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 Apr 11, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Having teenagers is a gift.
Not necessarily a gift that I would have picked out for myself. For example, like brides-to-be pick out for their bridal registry.
More like a sort of gag gift. That gets a knowing laugh at a party when opened but not as big a laugh as you’d hoped.
Because you begin to realize it’s not really a gag or a gift. So you put it in the corner and hope your spouse will know what to do with it and put it away for you. And not tell you where it is.
But you find it and after ignoring it many times you decide one day pull it out and read the instructions. And realize unlike most gifts, it doesn’t come ready-made.
The gift depends entirely on how much time you spend working on it. Like a Rubik’s Cube. You never figure it out.
But working on it makes you a smarter person—while simultaneously reminding you how incredibly dumb and limited you are. And makes those watching you play with it–your teenagers–realize they don’t have to be that smart or talented or together to make it in this world.
And they love you (and learn a lot) by watching you try–in front of them.
And they –your teens–are amused that you try to teach them the secrets of the Rubik’s Cube while daily failing to figure it out…And shocked when you get mad at them for not listening.
After all, why should you be mad? You’re playing with your gift.
They were outmatched, but they came from behind and almost made a game of it.
Time after time in the last 5-6 minutes, they had a shot to pull within five points and really make it a nailbiter (think MI, OH, IL).
And yet, every time they had a shot to get close and throw the outcome into doubt, they blew it – missed layups, errant passes, unforced turnovers.
Kind of like Santorum’s errant foray into contraception before the MI primary, his inability to make the ballot in VA or field full slates in Ohio or Illinois, his inexplicable and time-consuming trip to Puerto Rico in advance of Illinois.
When Kentucky hit the big trey w/ just under a minute to play, it was the nail in the coffin.
You just can’t give a team that’s more talented, deeper, and steadier than you so many chances to put you away. Similarly, tonight was probably the nail in the coffin.
Read the rest of… Jeff Smith: Has Rick Santorum Maxed Out?
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Apr 10, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
Yoni Cohen of Forbes magazine wrote a great piece about the cleantech revolution proceeding in Israel, with an interview of my two friends and colleagues, Jack Levy, Me’ir Ukeles and Glen Schwaber:
Cleantech Investing In Israel, The Startup Nation
Israel is the “Start-Up Nation.” The tiny country has more scientists, engineers, and start-ups, per capita, than any other nation in the world. Numerous Israeli firms have been acquired by leading multinationals including Google, IBM, and HP. Other Israeli start-ups have gone public; more than 50 Israeli firms are listed on the NASDAQ alone.
Israel is also a hotbed of cleantech entrepreneurship. According to a new report from the Cleantech Group and WWF, Israel is the second most innovative country worldwide for cleantech. (Denmark ranked first). “Coming Clean: The Cleantech Global Innovation Index 2012” finds that Israel leads the world in creating cleantech companies and has produced a disproportionate number of high-quality firms.
Israel Cleantech Ventures (ICV) is the leading cleantech venture capital firm in Israel. To learn about Israeli cleantech innovation and ICV’s strategy and investments, I spoke with the firm’s three founding partners: Jack Levy, Meir Ukeles, and Glen Schwaber.
A, Jack Levy: Per capita, we have by far the most start-ups, particularly in cleantech. Although Israel is 60-plus years old, the country’s private sector is really young. Its roots are in the 1980s and 1990s. A lot of the dynamism in the economy really comes from that. Another driver is the military experiences that young people go through, which gives them great responsibilities, great opportunities, and a can do attitude. But the driver that is most important and hardest to replicate is cultural, the perspective that failure can be one step along the way. America shares that perspective, but there are plenty of other cultures where a fear of failure keeps very talented people from taking risks or leaving larger organizations to start enterprises. Israel has a risk-taking culture. A lot of it comes from the fact that the downside is not as strong. If you fail, you’ll try to learn from that failure and keep going. People won’t hold your failure as a strike against you.
Q: In what areas is Israel strongest in cleantech innovation?
A, Meir Ukeles: At Israel Cleantech Ventures, we focus on areas that make sense in Israel for venture investing. Generally these are areas where Israel has very strong roots, in traditional energy and water industries. Israel is a dry country with a lot of sunlight and, up until recently, no domestic fossil fuel resources. Not surprisingly, technologies for solar, water efficiency, water treatment, water reuse and, in the last 10-15 years, desalination, have pretty deep roots. Call that one bucket.
The second bucket are startups that draw on technology innovation and intellectual capital out of what would be called traditional technology industries: semiconductors, power electronics, communications, and wireless in particular. There has also been some innovation in energy storage, a lot of which over the years was funded by or benefited from research and development done in the military and in the defense establishment and then, in the last 20 years, has been a hotbed of more traditional venture-backed, for-profit activity. There is a lot of innovation that comes from those roots and finds its way to the biggest problems of our era: resource efficiency, resource imbalances, and the environmental footprint of consumption.
