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 Tue Nov 6, 2012 at 5:00 PM ET
The 2008 Electoral College Map
Here are the official entrants into The Recovering Politician‘s first quadrennial Electoral College prediction. Winner received 2 tickets to the University of Kentucky men’s basketball home opener on November 16. Read the rules here. And good luck to all entrants!
Jerry Jackson Jr. Obama: 333. Romney: 205. Senate: Dem: 53. Rep: 46. 1 Ind. House: Dem: 215. Rep: 220
Jason James Taylor Obama: 256, Romney 282. REP 53, DEM 44, IND 3. REP 195, DEM 240.
Luke Hawkins Obama: 270, Romney: 268. Senate: DEM 51, REP 46, IND 3. House: DEM 238, REP 197
S Ch Hite Romney 296, Obama 242 Senate: GOP 51 Dem 47 Ind 2 House: GOP 245 Dem 190
Michael West Romney 270, Obama 268 Senate: D52 R47 I1 House: 232R 203D
Darrick Holloman Romney 304 Obama 234 – Senate: Dem 49 GOP 49 Ind 2 – House: GOP 249 Dem 183
Kevin Whitehead Obama 332 – Romney 206; Senate 52D / 46R / 2Ind; House 238R / 197D
Casey Rogers Obama 329 Romney 209 Senete: 48 R / 50 D / 2 I House: 230 R / 205 D
Janice Rusty Knife-Messer Obama: 312; Romney, most of the rest of them, the 3rd party candidates evenly split the rest. (Sorry, the Electoral College just confuses me — but my %-ages should be pretty close.
Linda Potts Sinclair 273 For Mr. Obama and 264 for what’s his face from the rebublican party Rest for JYBJr. or JYBIII
Janssen Willhoit Obama 277 Romney 261; Senate: 48 R / 50 D / 2I; House: 236 R / 199 D
Joe Sonka Obama 332 Romney 206; Senate: 52 D / 46 R / 2 I; 230 R / 205 D
Eric Hussein Polsgrove Election Prediction: Obama/Biden 332 EV 50.6% of vote: Romney/Ryan 206 EV 48.3% of vote; Senate 53 Democrats (includes 2 independent), 47 Republicans; House 208 Democrats, 227 Republicans
Eliot Walter I would like to revise my numbers and add Florida to the Obama column. Obama, 315; Romney, 222. Senate: Dem, 50; Rep, 48; Ind, 2. House: Dem, 204; Rep, 231. Floridians understand hurricanes and the snow-birds in Florida can and will tip the scale there.
John Hernandez 285-253 Obama, Senate 53 dems, 47 Gop, House 230 Gop- 205 Dems…
John Brazel Obama 303 Romney 235, Senate D 50, R48, House R 240 D 193. Thanks for playing, y’all.
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Nov 6, 2012 at 12:15 PM ET
Tuesday night, beginning at 6PM EST, when the polls close in Kentucky (We’re #1 at something other than hoops!), our contributing recovering politicians will be offering their instant thoughts on the election returns, speechifying and mainstream media coverage via Twitter. We will be broadcasting their live Twitter feed here on The Recovering Politician home page.
Even better, YOU are invited to join in the debate. You can participate in the discussion by using you own Twitter account and adding the hashtag #RecoveringPol to your tweets. We encourage you to participate through the evening, and please free free to engage, question, and challenge our contributing RPs.
So please join us Tuesday night at 6PM EST, until the wee hours Wednesday morning — and who knows, maybe even longer…
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Nov 6, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
A momentous occasion. Historic even.
Today…. is Election Day.
And Election Day will be followed by Wednesday….and, if all goes as planned, followed by Thursday. Short of cataclysmic fallout on Tuesday night, Thursday more than likely will be followed by Friday. And then we will probably see something resembling what we used to call “the weekend.” …
And then Monday. And we’ll return to tilling our individual gardens.
And so on.
I’m guessing this will be how it play out anyway.
In anticipation of this overblown occasion, I sent this message to a friend this morning who is a great person and someone who I like and admire a lot –and who, coincidentally, is working hard to elect political candidates with different views from the ones I support.
“Let’s get something down for late next week or the following week…..Mid morning on Thur or Fri are best for me. Will be a wild and wooly week for sure! But when it’s all over, the votes are counted, and the dust settles, people will still need to drink caffeine together. That much I know…. ; )”
There’s not much else I know about the next week or two. But I do know that.
And it’s more important to know that than we probably think. I guess what I’m trying to say is that this is a “big” week.
But not because we will have chosen as a country the president and vice-president for the next four years. But because we will return focus to our daily lives.
Where we have the most impact. And where we actually live.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Tue Nov 6, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
After this week’s action the Recovering Politician Bowl standings are finally starting to stretch out and reveal which teams will continue to succeed or fail.
Targaryen 2012 was the big winner of the week as he into the top tier of teams and also chose to start rookie phenom Doug Martin who ended the day with just over 51 fantasy points – second highest all-time in one week next to Clinton Portis.
Team Unibrow and your hero, the Fighting Mongooses, join Targaryen 2012 in the top tier at 6-3.
The RP Tittles and your fearless leader continue to lead the league in scoring and represent the top of the second tier 5-4 teams, along with Quaker Country, The Dirty Diapers, and The Bungals. Next are three teams at 4-5 who could see themselves get back into the race with a good string of games.
Finally, bringing up the rear are the Augies at 3-6 and the lowly, lowly Bandits at 1-8. Though it should continue to be noted that the Bandits are still receiving the highest scoring opponents overall. The #1 team this week, Targaryen 2012, has faced opponents who scored over 200 points less throughout the season.
Blog this!
