Please sign the petition below to remove the statue of Jefferson Davis currently in Kentucky’s Capitol Rotunda, and replace it with a tribute to Muhammad Ali, “the Louisville Lip” and “the Greatest of All Time.”
I just heard from the Ali family: It is the Champ’s belief that Islam prohibits three-dimensional representations of living Muslims. Accordingly, I have adjusted the petition to call for a two-dimensional representation of Ali (a portrait, picture or mural) in lieu of a statue.
UPDATE (Tuesday, December 2, 2014)
In this interview with WHAS-TV’s Joe Arnold, Governor Steve Beshear endorses the idea of honoring Muhammad Ali in the State Capitol (although he disagrees with removing Davis). Arnold explores the idea further on his weekly show, “The Powers that Be.”
Click here to check out WDRB-TV’s Lawrence Smith’s coverage of the story.
And here’s my op-ed in Ali’s hometown paper, the Louisville Courier-Journal.
UPDATE (Saturday, June 4, 2016)
In the wake of the 2015 Charlestown tragedy, in which a Confederate flag-waving murderer united the nation against racism, all of the most powerful Kentucky policymakers — U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, Governor Matt Bevin, Senate President Robert Stivers and House Speaker Greg Stumbo — called for the removal of the Davis statue from the Rotunda. Today, as we commemorate last night’s passing of Muhammad Ali, there is no better moment to replace the symbol of Kentucky’s worst era with a tribute to The Greatest of All Time.
UPDATE (Wednesday, June 8, 2016):
Great piece by Lawrence Smith of WDRB-TV in Louisville on the petition drive to replace Jefferson Davis’ statue in the Capitol Rotunda with a tribute to Muhammad Ali.
UPDATE (Thursday, June 9, 2016):
Excellent piece on the petition drive by Jack Brammer that was featured on the front page of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Highlight of the article:
Miller said he has received a few “angry comments” on his call to honor Ali.
“One of them encouraged me to kill myself,” he said. “You can quote me that I have decided not to take their advice.”
UPDATE (Friday, June 10, 2016)
The petition drives continues to show the Big Mo(hammed): check out these stories from WKYU-FM public radio in Bowling Green and WKYT-TV, Channel 27 in Lexington:
UPDATE (Saturday, June 11, 2016):
Still not convinced? Check out this excerpt from today’s New York Times:
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jul 1, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
You never know when you are getting a history or literature lesson ….so it’s always good to keep an open mind. Especially if an 11 year old is involved.
When I was 10 years old, my neighbor Kyle Hibbs, had me over to spend the night. Kyle was 11 and clearly more sophisticated than I was. I ran the Lemonade stand in our neighborhood with Kyle as my CFO and Kyle ceded basketball and a few board games to me. But when it came to culture and coolness, Kyle had an edge over me I knew I might never be able to challenge.
So when he excitedly asked me over to spend the night and watch the movie “The Odyssey” which was in channel 41 at 12:30am, I had no socially acceptable response but to pretend that sounded like an awesome idea even though it sounded suspiciously like something one of my boring school teacher aunts might recommend when I spent the night with them.
Everybody was asleep except Kyle and me and we loaded up on soft drinks and candy as our big movie was about to start.
I pretended from the start to be really into it. Even though I wasn’t. I focused mostly on the soda pop and candy and my wondered on to other more interesting topics.
And then something happened.
The story pulled me in just a little bit even though it seemed like a grown-up story. I didn’t realize that they weren’t playing fair and I was watching a classic, a timeless and age-agnostic tale. And then pulled me in a little more and a little more until I was entranced.
To this day, many years after finally reading—and loving– the full literary masterpiece The Odyssey (including the Cliff Notes), whenever the famous Homer Epic comes up, it’s the images from the famous movie starting Kirk Douglas that I see.
And also how I learned to ingeniously fend off an angry Cyclops and to escape by clinging the underbelly of scampering sheep.
I’m glad I played it cool and pretended like I wanted to watch The Odyssey —until I actually did want to watch it. And led to a life-long interest in Homer.
And having cool and sophisticated 11 year old friends who encourage us along the way to try new things that aren’t obvious or “popular” is absolutely essential.
