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 Jun 26, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
No, the RP hasn’t suddenly become a man of the cloth. The following beautiful words were part of a sermon delivered by Rabbi Jonathan Miller of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama on June 24, 2012, delivered at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Birmingham:
Rabbi Jonathan Miller
I have a love affair with the State of Israel. I love its geography, from the sea to the desert to the mountains and hills. I love the orange groves and the high tech office parks. I love the oases and desert watercourses and the short lived blossoms on the hills after the rains. I love the golden city of Jerusalem, the city of such promise—the promise of the coming of the Lord and the coming together of all peoples. I love the people of Israel: the farmers and high tech innovators, the citizen soldiers and the doctors, the actors and the filmmakers, the mystics and the professors, the journalists and the scientists, the dancers and the store clerks and even the beggars on the street—they are mostly short tempered, quick to make decisions, overly generous, colorful and sweet. They will let you know their opinion before they have thought it out themselves.
I love Hebrew. After two thousand years of lying in books read by scholars and holy people, it is now used on the street by cops and crooks and little children on the playground. Hebrew is the only dead language in human history that has been reinvented by a people to use in their everyday life. The resurrection of Hebrew represents the triumph of the human spirit over the hopelessness of human pessimism.
And I love the people of Israel. I love how the cultures mix in this energetic melting pot. I love how the Jews, my people have flocked from the ghettos of Eastern Europe and the Soviet gulags, from the Ethiopian desert and the villages of Arabia, from the casbahs in Morocco to the hill tribe settlements in India, from France, from Egypt, from Yemen, from Tunisia, from Iraq, from Iran, from Rumania, South Africa and the United States—all colors, all stripes, a holy concoction of believers and non-believers, educated and primitive, to create a nation and a culture from the cauldrons of hate and the hopelessness of exile. Like my own country, the United States of America, Israel is to me that beacon of hope that expresses the fundamental truth of the human condition: that our destiny is in our own hands; that in the future, we are not subject to defeat just because we have been defeated in the past. Israel to me is the world’s quintessential symbol of the fact that the human spirit cannot easily be vanquished.
Read the rest of… Rabbi Jonathan Miller: Why This Liberal Jew Loves Israel
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Jun 25, 2012 at 3:00 PM ET
Click here to purchase this book. NOW!
It’s rare that I have the opportunity to recommend a book — much less have the time to read one — but I’ve just run across the best work of fiction that I’ve started to consume in some time.
It’s called The Art of Fielding; it’s written by a first time novelist, Chad Harbach; and even after I was able to pry myself from the book to get a little writing done myself, I had a very difficult time trying to stop thinking about it.
Indeed, that’s what the book is about. Although I have only completed half of it, I have never read anything that so brilliantly dissects and examines and illuminates that little voice in your head that won’t stop talking and that leads you do stupid things like insult a friend, run a red light, or throw an errant baseball.
While the subtext of the book revolves around the baseball diamond — befitting today’s debate about Roger Clemens — it is a deeply introspective piece that tells many truths about human behavior and relationships that you don’t first expect. And it has done the impossible, by convincing me to pick up Moby Dick for the first time since I was my youngest daughter’s age.
But first, I will finish The Art of Fielding, and I will have a more complete review when I’m actually done.
But wanted to take this opportunity to encourage the RP Nation to read it and share your thoghts. Maybe we will even have an online book club. Join me.
[Click here for a link to the entire RP Debate on Roger Clemens]
A few random musings first…
–Original RP: Saying Ryan Braun is your favorite Jewish ballplayer is like saying Tiger is your favorite black golfer! Unless you’re talking historically, and then I’ll send you a few clips of Sandy Koufax from 1963…and ’65…and ’66.
-I’m ready for Artur to write a book titled Let Me Tell You Something Profound About Nearly Everything. Forget your next campaign — I want to catch a game with you
-2013 RP Fantasy League anyone?
I’ve been a baseball fan for as long as I can remember. Growing up in a family that shared LA Dodger season tickets helped that cause. And I think because of my connection with the Dodgers, I’m largely a baseball purist. We’ve got the only symmetrical ballpark in the National League. Our beloved stadium just turned a cool 50 years old (some of the Dodger Dogs taste like they’re pushing 50, too). And there’s no smoother voice in baseball – heck, sports – than Vin Scully.
