some people are so tired of these jack boots, they actually fly planed into our buildings.
But we don't ever want to talk about that.
Ali was waaaaaaay ahead of his time.
uppityperson
(115,677 posts)La Lioness Priyanka
(53,866 posts)mnhtnbb
(31,395 posts)He was Berry planned during Vietnam--given the option to finish Med School and serve later--
and he seriously thought about going to Canada. Instead, he and a few other brave souls
in Med School at UCLA set up a table to protest the Vietnam war in the heart of the UCLA
Med Center.
My husband ended up enlisting in the Air Force--did his two years--and has spent most of
the rest of his career treating, at least part-time, vets at the VA Hospitals where he worked
in Los Angeles after he finished his residency in Psychiatry at UCLA, and then Lincoln, NE when we moved there in 1994.
My husband's maternal family is from Kentucky and their name was Clay. He thinks it's possible
that he and Muhammed Ali might have been distant cousins.
blackspade
(10,056 posts)hopemountain
(3,919 posts)i am going to share this powerful ali video with some young'uns.
KelleyKramer
(8,969 posts)Don't think I have ever seen that last part, he just put it right out there, very powerful stuff! And a very brave man.
.
ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts).the whole world.
blackspade
(10,056 posts)RIP to the Greatest!
dhill926
(16,347 posts)for The Greatest....
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Demsrule86
(68,593 posts)but dark skinned people were taken to jail? My Dad said the draft was BS...that poor kids went mostly...Trump didn't go. My Dad was in Korea and Vietnam. He never faulted Muhammad Ali.
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)Note that those going to college were eligible for a deferment.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)13Dogs
(45 posts)"While many scorned Alis decision at the time" - 49 years later it's crystal clear that Ali was on the right side of history with respect to the Vietnam War. The fact that he stuck by his principles, despite the vicious condemnation from the authoritarians and war mongers, speaks volumes of the strength and goodness of this man. He asked the brilliant question, why would I want to go and kill poor people living in the mud for big. powerful America? The fact that question is still sadly relevant almost 50 years later, doesn't say a lot for the human race's progress towards a peaceful planet...but make no mistake, Ali sure did his part, and then some, towards that goal. He was a giant...