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 Jonathan Miller, on Wed Jan 23, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed No Budget, No Pay as a key part of the House debt ceiling extension bill. No Budget, No Pay was conceived by No Labels over a year ago as part of the Make Congress Work! action plan to break the gridlock in Washington.
“The No Labels grassroots army has been pushing No Budget, No Pay for over a year, and we’re ecstatic that the House has embraced the idea in a strong a bipartisan vote,” said No Labels Co-Founder David Walker. “Although withholding congressional pay may seem like a drastic step, it’s necessary to provide the right incentives and accountability mechanisms to encourage Congress to do its job in connection with the nation’s budget. Based on comments from key Senate leaders that they intend to pass the budget this year, it looks like No Budget, No Pay has already had a positive behavioral effect.”
Speaker of the House John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor endorsed No Budget, No Pay last week, but No Labels worked with Senator Dean Heller (R-NV) and Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN) to first introduce No Budget, No Pay legislation in the House and Senate in December of 2011. With support from No Labels’ hundreds of thousands of grassroots supporters, the bill eventually garnered over 90 co-sponsors in the 112th Congress and received a hearing in the Senate in March of 2012. Specific details of today’s House passed version of No Budget, No Pay differ from No Labels’ original proposal, but the underlying idea is the same: members of Congress shouldn’t be paid if they can’t pass a budget on time.
“I’m proud to have been the original co-sponsor of the No Budget, No Pay proposal in the House, and I am pleased that members from both sides of the aisle have supported this straightforward idea,” said Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN). “We owe it to the American people to pass the budget each year, and this vote affirms that Congress should face consequences when we fail to do so.”
“Without a budget, Congress is essentially spending taxpayer money first and asking questions later, but No Budget, No Pay creates a serious incentive for Congress to handle our nation’s finances more responsibly,” said Congressman Reid Ribble (R-WI). “It is not a partisan issue – it’s common sense.”
===
Here’s the story from my fellow No Labels co-founder, John Avlon of CNN:
If you don’t get the job done at work, you won’t get paid.
But Congress plays by its own rules. Specifically, Congress hasn’t passed a budget in almost four years. This is basic — and required by law. Congress seems to think it’s bigger than the law, however, which might help explain one recent poll that found it less popular than root canals, cockroaches and Donald Trump.
Read the rest of… No Budget No Pay Sails Through the House; and Passage thru the Senate Appears Imminent
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Jan 23, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Remember, the the “art of negotiation” is really the “art of problem solving.”
To get what you want in negotiating, however, you have to first be able to give the other side what they want, too.
Negotiation isn’t about who can yell loudest what they want until the other side capitulates. It’s a process of understanding until the wisest —and often most creative—resolution of the problem is discovered and properly disclosed and proffered. And you can’t do that unless you know fully what the other side “really” wants–both what they say they want and what they actually want (the two aren’t always the same….not because the other side is concealing something but because they may not have fully thought through the process themselves and can answer clearly and candidly.)
A great example I’ll never forget from my MBA program went something like this. Two companies in different industries were negotiating for a rare orange available in scarce supply from South America. They went to war in negotiations for the orange, escalating the price and trying to undermine the others need and use for the orange. Each needed more than “half” the supply and were willing to pay premium pricing for it. The two sides exhausted the different ways of dividing up ownership of the oranges between the two but none were satisfactory. And then, at the end of this disastrous and destructive and costly negotiation, it is discovered that Company A needs only the rind of the orange and Company B the pulp. But neither side took the time to find that out about the other before it was too late and both companies paid exorbitant prices and didn’t get what they wanted.
Why?
Ignorance of the situation.
Or more pointedly, self-absorption and an unwilling to try to “solve a problem” rather than merely “getting mine.”
This is a great life lesson and business lesson to understand what each side is really needing and seeking. Knowledge is power. And smart. And ignorance is so very costly and wasteful. And ultimately humiliating and does a disservice to all involved. It’s never enough to know only what you want. The key, ironically, to the most successful negotiators (problem solvers) is that they also know what the other side wants –and how to deliver it to them.