By Loranne Ausley, on Mon Jul 1, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET
So when I learned that my co-author and friend, Jonathan Miller, is heading back to Vegas today to revisit last year’s incredible 8th place finish in the World Series of Poker, it reminded me of my first gambling experience.
My dad, who I have written about several times, is an attorney and banker and still one of the most well respected political advisors in Florida. Somewhere along the way he learned a thing or two about gambling – and imparted this knowledge to me in a very memorable way.
I must have been about 12 or 13 years old and we were at our family beach house on Dog Island, Florida just off the coast of Florida’s Panhandle. It was a rainy day, so we were holed up inside and my dad was teaching me how to play backgammon. Just as I started getting the hang of it he asked if I wanted to play for money and I readily agreed.
We played game after game and I was really in the money – I was winning 3 out of every 4 games and after several hours of playing I had amassed quite a kitty of about $50 (which was a LOT in the mid 70s!).
Of course, we weren’t playing with real money because I was 13 years old and I didn’t HAVE $50 – but that didn’t matter because I was WINNING! Just as I was dreaming of all the records I could buy with that $50, my dad offered one last game – DOUBLE OR NOTHING.
Just like that, I thought, I could have $100 – and it was so EASY!
I know it isn’t hard to guess what ultimately happened – Dad cleaned my clock…AND he made me work off the $100. Easy lesson for him to teach and hard lesson for me to learn – thanks Dad – I love you!
By Erica and Matt Chua, on Mon Jul 1, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET
After two and a half years on the road we are finally heading back to the U.S. for the first time, but the adventures aren’t over. I’ll be returning home to bike across my home state of Minnesota with my family for a great cause: helping families with members suffering from multiple sclerosis. We’ll be putting on our spandex for The Ride Across Minnesota (TRAM), something I’ve wanted to do for years. Best of all, I’ll get to do this year’s ride with my family, that I haven’t seen in 18 months, to help support other families that are struggling with this debilitating disease.
I haven’t done much training for TRAM unless you count my time in the saddle on top of this ostrich
Read the rest of… Erica & Matt Chua: Riding for a Cause
I successfully avoided government throughout the first 20 years of my private sector career. But in 2003, after a career first in industry and then as a road-warrior strategy consultant, I found myself as an accidental bureaucrat in the public sector.
I never saw it coming. After a weak attempt at retirement, my wife wasn’t in the market for a strategy consultant to advise on household operations. What I hoped would be a year at home to sort out options quickly became a not so subtle nudge out the door to find my next gig.
I naively raised my hand to the newly elected Governor of Rhode Island and the Executive Director of the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation (RIEDC) and asked how I could help. The next thing I knew I was at the RIEDC, first as the agency’s lead for strategy and development, and then as a member of the Governor’s Cabinet and Executive Director of the agency. I had become an accidental bureaucrat.
I spent six years in the public sector and loved every (well almost every) moment of it. It was an innovation junkie’s dream to catalyze a statewide conversation on how to transform from an industrial era to a 21st century innovation economy.
During my time with the state, many friends asked, “Doesn’t the public sector move too slowly for you”? After twenty years of working with big companies I am not sure they move too quickly, themselves. While it’s true government moves slowly, neither of these structures move quickly, have adequate capacity for trying new models and approaches, or work and play nicely together.
But given my background as someone who has worked in both sectors, I think there is much that the public and private sectors can learn from each other.
There’s a reason it’s called the public sector: Everything is public. My schedule, emails, comments — everything — was all out in the public and transparent. The private sector could take a lesson in this kind of transparency. It took a while to get used to but it was good training for today’s social media world.
Read the rest of… Saul Kaplan: Confessions of an Accidental Bureaucrat
By Jonathan Miller, on Sun Jun 30, 2013 at 11:31 AM ET
I will be hitting the felt at Noon PDT for my first $1000 buy-in tournament in this year’s World Series of Poker.
I have a critical decision to make, and I desperately NEED YOUR HELP.
My wardrobe.
Do I go with my lucky outfit from Day 1 last year — Tel Aviv Macabees shirt, University of Kentucky ballcap (see picture?)
Or should I vary it up?
For uniforms, my choices include Jeremy Lin’s Harvard jersey, Darius Miller’s Pelicans jersey and a generic Red Sox jersey.
