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 Tue Apr 3, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Which part of speech best characterizes you?
A video by Grammar Rock got me thinking, each part of speech has a certain personality– verbs, nouns, pronouns, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
I would like to say I’m most like a verb—a person of action and activity.
I don’t want to be a preposition. They are sneaky trying to go over, under and around things. You can’t trust ’em.
Maybe I’m most like an conjunction today. I try to bring people together to do more than they can do separately.
OK, really I just want to post the video of Conjunction Junction. It was my favorite song by Grammar Rock. And is still pretty cool all these years later.
The RP was spotted in this picture scouting a new, young 17 foot center named David [NO LAST NAME] in Florence, Italy. Apparently by the RP’s hand gesture, David is proficient from behind the 3-point line — amazing for a young man of his size.
Shortly after this picture was taken, the RP was arrested for climbing on top of David and hanging a UK hat on his head.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Apr 3, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Sports can bring people together. It can divide us, too.
In sports we find heroes to admire and role models who are coping with the game they play so well… in similar ways we find ourselves coping with life. But unlike us they show courage, confidence, and skill….we want to have these too. But don’t.
So we watch and try to learn. And cheer. And talk trash. And cry on the inside (and sometimes the outside too) when our team fails.
And when they win ….on a night like last night….we swell up with great pride.
Because sports also symbolizes factions, groups, and even states.
The “team” we cheer for identifies us. They represent us. When our sports team wins, we win. When our sports team is superior, we somehow feel superior. When they fail, we feel their pain and question ourselves.
They–our athletes–remind us we are not alone but part of something bigger— something more important. A community that ties us together and reinforces our worth– in some vague way. And not just our worth….but our worth among “our people.” Our tribe.
Sports is at once inherently frivolous and yet unquestionably profound. On the one hand, so arbitrary; and on the other hand, so primitive and instinctive.
We humans seem to need conflict and great causes and great battles. Athletic competition has served as a substitute for war. A tool for diplomacy during Cold War detente. And an avocation and form of entertainment during peacetime.
And last night…sports has provided about as much fun as a 4.4 million people can have sitting down. And make those same people feel a good deal prouder of about their state. And a little bit prouder of ourselves. For tonight, at least. And maybe tomorrow, too.
And you thought it was just a silly game with a ball….
The University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball team and the Big Blue Nation weren’t the only winners last night
The First Annual No Labels/Recovering Politician NCAA bracket contest — “No Bracket No Pay” — is now crowning two champions.
The overcall winner — of the original 68-team bracket contest — was “Nate.” “Nate” please identify yourself to claim your prize. In second place was Butler University student Scooter Stein, whose mom happens to be Kathy Stein, the beloved State Senator from Lexington, Kentucky. The RP came from way back in the field of 77 to finish a respectable 7th.
Here's our goofball winner of the Second Chance tourney with his prize, an original bottle of "Duff" beer, available only in Italy, Argentina, and Springfield, the fictional home of Homer J. Simpson
And in the “second chance” bracket — featuring picks for the Sweet Sixteen forward, the winner was…The RP himself! By picking the winners of every single game in the Sweet 16 except for Louisville’s surprise wins, and then accurately predicting the 8 point margin of victory in the finals (the tiebreaker), the RP edged out Friend of RP John Johnson for the title. How fitting that the guy who started this site dedicated to second acts wins the second chance tourney.
Or is it part of the greater international Zionist conspiracy? You decide!
Congrats to all, and don’t forget to go to NoLabels.org, and make your voice heard about “No Budget, No Pay”
By Jonathan Miller, on Tue Apr 3, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
(Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
What a night! Or should I say what a morning?
The girls and I woke up at 3AM here in Florence, Italy to watch our beloved University of Kentucky Wildcats capture their eighth NCAA national basketball championship.
Sheer euphoria.
I’ve tried for a few years to put into words what the Wildcats mean to me, as well as their profound impact on my home state. It really is more than a kids’ game — Kentucky basketball delivers sound public policy.
For my fellow members of the Big Blue Nation; for the uninitiated who don’t understand what the fuss is all about; and for the cynics who decry the professionalization of amateur sport, I offer my latest column for The Huffington Post: “Why Kentucky Basketball Matters.” Enjoy:
An uninformed visitor to my old Kentucky home this week might conclude that they’d mistakenly walked onto the compound of a Prozac-fueled utopian cult.
An odd but euphoric delirium had descended upon the hills, hollers and hamlets of the Bluegrass State. Men and women walking more upright, a bounce in their steps, a huge grin on their faces. You couldn’t meet a stranger: In grocery stores and city parks and shopping malls, neighbors who months before felt nothing in common were now greeting each other with warm words, high fives, and fist bumps.
Weeks from now, we’ll return to our regional camps, our partisan corners. But for now, we’re united; the sun’s shining just a bit brighter.
