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 Wed Jun 6, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
What is the sound of one hand clapping? Or one person drinking coffee?
This morning I was set to have coffee with a friend at 8am but he was running behind.
Finally, at 8:15 I emailed him and told him I was going to go ahead and start the conversation without him and when he arrived he could jump in and pick up wherever we were at that time.
Fortunately, he showed up about 3 minutes later.
The conversation was off to a sluggish start by myself and seemed to jump from irrelevant topic to irrelevant topic.
Fortunately, we ended up having a great conversation.
Which just shows a conversation with 2 is much better than a conversation alone.
Michael Jordan was one of the first people in pro sports to realize that politics and sports don’t mix.
When asked to endorse black Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt in an epic 1990 Senate race against longtime civil rights opponent Jesse Helms – a nod that could’ve had a profound impact in Jordan’s home state – MJ famously declined. “Republicans buy shoes, too,” he is reported to have said.
As a Gantt supporter I was very disappointed in Jordan’s refusal to get involved, but it was probably smart business. And I suspect that the Mets may be about to learn as much.
The outcomes in specific US House races rarely matter outside their own borders: the fact that 63 Republicans took over Democratic seats in 2010 is known exponentially more than any single one of the 63 contests. Indeed, the most consequential House-level results in the last several decades have arguably been the defeats that redounded to the benefit of three future presidents: imagine the ways George W. Bush and Bill Clinton might have been diminished had they won their House races, and spent the eighties in congressional firefights and intra-party battles to ascend to the Senate; think of Barack Obama beating Bobby Rush and trying to overcome the marginalizing bounds of holding an African American district.
I’ll venture a guess that Utah’s newly created 4th District is about to break the pattern of irrelevance, at least if a thirty-something African American woman, who happens to be a conservative Mormon Republican, wins a battle that is well within her reach (a dead heat against a Democratic congressman in a Republican leaning seat). Mia Love’s potential breakthrough in one of the whitest districts in America would be a message in a bottle from the future—the kind of promise that is attracting outsized attention and dollars from around the country.
Mia Love
It’s important to note what Love is not: unlike Barack Obama, she is not the beneficiary of a liberal party self-consciously aware of the chance to write history, and there was no racial base ready to rally around her, or to punish the party if she had been rejected in her primary. She is no caricature who bends so far to the right that it seems like a disingenuous pose: there is a distinct absence of fire and brimstone, and her embrace of Republican agenda items like the Ryan Plan is couched in process-minded tones, with no overheated claims that socialism is around the corner. Notably, her own mantra on the stump is that she asks about the sustainability and affordability of programs first—a conservative stance but a contrast with, say, Grover Norquist’s flamboyant description of shrinking government to a size that makes it fit to be drowned in a bathtub.
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: Mia Love and the Future
By Patrick Derocher, on Tue Jun 5, 2012 at 12:30 PM ET
Today's gubernatorial election in Wisconsin may be the state's most high profile recall, but it is by no means the first.
In dubious honor of the impending Wisconsin recall election, this week’s Politics of the States will be dedicated to that most polarized of states, the Badger State.