The third bucket is from pockets in which Israel’s traditional industrial base has a lot to contribute. Chemicals are one area where there is a lot of competence, some of which flows to the water industry. Other aspects go to agritech and green fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Apr 10, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
“Funny awkward” or just “awkward”
Sometimes when I’m out and see someone I know out of the corner of my eye, I just don’t have the energy to say hello… so I pretend I don’t see them. And hope they don’t see me.
We are likes two ships passing in the dark of night (or light of day, really).
Sometimes, though, I’ll see them catching a quick glimpse at me. But also choose not to say hello because they are preoccupied with something and don’t have the energy or time to speak to me.
Once I know they have seen me and not said hello, I get uncomfortable. There is a chance they have also seen me see them and know that I failed to say hi when I had the chance.
So, I slyly “pretend” to have just seen them and act surprised (like I’m spotting them for the first time) and say hello. They–in return–act like they are just seeing me for the first time and say hello.
But what if their “fake first time hello” is less enthusiastic than mine? You can’t help but wonder if that be considered a slight? Or just life as it is in our hurried world? It’s the latter, of course.
That’s when I feel the whole exchange is “funny awkward.”
And when that happens, I admit, there’s a part of me that wants to point out that I did notice they saw me about a minute ago and could tell they didn’t want to talk to me.
Just so I know that they know…that I knew.
But I don’t. Because that would be just plain “awkward.”
And probably the last time we’d ever pretend not to see each other in public again…. before pretending to see each other for the first time and striking up a conversation.
Hillary Clinton must know that there are at least three ways she might have been president.
Had she been modest enough to return home to build a Senate candidacy, rather than relocate to New York, she would have been handed the 2004 Illinois seat; and the young legislator named Obama who actually won that year might have become, say, a precocious lieutenant governor aiming higher, and the Democratic nomination would have been hers for the asking four years later.
On the flip side, had she been more immodest, she would have sought the presidency earlier, in 2004, a year when the Democratic field was weak and George W. Bush was vulnerable. Had she been a shade luckier, in 2008, Florida and Michigan would have saved their primaries for Super Tuesday, and the comfortable wins they gave her would have been decisive instead of being discounted under the byzantine nominating rules of that cycle.
It’s enough narrowly missed fortune to haunt even a happy, contented soul who has power and fame to spare. Whether or not she feels cheated by destiny, though, Clinton can’t help but hear the drumbeat: the one from female activists who regret their coolness toward her in the last race; the one from Democratic insiders who don’t like the shape of a 2016 field of national novices; and the one from a surprising combination of the grassroots and the elite who aren’t bound to either party but harbor this quaint notion that for once, the most supremely qualified individual ought to advance to the presidency.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Apr 9, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
I try to think each night before going to bed of what I’m grateful for that day.
One item on tonight’s list is not having to have any more “birds and the bees” talks with my children.
I was reminded tonight of my first attempt which did not go the way I had planned.
Finally ready for the talk (me, that is), I launched into it with my son when he age 9. I thought he’d be fascinated and want to know details and pepper me with curious questions.
Instead he interrupted me, “OK. Stop. I don’t want to hear anymore. That’s just gross. You act like picking your nose is gross–well, that’s way grosser. You have to promise me it won’t happen again until I’ve moved out of the house to go to college.”
So, the conversation that had begun with me anxious about trying to explain human reproduction and nervous I’d fail, ended up with me proud that my son was already planning to go to college at age 9.
JTA, the leading international Jewish news agency featured a piece written by the RP last week in which he lambasted his fellow Jonathan Miller (the British playwright) for signing what The RP termed an anti-Semitic letter.
Let’s start with the first Jonathan Miller in the headline.
He’s a former state state treasurer in Kentucky and failed candidate for governor. He’s the creator of theRecovering Politician blog. And (full disclosure) he’s a JTA board member and basketball commentator.
… Jonathan Miller, the News Corp executive, Jonathan Miller, the Birmingham Rabbi, Johnathan Miller, the Iran-Contra felon, or even Jonathan Miller whom God called to run for Congress in West Virginia.
Instead, Jonathan Miller (Blogger-Ky.) writes, his “deep disappointment is directed toward the most famous Jonathan Miller.”
For those of you who are under the age of 50 and have never tried to Google me, THE Jonathan Miller is “is a British theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humorist and sculptor,” best known for being a frequent guest in the early 1980s on The Dick Cavett Show.
Turns out Jonathan Miller (Actor-UK) has signed on to a call for a British theater (oh, fine, theatre) to exclude an Israeli troupe over the situation in the West Banlk. And Jonathan Miller (Blogger-Ky.) thinks this crosses into anti-Semitic territory:
But he did not protest the inclusion of a Turkish theater in the production (despite that country’s controversial occupation of parts of Cyprus), or China’s theater (despite their much-documented record on human rights in Tibet and other provinces), or Iran’s theater (despite their horrible treatment of minorities, especially gays and lesbians), or Russia’s theater (despite its violent occupation of Chechnya), or the Palestinian theater (despite its support for indiscriminate bombing of Israelis), or even the United States’ theater (despite our continued presence in Afghanistan and Iraq).
Blog this!