I guess as a Dodger fan it’s natural to be anti-PED and anti-steroid. Barry Bonds crushed us for years and Braun made out like a bandit when he won Matt Kemp’s MVP award last year. It’s probably why Griffey Jr. is my favorite player I grew up watching. Yet now, as I think back to all the games I’ve been to, a few moments stand out (there haven’t been many great Dodger moments since ’88):
-Watching Mark McGwire hit balls OUT of Dodger Stadium during batting practice. I don’t mean out of the stadium, into the bleachers. I mean OUT of the stadium, into the parking lot. Big Mac did it once during a game – the only two others to ever do it over the last 50 years have been Willie Stargell and Mike Piazza.
-Watching Barry Bonds absolutely mash. Each of his home runs against the Dodgers sucked a little more life out of me. And yet I always felt like watching Bonds would be the closest thing I’d ever get to watching Babe.
-Watching Eric Gagne make some of the best hitters look like career AA bullpen catchers. He’d run in from Left Field to “Welcome to the Jungle,” and just like our Gagne shirts said, we knew it was “Game Over.
-Watching Clemens deal. I’ve never been so entranced watching a starting pitcher. It’s one thing to sit on the edge of your seat in Loge 131 Row K and secretly hope to see Bonds go yard. It’s another to sit there crossing your fingers for Rocket to hit 97 on the gun and pitch one more inning. I remember that he didn’t throw for too long, but it was 6 or 7 of the most calculatingly brilliant innings I’ve seen a pitcher toss.
I don’t have to tell you what all of these guys have in common. Does it disappoint me? Without question. Has baseball ever been as exciting as it was from the mid-90s to the Mitchell Report? No way. Look what’s happening now. Football is now America’s Game. Kids are growing up playing lacrosse instead of playing catch. And the dollars and cents of baseball continue to get hammered, as season ticket bases erode and people stay home to watch games on their plasma TVs.
So put Clemens in the Hall so I can tell my kids about the game I saw him pitch. And I’ll tell them about steroids, I’ll tell them about how exciting baseball was back then and how devastating some of the claims were. And then we’ll go out and play catch and everything will be fine.”
Yes, Roger Clemens should be admitted and given an extra award for being dragged through the dirt!
It seems the government and our Congressional leaders should have more dangerous criminals to track down and go after.
I fear this all started because a few Congressional leaders wanted some headlines and signed baseballs from the superstars. I’m sure some serious steroid use was going on, and we know it is unhealthy for the players and should not be an example for the young kids, but surely we can let baseball police their own sport.
To me it was all a big waste of money and probably ruined many lives.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jun 25, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Movie etiquette.
When your beloved wife rents a movie for you to watch together and says, “I got this movie because the couple reminds me of us” be prepared.
1) Do not criticize the wife’s character
2) Praise the wife’s character
3) Accept that the “similarities” you have with thehusband’s character will be, shall we say, traits you possess that provide “opportunities for improvement.”
4) The “movie” you are about to watch is really more of a “training film.”
5) Tomorrow night is NOT your turn to pick out a movie.
=======
UPDATE. (Comments)
THE RP: John, you need to be a little more subtle in the description. It is obvious that the movie is Shrek. And I’m Donkey
REBECCA BROWN (Mrs. JYB3): Jonathan, Shrek was a slow learner but once he got the hang of what to do, he had a real knack for making Fiona feel special and loved in the end….also, it is hard to be critical of Fiona after that locked up in a castle as an ogre issue…..another great movie for us!
JOHN Y: I had no idea Shrek was about relationships. I just thought it was a funny movie about Ogres. I need the Cliff Notes.
REBECCA:…As for Fiona’s characterization, I think she used the locked up in a castle card for sympathy too much and also could have made fun of herself more to draw the donkey and Shrek into feeling more comfortable around her right off the bat. Instead, they felt they had to show that they felt sorry for her and it set the next few scenes up for constant tension. I don’t think I have ever given this much thought to a Disney movie…thanks Jonathan!
THE RP: To be honest, Rebecca, I think I fell asleep when I watched Shrek with the girls. I was just making the surface comment that John looks like Shrek, you look like Fiona, and I look like Donkey.
I appreciate that Roger Clemens is no sympathetic character. Even before his brain and emotions might have been addled by steroids, he could be graceless to an extreme: the few black fans left in baseball winced after he stupidly said he wished he could crack Hank Aaron’s head open when Aaron had the temerity to suggest a pitcher shouldn’t win a season MVP award. It was a dumb, brutal joke that echoed the savage letters Aaron received in the throes of his home run record chase. There was also no grace in the Roger Clemens who could erupt at umpires or batters, and who tended to do it most when his skills weren’t working. There are a host of fans who see nothing but a perennial evader of responsibility in Clemens, and I sympathize.
