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 Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed Mar 7, 2012 at 1:30 PM ET
Sorry Coke lovers… the Center for Science in the Public Interest says the caramel color used in many sodas causes cancer. [USA Today]
Mad Man fans can’t imagine a world without the charismatic Don Draper. But NY Mag writers took Don’s stats and history to a real actuary to see how long they predict he’ll be around. [NY Magazine]
Talk about a catch 22: both antidepressant use and untreated depression in pregnant women can lead to risks for babies. What should expectant moms do? [Time]
In new research, one in five pilots reported making a serious error on the job due to sleepiness. [Wall Street Journal]
Is it stress and anxiety to blame for your constant nodding off… or is it narcolepsy? [NY Times]
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Mar 7, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
A Facebook secret.
Facebook is a place where millions of people seemingly give advice to millions of other people daily but are really just using others as an excuse to give—and hopefully take—their own advice.
And I think that’s a very good thing.
The advice is communicated in status updates containing inspirational quotes, wise advice, clever slogans, and touching stories. Which seems lately to be on the rise.
We are telling ourselves that we need to adopt that particular thought or this mindset or take that action. It’s always easier to take advice ourselves if we can do so under the guise of giving that advice to others. It’s easier to hear, to accept, and ultimately to take. And FB gives us that always ready third-party, i.e. the FB world.
So, maybe, through all the status updates where we are seemingly nudging the world to become a little bit better place is actually working. By allowing us more often to nudge ourselves to each become a little bit better person.
And so maybe that isn’t so much a Facebook secret as much as it is the secret to Facebook.
This story about contributing RP Rod Jetton appeared in The Fine Printblog, giving an interview about his past and recovery to Eric Olsen:
It’s old news, really. But in the context of awarding a sales and marketing honor, I had to ask Rod Jetton about allegations that he battered a woman during a sexual encounter in 2009 and how the process has affected his career – one that was in the public eye for eight years as a state representative and four years as House speaker.
Jetton pleaded guilty to a lesser misdemeanor charge in May 2011, more than a year after Poplar Bluff-based Schultz & Summers Engineering Inc. hired him to lead its marketing efforts. Jetton’s impact on the company has been evident as 2011 revenues came in at a record $6.2 million. By comparison, the year before Jetton’s arrival, the company posted $3.5 million. Attend Springfield Business Journal’s March 1 Dynamic Dozen awards ceremony or read the March 5 issue to learn Jetton’s role in moving those numbers.
During our interview for the Dynamic Dozen issue, Jetton spoke candidly about the legal situation.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Mar 6, 2012 at 3:30 PM ET
Profile in Courage or just a national teaching moment?
Rush’s raw, heartfelt apology to a young female student for calling her a “slut” and a “prostitute” was just what the nation needed to begin healing after this unfortunate miscommunication “that distracted from the point I was trying to make,” as Rush bravely put it.
This magnanimous act of humility and recompense not only touched us all but inspired me to look within myself and think about young people I had recently called a “slut” or “round heel” or just an ordinary “prostitute” —and made me want to offer them an apology too. “For distracting from my point.”
And I have Rush Limbaugh to thank for that.
I love it when we can take an unfortunate event and turn it into a powerfully positive opportunity to bring people together—and think this could be one of those times.
In fact, I’d like to call on all Americans who have recently defamed a young person they didn’t know by calling them a vulgar and despicable name, to reconsider your words and offer that young person a heartfelt apology. In honor of Rush’s statesman-like profile in courage and teaching example that no matter how right you are, you shouldn’t share every personal insult publicly.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Mar 6, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET
“Rush”
Think of it.
The person that would chose to identify himself with this crashing, jarring adjective would be a person more naturally aligned with the showmanship of Barnum & Bailey than with the thoughtful commentary of, say, McNeill/Lehrer.
Which is why I didn’t consider Rush calling a young lady a “slut” reason enough to be up in arms.
When Rush is not attempting to offend and provoke, he is committing a form of carnival malpractice. That is his venue and his point….to shock, inflame, and thrust through his enemy….but we forget
Rush is not really a gladiator. He is more of a vaudevillian. He is like an immobile and aging warrior who has become a form of public curiosity by his knack for squeezing all of his internal frustrations to the pointy tip of his tongue. We want to watch and hear what that looks and sounds like. So we watch Rush, the secluded man in a cage, so it seems, talk to himself on his jerky webcam. And gladly pay. It is the “Bearded Lady” except instead of a physical oddity breaching the bounds of human decency it is the “Shouting Man” who seems almost crazed at times and who with his eruptive personal pronouncements against perceived enemies breaches the bounds of human decency in a different way.
Rush is like The Fool in King Lear, who babbles and observes and talks incessantly to himself but is listened to by others as a form entertainment. But in this modern Act some in our society have confused The Fool for Lear. Rush is not the king. He is the king’s fool. A court jester. And so he can be relied upon to say foolish things…as fools and court jesters are want to do. And to do so with regularity and alacrity.
Read the rest of… John Y. Brown, III: On Rush Limbaugh
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Mar 6, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Great fails in family myth making opportunities.
All families need stories that make them better than they really are. The key is that the have to be believable (or willing to be believed) and told by a credible elder of the family.
Usually repeatedly.
When I was about 14 and felt about as confused and insecure as, well, a 14 year old should, I was alone with my grandmother (Mamaw) and struck up a conversation that had great potential.
We were watching TV at her house and she was eating a PB&J sandwich and half paying attention to me. I loved her more than about anyone. She told things like they were. She lived in Muhlenberg County and although she never finished high school, I always felt she was smarter and wiser than my other grandma who was Phi Beta Kappa.
Plus, I was her favorite grandchild.
I’d been hearing about other kids at school who were making straight A’s and were National Merit Scholars and geniuses so on.
“Mamaw,” I asked, “You know how some kids are gifted intellectually?”
“Oh, I suppose. Your Uncle Jim Bob was.” (Jim Bob was her son and she liked him more than even me.), she replied predictably.
“What about the grandchildren, though?” Mamaw?
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Well, when we were younger did any of us seem, you know, kinda gifted or especially bright or special in some way?”
My grandmother took a bite of her sandwich and without ever looking away from the TV responded lovingly (in her own way), “Well, none of you were retarded or anything like that, if that’s what you mean.”
That ended the conversation as well as my hopes of being gifted at anything. I never got to tell her that wasn’t what I meant. But I always loved her—even after that. And sometimes the gift of loving candor is better than being gifted at some random skill anyway.
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