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:
There was genuine suspense in Barack Obama’s announcement that he will through executive order legalize about a million young undocumented immigrants. The details are a bit more nuanced—a minimum five years residency, high school graduate status, and a crime free record are preconditions, and the order contemplates applications for guest worker status rather than citizenship—but it is still a sweeping unilateral move that broke the partisan gridlock on immigration. As such, the non-Fox media has pronounced it a masterstroke that will widen the already sizable gap between Obama and Mitt Romney with Hispanics.
To be sure, the politics are considerably more complicated. The white working class voters whom Obama is struggling with, and who swung decisively toward Republicans in 2010, are unlikely to be impressed. The portion of the Latino vote preoccupied with immigration policy, as opposed to jobs or social issue controversies, could already be secured for Obama and this latest move may not move the needle much more. To conservatives, Obama’s by-pass of Congress drives the narrative that a closet, hard-left agenda is lurking in a second term, which may keep them galvanized to defeat him.
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: Immigration and a Missed Opportunity
By Patrick Derocher, on Tue Jul 3, 2012 at 12:30 PM ET
After nearly a month of power plays, peace may finally be coming to the University of Virginia’s administration.
In Virginia, the never-ending UVA power struggle may finally have come to an end. Governor Bob McDonnell has reconfirmed Helen Dragas as Rector of the University’s Board of Visitors (what most schools would call chair of the board of directors) and appointed several new members to that board. What began as an internal academic dispute when the Board effectively forced president Teresa Sullivan to resign on June 10 morphed into a statewide political matter; outcry against Sullivan’s ouster was fierce, and McDonnell had threatened to remove the entire board if they couldn’t reach a consensus regarding her status at a June 26 meeting where her resignation was unanimously reversed. The governor’s most recent move has been met with praise, even from those organizations that had called for Dragas’s resignation, namely the UVA Faculty Senate. [C-Ville]
Read the rest of… The RP’s Weekly Web Gems – The Politics of the States
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jul 3, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
How social media could save your life.
(A hypothetical situation)
If you are one of those people who believe Klout is just another vanity website and waste of time like Facebook and Twitter, think again.
And please listen to how I had to learn the hard way the true value of these websites.
One night last week I was walking alone through a dark isolated parking lot worrying I could get mugged. I clenched my fists as my fight-flight syndrome kicked in.
My pulse spiked, pupils dilated and my mind raced thinking of potential weapons I could use. I first thought of my car keys…and then, in a flash of brilliance, I had my answer, if mugged, I would immediately shout out to my assailant:
“You picked the wrong guy, pal! You will really want to rethink mugging me after hearing what I have to tell you. I have a high Klout score. That’s right. Do you know what that means? Probably not. So let me tell you. Klout is a metric that measures Facebook and Twitter usage. That means I know a lot of people on Facebook and I Tweet quite frequently. Yes, Tweet! That means I will tell on you and you will get caught through modern social media tools. And if that isn’t enough to make you quake in your boots, I’m also pretty active on LinkenIn.”
At this point I plan to eerily and ominously glare at my assailant, eyes squinted, and make the sounds “Tweet. Tweet. Tweet.” (Like the guy in the movie Warriors when he says “Warriors, come out and plaaaayyyy”)
And then I am going to add, “And by the way, my female colleague is leaving the office right after me. And btw she has a pretty low Klout score.” And then raise my eyebrow as if to say, “That’s something for you to think about.”
In my scenario, my assailant lets me go and waits for my colleague.
And Klout, Facebook and Twitter, helped save me from getting mugged. At least in this made-up hypothetical situation that ends happily ever after for everyone. Except my female colleague who I spend the next year making this up to.
Maybe now you’ll think twice before you criticize these websites again….Word.
On Tuesday, I will be visiting Pittsburgh to perform my Pink Floyd hit “The Wall” at Consol Energy Center. By coincidence, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has gathered this week in Pittsburgh.
One issue the Presbyterians will be debating is whether to take action in support of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation in the West Bank, under siege in Gaza and as second-class citizens in Israel under the rule of the apartheid government there.
I write in support of those Presbyterians who would like their church to divest its holdings in three U.S. companies — Motorola Solutions, Hewlett-Packard and Caterpillar. These companies profit directly from Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank and suppression of the Palestinian people in both the West Bank and Israel itself.
While there are very legitimate issues with the Israeli government’s handling of the West Bank’s disputed territories (I support the transfer of most of these lands to a new Palestinian state), the notion that Gaza is under siege by Israel (when Hamas just fired 150 rockets last week into civilian Israeli territory), or that Palestinians who live in Israel proper are second-class citizens under an apartheid regime (when they share every single right and responsibility of citizenship as their Jewish neighbors), cannot be classified as anything but malicious lies.
The decision to divest is an independent issue, and while I am strongly opposed for the reasons I outline here, reasonable minds certainly can differ. But if people base the decision on Waters’ lies, they are doing a great disservice to the dialogue.
The answer? We do need education. Indeed someone just wrote a good book on the subject…
Great timeline of what is implemented and when in the Affordable Care Act. Already prescription drugs are more affordable for seniors. [Doctors for America]
Big news on the film front: “Hitting the Cycle,” the baseball-themed film, co-produced by The RP’s sister, Jennifer Miller was named Best Dramatic Feature Film last night at the Manhattan Film Festival. The film was written and directed by Jennifer’s high school classmate Richey Nash, and co-stars the legendary Bruce Dern.
Anderson Cooper has, at long last, publicly said he is gay.
Cooper made the announcement in an email to writer Andrew Sullivan.
“The fact is, I’m gay, always have been, always will be, and I couldn’t be any more happy, comfortable with myself, and proud,” he wrote.
Cooper’s sexuality has long been the subject of ample media speculation, but he has never publicly confirmed it — a fact which he also seemed to address in the email to Sullivan:
In other BREAKING NEWS: The RP is Jewish, RP Jeff Smith is short, RP Michael Steele is African-American. RP Krystal Ball is a brunette, and RP John Y. Brown, III has curly hair.
Blog this!
