"On Louisville, Breonna Taylor, and Muhammad Ali."

Photo credit: The Nation.

From one of the few sportswriters capable of mattering, talking straight.  

On Louisville, Breonna Taylor, and Muhammad Ali, by Dave Zirin (The Nation)

Louisville is hallowed ground, the birthplace of Muhammad Ali. It will now, thanks to Daniel Cameron, be also remembered as the home of an unspeakable injustice.

 ... If struggle is truly the secret of joy, then I’ll repeat: It felt like hallowed ground.

Daniel Cameron, the Kentucky Attorney General, has desecrated this hallowed ground. In his ambition to remain a Republican rising star, mentored by McConnell and beloved by Trump, he chose his career over justice and made the decision to use Breonna Taylor’s body as a stepping stone to reach even greater heights ... but to me this is less about the color of Cameron’s skin than a naked and grotesque expression of what it takes to rise in GOP circles: You protect the cops, you blame the dead, and you assert, no matter the cost, that Black lives—particularly the lives of Black women—simply do not matter. 

 For the people of Louisville, Breonna Taylor’s name will not be forgotten as surely as Muhammad Ali’s. Maybe someday people will walk Breonna Taylor Boulevard in downtown Louisville and speak her name not merely as a tragedy but as a turning point towards true justice. Daniel Cameron’s name, if remembered at all, will be thought of like the person who stole young Cassius Clay’s bicycle, which inspired the 12-year-old Clay to take up boxing. He will be the anonymous, ignofarm-near-me/">minious cudgel of immorality whose blows didn’t put the people of Louisville down for the count, but propelled them to rise off the mat.

As always, Greg Fischer grandstands, but Muhammad Ali International Airport certainly does flush out the racists.

I have little use for Greg Fischer. His purportedly "brave" stands for human rights and freedoms rarely amount to much; he dazzles the scattershot progressives with Oz-like choreography, while tightening the grip of the special interests, oligarchs and apostles of neoliberalism who are the ultimate problem in society, not the solution.

But I'll give him half credit (it surely wasn't Fischer's original idea) for attaching himself to the rebranding of Standiford Field/Louisville International Airport as Muhammad Ali International Airport, if for no other reason than the proliferation of crackpots and racists oozing to the surface to spout bile.

But hey -- they're late to the game, aren't they? Their fathers and grandfathers were plumbing the very same subterranean depths a half century ago.

Meanwhile, insofar as Louisville entertains foreign guests and tourists via the airport, they may well drink bourbon, bet on the ponies or even eat wretched "Kentucky" Fried Chicken, but most of them make a beeline for the Muhammad Ali Center, because guess what, mouth breathers: he's the symbol of Louisville for populations residing outside the US of A.

Greg Fischer? He's not qualified to launder Ali's jockstrap. For those in desperate need of a refresher -- New Albany's eternal "Fischer Democrat" Jeff Gahan springs to mind -- there's this.

Muhammad Ali and Vietnam: His refusal to be drafted to fight in the war transcended the boxing ring, which he had dominated, at great personal cost, by Krishnadev Calamur (The Atlantic)

Muhammad Ali’s stand against the Vietnam War transcended not only the ring, which he had dominated as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, but also the realms of faith and politics.

“His biggest win came not in the ring but in our courts in his fight for his beliefs,” Eric Holder, the former U.S. attorney general, said Saturday.

On March 9, 1966, at the height of the war, Ali’s draft status was revised to make him eligible to fight in Vietnam, leading him to say that as a black Muslim he was a conscientious objector, and would not enter the U.S. military.

“My conscience won’t let me go shoot my brother, or some darker people, or some poor hungry people in the mud for big powerful America,” he said at the time. “And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger, they never lynched me, they didn’t put no dogs on me, they didn’t rob me of my nationality, rape and kill my mother and father. … Shoot them for what? How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.”

For Suddeath, "Draft evasion dampens memories of Ali."

Overall in his opinion piece, the last reporter to cover the New Albany city beat 259 days ago prior to relocating to Glasgow to serve as editor for yet another CNHI chain entity ... um, where was I?

Right: Suddeath does as balanced a job as could be expected in weighing the experiences of the generation drafted to fight in Vietnam.

DANIEL SUDDEATH: Draft evasion dampens memories of Ali

While Ali certainly deserves respect and acknowledgment for his courage in the face of racism and his pure athletic talent, his refusal to fight in the Vietnam War and some of the subsequent comments after his death by those attempting to justify his decision do not stir heroic sentiments in my book.

But he gives the game away in the header, and it's an object lesson about why language matters. Suddeath uses neither "conscientious objector" nor "draft dodger," both nouns describing persons, but with radically different meanings. He refers instead to "draft evasion" in the sense of the action taken -- artistic, though it still clearly suggests what side the writer is about to take.

Let's review Muhammad Ali's statement at the time. Suddeath fails to mention that the US military was desegregated only after World War II.

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.

Then there's this point of view (thanks GS).

Muhammad Ali was no draft dodger, but here are a bunch of famous people who were, by Jack Hunter (Rare)

... But Ali didn’t “dodge” anything. As Rare’s Tom Mullen explains, “Ali never dodged the draft; he opposed it, accepting the legal consequences without any attempt to evade them.” “He didn’t flee to Canada or enroll in college to obtain a deferment,” Mullen noted. “From the moment he learned of his induction, Ali stood firmly in the proud tradition of civil disobedience, saying ‘just take me to jail.”

Dunman: " Louisville is lucky to have had Ali."

As usual, Joe Dunman's summary is spot on. I'm old enough to remember Cassius Clay's transformation into Muhammad Ali, the period of his "draft dodging," and the denunciations of my dad's crowd.

Naturally, these influenced me to take the boxer's side.