If you enter a negotiation without a strong sense of that understanding, you aren’t really negotiating or problem solving. You are just making petulant, uninformed demands.
“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.””
-Martin Luther King, Jr. “I Have a Dream”. August 28, 1963
I remember every Martin Luther King, Jr holiday, our teachers in elementary school would have us watch Dr. King’s famous speech from 1963. His voice echoing for equality was beyond an young child’s understanding, but his emotion was transcendent.
As I have grown up, the memory of watching Dr. King echoes through my mind every Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. For this holiday, the words of “I Have a Dream” became even more poignant for me. This year, the holiday to honor Dr. King coincided with the Presidential Inauguration of an African-American President and I was fortunate enough to bear witness.
The crowd in Washington, DC in 2013 must have mirrored the crowd on the National Mall in 1963. The crowd represented individuals of all ages, all races, all religions, all creeds from all states regardless of distance. It did not matter who they were, or if they knew each other before the event, the viewing of the inauguration was like a reunion between old friends. We joked about the trees blocking our view, we cheered with our first peek of Michelle Obama, and we shared stories about what this moment meant to us.
The most moving part of the crowd for me was seeing the older African Americans. They had braved the cold, braved the crowd, and braved their health to be witness to history. As I watched the excitement on their faces, I wondered how many of them were able to witness Dr. King’s speech fifty years ago, not as a videotape as I remembered, but as a live event. The emotion of this moment for them was given away by their voices when they cheered, “Amen” during Myrlie-Evers Williams’s invocation. In fifty years, they had come so far from the injustices of segregation to having an African-American President sworn into a second term.
The t-shirt vendors off the National Mall and streets of DC got it right. Their shirts had a picture of Dr. King and President Obama, with the caption, “Dream Fulfilled”. What a profound inaugural day. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a dream indeed.
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Jan 22, 2013 at 5:00 PM ET
In case you’ve been under a rock for the past week, dethroned cyclist Lance Armstrong ‘told all’ to the queen of the confessional, Oprah Winfrey. And most people reacted much like Claude Rains’ character in Casablanca upon learning about gambling at Rick’s – “we’re shocked, simply shocked” – or something to that effect. The highly promoted, well-publicized interview covered many subjects, but I was surprised that Oprah stayed away from the good stuff, or at least what seems most interesting for a hopeless romantic like me who knows nothing about competitive cycling (but is addicted to Downton Abbey and Jane Austen): his love life! Armstrong has certainly been a cad to his teammates, trainers, sponsors, and anyone else he’s sued or insulted (and I love his defense of all the horrid things he said about his teammate’s wife, claiming as long as he didn’t say she was ‘fat’, all the other names he called her were okay). But he’s been spectacularly awful to his romantic partners, dumping his first wife for a glamorous rockstar, whom he then very publicly dumped because she wanted kids, ironically next taking up with a child star (okay, Ashley Olsen was an adult by that point but she still looks like a teenage waif), and then adding insult to injury by having two kids with the newest girlfriend.
I’m hoping the resilient and talented Ms. Crow will pull a Taylor Swift and write some devastating new song about Armstrong’s betrayal of her, but in the meantime, I’ve taken a stab at it myself.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jan 22, 2013 at 4:00 PM ET
Watching Silver Linings Playbook.
Albert Camus once wrote that fiction is a lie through which we tell the truth.
This movie is a story that tenderly and impeccably reveals the truth about life and the world we live in. All of us.
It’s supposed to be a brilliantly authentic and deadpan depiction of the world within the world of those laboring under the weight of mental illness. But it’s really not.
Silver Linings Playbook seems to me to be something more real and less mysterious. About finding extraordinary moments amid the utterly banality of life made possible by those who find ways to cope most graciously with a world insanely obsessed with the delusion of sanity.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jan 22, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
Sometimes what seems to be a confident answer turns into a cause for worry.
Last week I was asked by a client, “Is there any way in the world –anything that could possibly happen—that means this deal won’t go through?
I flippantly joked, “Yes. If the Mayans were off three weeks in their prediction of the end of the world.”
We both laughed.