– It’s conventional wisdom that Governor Scott Walker will fend off challenger Tom Barrett today. A more unknown quantity is how the down ticket races, for State Senate and Lieutenant Governor, will play out. Rachel Weiner at The Washington Post takes a look at a couple of unexpected possibilities: Republicans keeping the governor’s mansion while Democrats either take the State Senate or win the Lieutenant Governor race. (Wisconsin elects the positions separately, so firefighters’ union head Mahlon Mitchell could well end up Walker’s lieutenant.) [The Washington Post]
– With polls tightening up in recent days and Walker seemingly unable to cross the 50% threshold with Wisconsin voters, that state’s Democrats are gearing up for yet another grueling, divisive recount (a sequel, perhaps, to last year’s month-long nailbiter of a supreme court election). State and national Republicans refuse to comment on the prospect, but the Wisconsin Democratic Party has some 440 lawyers ready to go across the state today in case a recount is necessary. [POLITICO]
While Wisconsin’s recent political acrimony is well-known and widely-documented, less famous is that state’s lengthy history of recall elections, both successful and unsuccessful:
Successful
1996: State Senator George Petak (R-Racine)
2002: Milwaukee Country Executive F. Thomas Ament
2002: Milwaukee County Board Chair Karen Ordinans
2002: Milwaukee County Supervisors Penny Podell, LeAnn Launstein, David Jasenski, Kathy Arciszewski, James McGuigan, and Linda Ryan
2003: State Senator Gary George (D-Milwaukee)
2011: State Senators Randy Hopper (R-Fond Du Lac) and Dan Kapanke (R-French Island)
2012: Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan
Unsuccessful
1932: State Senator Otto Mueller (R-Wausau)
2011: State Senators Dave Hansen (D-Green Bay), Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay), Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls), Luther Olsen (R-Ripon), Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), Robert Wirch (D-Pleasant Prairie), and Jim Holperin (D-Conover)
For those of you keeping count at home, that’s 13 recalled elected officials and 8 unsuccessful attempts, all but one of which were in the 15 years between 1996 and 2011, in addition to the 6 officials up for recall today (Gov. Walker, Lt. Gov. Kleefisch, and 4 Republicans in the State Senate).
By Kristen Hamilton, RP Staff, on Tue Jun 5, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Politics of Fashion
Click here for your personal invitation from Anna Wintour. Doesn’t really matter what it’s for, because…well…it’s Anna Wintour. [Racked]
Remember me telling you that Bryanboy was set to be the newest judge on America’s Next Top Model? Well, apparently, I was wrong, and the new judge is – wait for it – you! Check it out: [The Cut]
Do you live in one of the worst dressed cities in America? [Racked]
A Devil Wears Prada sequel will be coming to a movie theater near you! I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited. [Racked]
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, on Tue Jun 5, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
The following speech was addressed on May 9, 2012 to the Denver Forum by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.
It’s great to be with you and I am delighted my good friend George Mitrovich asked me to speak to The Forum today.
I came to Denver to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Migrant Workers Health Act at the Community Health Center Convention. Celebrations are a wonderful time to look at what our country valued a half century ago – and to compare it to the values of our own time.
In the anti-immigrant fervor, it is hard to imagine, that a nation would decide to protect the health of migrant workers. And yet they did.
So today, at The Forum, I would like to talk with you about what is going on in our country, to suggest we need to renew our faith in one another.
A nation works best when all of its people feel that they have a role, when all can fully participate, when each is inspired by an ideal greater than one’s own desires; for everyone needs to be part of a compelling mission. The Framers of our country believed that, President Kennedy believe that, as did my father and Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Obama.
America was founded as a “mission into the wilderness.” And in that wilderness, we have explored new frontiers – in science, business and politics. We accomplished the most when we had a sense that we were connected to one another. Sometimes that happens because in fact we are. Americans feel World War II was the good war – in large part because all participated – fought, worked in factories, accepted wage and price controls. Sometimes we feel connected because we feel enlarged by the mission of a few – putting a man on the moon. Or connected to the courage of a small but determined group – the Civil Rights Movement in the early sixties and protesting the war in Vietnam.
Read the rest of… Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: The Spirit of America: Promise & Reality
The Washington Post covered the recent announcement by contributing RP Artur Davis that he was defecting to the Republican party:
Republicans on Wednesday were celebrating the defection to the GOP this week of a former Democratic congressman and close ally of President Obama, saying that it underscored their argument that the president has led the country on a march to the left.
Former Alabama congressman Artur Davis, once a rising star in the Democratic Party and the man who helped put Obama’s name in nomination for the presidency in 2008, announced his intention to switch parties and said that he will vote for Mitt Romney in November.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Jun 4, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Subtle car snobbery.