There was no overt racism in our household; we had assumptions, implicit understandings and nods, but no use of the "N" word. My dad's initial objections to Muhammad Ali probably had more to do with his own experiences in WWII than race or creed. Having volunteered for the Marines, he'd lost three years of a budding career in baseball. No one should be spared this cost ... and so on.

Once my father came to see the reality of Vietnam, his opinion about Muhammad Ali dramatically changed. I doubt he ever spent too much time thinking about the black experience in America, or varieties of the Muslim faith, but the nature of just versus unjust wars was right in his wheelhouse. He instinctively sided with the underdog, and that's admirable.

We didn't always agree, and yet my old man deserves credit for being fair-minded. He turned down a few blind alleys, and wasn't afraid to reverse course if the evidence supported it.

That's an important quality.

Commentary: Louisville is lucky to have had Ali — a man of bravery, principled defiance, and ultimate rightness, by Joe Dunman (Insider Louisville)

... I had my own rebellious streak, only briefly toying with conservatism early in high school before punk rock and a distrust of authority irrevocably shifted my politics. As I re-examined the things I’d been taught, I read more about Ali and watched old footage of his fights and his interviews. What I saw was not cowardice, or selfishness, or brainwashing, or any of the other negative traits others had accused him of. I saw bravery, and principled defiance, and an ultimate rightness that could not be denied.

Ali was right about Vietnam, and he was right about the abuse of black people in America. He was a truly transformative character for his time, challenging every American’s perception of what a black athlete – the greatest, no doubt – was supposed to be and how one was supposed to act.

Rather than feel angry or ashamed, as many others in my community had, I became proud that Muhammad Ali was from Louisville. No city could ever be as lucky as ours to have been able to call such a man our own.

"The Outsized Life of Muhammad Ali."

During my salad days of European wandering, when asked where I lived, I'd say Louisville. Back then, Kentucky Fried Chicken wasn't a global brand. Some of them had heard of the Kentucky Derby. Almost all, particularly in the East Bloc, knew Muhammad Ali. That's when I started to understand.

The Outsized Life of Muhammad Ali, by David Remick (The New Yorker)

What a loss to suffer, even if for years you knew it was coming. Muhammad Ali, who died Friday, in Phoenix, at the age of seventy-four, was the most fantastical American figure of his era, a self-invented character of such physical wit, political defiance, global fame, and sheer originality that no novelist you might name would dare conceive him. Born Cassius Clay in Jim Crow-era Louisville, Kentucky, he was a skinny, quick-witted kid, the son of a sign painter and a house cleaner, who learned to box at the age of twelve to avenge the indignity of a stolen bicycle, a sixty-dollar red Schwinn that he could not bear to lose. Eventually, Ali became arguably the most famous person on the planet, known as a supreme athlete, an uncanny blend of power, improvisation, and velocity; a master of rhyming prediction and derision; an exemplar and symbol of racial pride; a fighter, a draft resister, an acolyte, a preacher, a separatist, an integrationist, a comedian, an actor, a dancer, a butterfly, a bee, a figure of immense courage.

REWIND: Two Memorial Day posts from 2008.

Holiday reading from the archives, as compiled here: Two Memorial Day posts from 2008.

Memorial Day as a universal concept.

Thinking about Muhammad Ali and the Democrats on Memorial Day.

Thinking about Muhammad Ali and the Democrats on Memorial Day.

A year ago this weekend, Mrs. Confidential and I visited the foremost destination for foreign tourists who come to Louisville, and I urged readers to do the same. We've been back for a repeat look, and enjoyed the experience just as much the second time.

C'mon, who could turn down an afternoon at Louisville's Muhammad Ali Center?

I wrote last year that, "It is difficult to imagine any self-declared Democrat – for that matter, any person, period – consciously turning down the opportunity to reflect on the universal human ideals considered therein." In the 12 months that have passed since then, the success of Barack Obama's presidential bid provides yet another opportunity to consider the nature and practice of these ideals.

Here is the Center's mission statement:

The Muhammad Ali Center serves as both a destination site and an international education and cultural center that is inspired by the ideals of its founder Muhammad Ali … Two-and-a-half levels of interactive exhibits and captivating multi-media presentations present Ali’s life story through the six core values of his life: respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, and spirituality … Ultimately, the Ali Center strives to inspire you to pursue your potential and explore the greatness that lies within yourself.

C'mon, who could turn down an afternoon at Louisville's Muhammad Ali Center?

Given a choice on Memorial Day between attending the Abbey Road festival honoring the Beatles and visiting the adjacent Muhammad Ali Center, we opted for the latter.


Something in the way the Courier-Journal slickly touted the riverfront Beatlerama struck an unresponsive chord within us, while the memory of listening to the Ali Center’s Daniel Kalef speak at the Floyd County Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Dinner remained strong, urging an appreciation of the boxer-turned-cultural ambassador’s fascinating life.

In fact, it is difficult to imagine any self-declared Democrat – for that matter, any person, period – consciously turning down the opportunity to reflect on the universal human ideals considered therein:

The Muhammad Ali Center serves as both a destination site and an international education and cultural center that is inspired by the ideals of its founder Muhammad Ali … Two-and-a-half levels of interactive exhibits and captivating multi-media presentations present Ali’s life story through the six core values of his life: respect, confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, and spirituality … Ultimately, the Ali Center strives to inspire you to pursue your potential and explore the greatness that lies within yourself.

At the aforementioned Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on April 27, Mr. and Mrs. Confidential were flatly envious of 5th district Democratic council candidate Diane McCartin Benedetti, who walked off with the door prize of specially selected Muhammad Ali Center materials and admission tickets. I wonder if she has yet had time to visit, and if so, whether the experience was good for her.

It certainly was good for us. Here are a few views of the interior.