But since then I keep worrying, “What “IF” the Mayans really were off three weeks?! And the world does end. And this deal doesn’t go through. I am totally sc***d. I will have lost my credibility with this firm and probably not get renewed for this year.
Gosh, I sure hope the Mayans didn’t have a tendency to be off 3 weeks in their predictions.
I mean, the Mayan culture seems like the kind of culture that if they were going to get something wrong, they would at least get it wrong on the right date. They seemed to be sticklers like that.
By Nancy Slotnick, on Tue Jan 22, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET
I never would have thought, when I was single, that those 4 words could sound so sexy. “We’ve got an hour.” With a raised eyebrow it becomes a full-fledged turn-on. At least I have the hour. Usually.
As I prepare to fully enter the world of new media when my iPhone 5 arrives next week, I find myself sad to retire my Crackberry. Those little keys on the keypad are so easy and so soothing. I can get so much done. Or nothing at all. When both my husband and my son started complaining that I was so addicted to my Blackberry that I didn’t notice them, I knew I had a problem. I had just thought I was a Blackberry Girl.
So I started realizing that how I spend my time might have some impact on whether I am reaching my goals. I know I’m always busy. Emails, texts, constant communication. But maybe I’m just running a treadmill?
Ironically, they had a marathon of Ground Hog Day on TBS or something last week. (Yes, they played it over and over. Lol.) Like a sucker, I watched even though I have seen it many times before. (I watched in between emails, anyway.) I didn’t see the end but I asked my friend who is a huge Bill Murray fan: “What finally got him to the next day?” It was when he started focusing on the people in his life in a helpful and vulnerable way. He wasn’t concerned about what he was getting from them. But he still was going after what he wanted. (i.e. Andie MacDowell.)
I want to recommend to you, if you are single, to be Bill Murray. Try to be Bill Murray in the last go ‘round of Ground Hog Day, not Bill Murray in Caddyshack. (The pond is not so good for you.) Bill Murray in Lost in Translation is not bad either.
What this means— There’s a guy who was in the papers this week because he has spent $65,000 on Matchmakers and has not gotten a mate. I have not worked with him but supposedly I might be approached next. (at least that’s what the Yahoo reporter said when she quoted me)
Here’s what I would tell him: I run a matchmaking company, Matchmaker Cafe, but I don’t consider myself a matchmaker because finding love cannot be outsourced. It cannot be figured out on paper nor by an algorithm. You have to meet. Emailing and texting is only useful to the extent that you use that technology to set up a date. At Matchmaker Café we facilitate dates because you are busy and you may need a concierge. We don’t promise to find the person for you. You have to collaborate with us, to have some skin in the game. We know that you don’t need endless email noise and phone tag. You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on matchmakers and your iPhone (or Blackberry!) is not going to help you that much. You need to have a date. And you need to show up for it. It’s as simple as that. But over and over. Until it works, like Bill Murray.
Read the rest of… Nancy Slotnick: We’ve Got an Hour
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jan 21, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET
Happy Martin Luther King Day
A man who taught us about the importance of fighting for — in a humble, appropriate and civilly disobedient manner– the God-given freedoms bestowed on each of us.
Even if others who claim they are the actual bestowers of these freedoms, in fact, are usurping them.
“Free at last. Free at last. Thank God Almighty, I am free at last” has become the universal rallying cry for all who have ever found freedom from bondage, political or personal.
Blog this!
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed No Budget, No Pay as a key part of the House debt ceiling extension bill. No Budget, No Pay was conceived by No Labels over a year ago as part of the Make Congress Work! action plan to break the gridlock in Washington.
Ignorance of the situation.
I remember every Martin Luther King, Jr holiday, our teachers in elementary school would have us watch Dr. King’s famous speech from 1963. His voice echoing for equality was beyond an young child’s understanding, but his emotion was transcendent.
I want to recommend to you, if you are single, to be Bill Murray. Try to be Bill Murray in the last go ‘round of Ground Hog Day, not Bill Murray in Caddyshack. (The pond is not so good for you.) Bill Murray in Lost in Translation is not bad either.