It’s not what the car represents as much as what it doesn’t represent about the driver.
I drive a Honda Accord and am excited because in the next few days I’m getting a new car. Another Honda Accord (only slightly pre-owned). My car purchasing is like my restaurant purchasing. I look over the entire menu each time and order exactly the same thing.
But with the Honda Accord …I’ feel kinda proud. I think it’s a perfect combination of efficiency and practically and elegance. A good fit for me…and so while I was driving earlier today I glanced around to see if there were any cars around me I could feel a little superior to.
To my left was a Ford Fusion and I locked eyes with the driver–just briefly. But long enough for his look to say to me, “Honda Accord? Nice. But I’m a little bit better in my Ford Fusion.”
And he got my message back, “Ford Fusion? Not bad. But I prefer the Honda Accord and think it’s just a little bit better.”
It was a mutually respectful exchange that we both could live with. I didn’t mind letting him think he’s a little better and he didn’t mind granting me the same privilege.
But then to our right barreled forward a large shiny black Mercedes-Benz. I didn’t look at my friend in the Ford Fusion. I didn’t have to. I knew what he thinking. We both were embarrassed for the guy in a Mercedes who felt so insecure he needed something that extravagant just to be noticed and to feel like he fit in.
And we both–my Ford Fusion colleague and I— felt just little superior to the guy in the Mercedes. Not because of the statement our cars made. But because of the statement they didn’t make.
I let the Mercedes pull in front of me and speed away. But kept thinking to myself, “Poor guy. He doesn’t need a Honda Accord or Ford Fusion. He needs a hug.”
Good morning, and welcome to another edition of Prix Fixe Politics! Apologies for my absence, but May was a long month of work outside the political realm. I can’t say that disappointed me, but you can only stay away for so long (I’m on my way to catch a flight to Wisconsin for tomorrow’s gubernatorial maelstrom). On the eve of the second most important election of 2012, here’s today’s menu…
Appetizer: We are less than 100 days away from the Republican and Democratic conventions in Tampa and Charlotte, respectively. They are the Super Bowl, March Mardness, and World Series of politics, but they only happen every four years. So, maybe they’re more like the Olympics or the World Cup, but with fewer viewers and many more out-of-shape people. A source tells me that the Democrats are six weeks behind the Republicans in their operations and development. With the first week of September only three months away, that can’t be sitting well with Obama’s Chicago outfit.
Main Course: Tomorrow in Wisconsin, voters will go to the polls to participate in only the third recall election of any U.S. governor (if you’re from California, you may remember fondly when you could have voted for Gary Coleman to replace Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 – a bright spot in my home state’s storied history). Last year, WI Gov. Scott Walker sparked a firestorm when he eliminated most collective bargaining rights for public-sector unions. Since then, pro-labor forces mobbed the state capital in Madison, Democratic state legislators fled to Illinois to avoid a budget vote, and the candidates and independent groups spent over $63 million drumming up support. What happens if Tom Barrett, the Democratic nominee and Milwaukee Mayor, defeats Walker? Foremost, the labor unions’ financial efforts will be vindicated. The unions will gain significant fundraising momentum in important rust belt states such as Ohio and Michigan, making it even harder for Romney to move these must-win states into his column. And if Gov. Walker holds on? You can look for him in a prime speaking spot at the Republican National Convention in August. But more importantly, I expect other Republican Governors and state legislatures to toy with similar proposals. They may not have the courage to act before November, but they’ll float the idea, bring Walker to speak in their state (think Pennsylvania and Ohio), and use it as leverage over the labor/Democratic thorns in their sides. Who’s going to win? At this point, anybody in Wisconsin who plans to vote has made up his or her mind. It’s cliche, but it’s true: it will come down to voter turnout. And the unions are pretty good about loading Democratic voters into vans heading for the polls. Still, I think Walker keeps his job by 4-6 points.
Blog this!