The Wildcats have once again won the national championship. Kentucky basketball matters.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Apr 2, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
“If you stare long enough into the abyss, the abyss will stare back at you”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“But if you continue to stare at the abyss a little longer, it will wink at you. And you can wink back at the abyss. And you will both giggle simultaneously”
Me.
This morning (putting my philosophy minor to good use)
By Jonathan Miller, on Mon Apr 2, 2012 at 9:46 AM ET
Greetings from my third favorite city in the world (behind Lexington & Jerusalem — sorry Vegas!): Florence, Italy.
The weather is perfect, the food extraordinary, the art sublime. Only trouble is that the RPettes and I are going to try to watch THE GAME at 3 AM while Mrs. RP sleeps.
At least everyone over here is part of the Big Blue Nation. I spotted the T-shirt to the left at Florence’s famous leather marketplace. Didn’t know Audrey Hepburn was a Cats fan, but apparently she anticipated Marquis Teague’s three-point form decades before he was born.
We are sincerely hoping that tonight Sylvester finally catches Tweety bird — What’s a Jayhawk anyway? — as Thomas Robinson discovers that Anthony Davis owns the paint on both sides of the court. He’s not in Kansas anymore!!
(I assume that joke’s being overused back home, but it’s getting big laughs here in Italy! Or maybe they are laughing because they have no idea what I’m saying.)
Anyhoo, our trip got diverted a bit thanks to Delta and a little rain, and we got to spend the afternoon yesterday in Amsterdam. Being a huge proponent of municipal infrastructure improvement, I decided to take a tour of the so-called “Red Light District.”
Well, it seems there was a little misunderstanding. Let me put it this way — I didn’t take any pictures. The T-shirt at right is the best PG-rated presentation of the scenery in the Red Light District.
To recover from the shock and awe, I decided to take a detour into a “coffee shop.” Turns out they didn’t serve coffee, and the place was hazy and smelled like a Jimmy Buffett concert. The good news is that after spending a few minutes in the place, all of my cares disappeared, and I became relaxed and happy; although for some strange reason I was (Terrence) Jones-ing for a bag of Cheetos.
Apparently, I’m very popular in Amsterdam as well. Whenever I introduced myself, people asked if I was the same Jonathan Miller who wrote an article in The Huffington Post advocating for the legalization of marijuana.
OK, back to my vacation…I promise to send another post(card) soon.
By Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, on Mon Apr 2, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
On St. Patrick’s Day I had the pleasure of speaking to about 350 Catholics who gathered together to attend a conference put on by New Ways Ministry, which is an effort to support the LGBT community in the Catholic Church. The women and men I spoke to included nuns and priests, children who had come out and parents who wanted to be supportive. Two female priests gave me special blessing and I left the meeting inspired by the devotion of those who attended.
New Ways Ministry has a critical mission, since changing the Church will help those who suffer from ill treatment not only here in the United States but around the world, where the Church has so much clout. The Church has millions of members in Africa and South America, where being gay or lesbian can lead to a death sentence.
Worse, the Church’s own teaching encourages bigotry and harm. Just last year, my father’s memorial, the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, gave its human rights award to Frank Mugisha, a gay activist in Uganda whose good friend had just been brutally killed in his own home. American missionaries have encouraged the discrimination Mugisha suffers. Refuting their religious arguments is critical, and so is making a moral and religious case for gays. What we need is a transformation of hearts and minds, not merely a change of laws.
The Catholic Church’s attitude towards homosexuality is at odds with its tradition of tolerance and understanding. The actual practice of the Church is true to this tradition. What other institution separates men and women and encourages them to live together in monasteries and convents where they can develop deep relationships with those who share their kind of love?
The fight for the dignity of the LGBT community is a fight for the soul of today’s Church. Some conservatives see the hierarchy’s current, traditional teaching on sex as the Church’s defining position. They don’t really like to talk about, or even be reminded of, the Church’s teachings on immigration, or protection of the environment, or the greed that produces financial meltdowns, all of which they would find distastefully liberal.
Read the rest of… Kathleen Kennedy Townsend: The Case for Gay Acceptance in the Catholic Church
By John Y. Brown III, on Sat Mar 31, 2012 at 11:30 AM ET
Are we mostly getting our “game face on” Saturday– or getting our hate face on?
I love the outrageously fun interstate stare down this week between UL and UK.
The smack talk: clever put downs and cleverer retorts and most of what goes with it. Most of it is in good fun, to be expected and a healthy and natural fan activity given the rarefied Final Four positions our state’s two remarkable basketball teams have achieved this year.
But there is a line where we start to sound loopy, goofy, nonsensical and downright mean-spirited if not a little demented.
The key is being cute, clever and competitive. Be like a happy warrior who relishes competition rather than a rambling insulter and hater.
After all, Sunday morning will be here soon enough and the world be back to the way it was last week–pre Final Four with UL facing off against UK.
So, before you rush out and buy this t-shirt or its corollary suggesting you do the same if you hate UK, I have a different suggestion.
Just Breathe.
And, most importantly, have one heckuva fun time. This may not happen again. For another year.
Blog this!