But the Hall of Fame is a baseball venue and the only relevance of his misdeeds is whether they influenced the stats that make the player’s candidacy (I would say the same for Pete Rose, whose tawdriness never included betting to influence his own games).
Accepting the standard that it’s best to freeze Clemens’ candidacy as of 1998–pre Brian McNamee–I lean toward admission for Roger Clemens, but don’t see the baseball case as nearly as one-sided as some comments on the thread suggest. Clemens’ Red Sox career approximated 16 wins a years for twelve years–exceptional and consistent, but there were outlier years like the masterpiece in 86 balanced against a run of seasons in the early nineties when Clemens seemed past his prime, and an undeniable pattern of erosion. Then there is the mediocrity of his post-season work for the Red Sox, when the rap was that Clemens seemed to fatigue by October (a precursor of why he might have turned to enhancers). The two Toronto Cy Young years (and 41 additional wins) are clouded, perhaps unfairly, by the proximity to his alleged introduction to steroids, and the murkiness around when the cheating might have started.
Read the rest of… The RPs Debate Roger Clemens: Artur Davis Cleans Up
I do not think ball players should be banned from the Hall of Fame for moral reasons not having to do with performance.
As a Reds fan, which everyone knows is the greatest sports franchise on the history of the planet, it bother me that “hit king” Pete Rose is still barred from the Hall for activities having nothing to do with his performance on the field as a player. (Ok, not totally relevant to this debate, but I just had to say that.)
As for players who took performance enhancing drugs, they should not be given a place in the Hall.
Their stats were jacked because they were juiced. But Clemens was found innocent, and it’s not for the Hall to try and convict him. So let him in.
Clemens was one of the 5 best pitchers of all time, AND he’s been vindicated through an extensive and painful court process. Whether or not the sportswriters agree with the jury’s verdict last week, that’s how our democracy works.
The tougher call– moral and practical — concerns whether others who have admitted, or have been suspected of, steroid use should be prohibited from entering the Hall of Fame.
I don’t believe that steroid use — and obviously then, suspicion thereof — PRIOR TO Major League Baseball’s crackdown on performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) should be a barrier to entry. This is a critical distinction. Players such as Manny Ramirez are an easy case — he continued to use PEDs long after Baseball announced stiffer penalties — despite his contribution to the Red Sox resurrection in 2004, he’s done. (Ryan Braun is a much tougher call, and not just because he’s my favorite Jewish player. I agreed with the decision to reverse his suspension based on technicality — again, that is how our system of due process works — but I’m hopeful that in the years to come, the issue will be clairified.)
Read the rest of… The RPs Debate Roger Clemens: The RP in the Second Hole
By Steven Schulman, on Mon Jun 25, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
As an irregular feature, Mondays at The Recovering Politician are sometimes reserved for great debates among the contributing RPs and Friends of RP. Click here for a link to the prior debates.
Today, the following question is posed: Should superstar pitcher Roger Clemens, recently acquitted of lying about using performance enhancing steroids, be admitted to Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame?
Steven Schulman, this site’s resident baseball expert — and the second best owner in his fantasy baseball league — leads off:
First, a few disclaimers: Roger Clemens was for many years my favorite baseball player. Until he signed with the Yankees. Then he was dead to me.
Ok, that’s behind us. The question is whether the acquittal of Clemens on the charges of lying to Congress and obstruction of justice make him more or less likely to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and, in any case, whether he should be elected notwithstanding the charges (both legal and moral) against him.
The realist point of view is that the writers who are empowered to elect players to the Hall of Fame are highly unlikely to be persuaded by the verdict in a criminal proceeding. The prosecution’s burden in a criminal court is to prove the facts “beyond a reasonable doubt.” For Hall of Fame voters, the burden appears to be “well, I personally think so, for whatever reason.” For their own reasons – either moral objections or simple embarrassment that they themselves failed to uncover (or to reveal their own knowledge of) steroid use – writers are objecting to anyone from the 1990s into this century who even has a hint of steroid use.
Jeff Bagwell – who ranks among the best first basement ever (in the major leagues, not just my Rotisserie baseball team) – has failed in two tries to be elected to the Hall of Fame, simply because his body type and the era in which he played raise suspicions of steroid use. Accordingly, Clemens’s acquittal will hardly move the needle for the knights of the keyboard who guard the gates to Cooperstown.
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