My ball cap selection includes a Joe Morgan commemorative Reds hat, IDF camouflage cap, and ball caps from Harvard and Miami University.
Note that I am saving my lucky Day 2 outfit — Joe Morgan Reds uniform, No Labels hat — for tomorrow’s vote. And saving my University of Kentucky Anthony Davis uniform for a final table.
By Jonathan Miller, on Sat Jun 29, 2013 at 2:30 PM ET
Of all the well-wishing emails, comments, and tweets I’ve received over the past 24 hours, only a critical one really stood out.
It came from my friend, Jim Fannin, a world-renowned mental performance coach, whose client list features an all-star team from virtually every major professional sport. I didn’t realize until we spoke that he has also counseled plenty of famous poker pros as well, including one of my favorites, Phil Gordon, a pro who once placed 4th in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP).
Jim was taken aback by my negativity in the email I sent friends announcing my trip to Vegas — I had written that repeating my final table finish from last year would be “an absurd implausibility.” Jim let me know in no uncertain terms that this was the kind of attitude that could send me to the rail in a short time.
To help turn me around, Jim gave me a quick coaching session that was invaluable. His mantra, to “clean my mind” and “stay in the zone” — a strategy that was brilliantly described by Tom Chiarella in this Esquire piece — requires me to wipe away all of my defensive rationalizations of sure defeat (Jim calls this my “safety net”), and focus instead on my ultimate goal — winning a WSOP bracelet.
Indeed, my un-coached visualizations from last year proved prophetic. My goal — my dream — was to make the final table of a WSOP tournament. Indeed, I did, but I was so crippled by my tiny stack of chips and sheer physical and mental exhaustion, that I was soon eliminated — in 8th place. Of course, I couldn’t have been happier making the final table, but Jim urged me to think bigger this time and envision a championship.
Some other tidbits of advice from Jim Fannin:
Drink a ton of water. I’ve heard this continually from my personal trainer (see below) and every medical professional that’s treated me; but constant hydration in the uber-dry Vegas climate, as well as with the mental challenge of 12 straight hours of poker ahead of me, will be critical to keeping my mind sharp.
Stay away from caffeine. This seems counterintuitive — I credited Diet Coke with keeping me alert during the late hours of the grueling 4 day event last year. But caffeine’s high also has very deleterious consequences: It dehydrates you, clouding your mind; It has a boomerang crash effect once the caffeine wears off; and it keeps you from sleeping well to recharge the next day. That sure was the case last year — on Day 4 last July, I was the walking dead.
Breathe deeply at the table, take brief mental breaks, and keep my jaw unhinged and relaxed. Jim instructs that the world’s most successful performers think less thoughts than the rest of us. Keeping my mind clear and focused on the present (definitely not the past) is critical to empowering me to trust my math skills and my intuition that served me so well last year. As far as the jaw, Jim suggested that I think about how Michael Jordan stuck out his tongue on his greatest plays — he was in “the zone.”
Click here to review and purchase
Want more advice from Jim Fannin to empower your performance in any field?
I’ve also sought counsel on how to stay in the best physical shape for the grueling week ahead. (And yes, sitting for 12 hours, focused on cards, may be nothing like a day of painful physical labor, but for this broken down, middle-aged man, it is grueling!)
My personal trainer, and this Web site’s regular Thursday columnist, Josh Bowen, sent me the regime below for tomorrow morning, with a picture that will help me visualize my ultimate goal. Between the visualization and the water recommendations, I think Josh and Jim are working in concert.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Jun 28, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Parenting Pride and Paradoxes
You know those extraordinary moments as a parent where you see your child behave in a particularly challenging situation that lets you know, “They are going to just fine as an adult”?
Those “moments” when your child acts adult-like provide a sense of satisfaction to a parent, a sense of relief and security and great pride.
And we never forget them.
And they become more frequent with time.
And begin to correspond inversely with those extraordinary moments our children experience when they see a parent behave in a particularly challenging situation that makes them wonder, “I can’t believe my parent is acting like such a child.”
Those “moments” when the child’s parent acts child-like also provide a sense of relief, security and great pride–in the children —that they can be a successful adult.
Blog this!
