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 Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Feb 2, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
The Politics of Pigskin
As we all know the final football game, the biggest TV extravaganza, and what is practically a national holiday is this Sunday. Of course I’m referring to the Super Bowl – this year being played by the New York Giants and New England Patriots. There is so much coverage of this game that I could write a 2000 word post and not even scratch the surface of all the stories being written. However, a good start is CBS’s Super Bowl central. [CBS Sports]
Here are 12 of the most important things you should know about the highest profile player in this year’s game, Tom Brady. [ESPN]
If you are not familiar with the story of Mark Herzlich then you’re missing out. His tale of battling back from cancer to playing in the Super Bowl is just fantastic. [Sporting News]
The Giants’ defense is really good and it starts with their spectacular defensive line. [CBS Sports]
Sure, gambling on football isn’t exactly legal. But that doesn’t make looking at prop bets any less fun, right? [Football Outsiders]
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Wednesday was national signing day for college football. Click through to see where your alma mater finished in the rankings. [Scout.com]
The defining issues of our time ought to be why an economy with all our underlying strengths takes two years to generate a million jobs (for a stretch in 83 and 84 it was taking all of a month); or why we trail a significant portion of the developed world in educational excellence; or why we are yielding the first generation of 18 to 35 year olds who will under-perform their parents in relative earnings; or why the dropout rate in an advanced society like ours, that puts no barriers on public education, remains so stubbornly high.
Economic inequality does belong on the list – middle-income work generates too little reward and both parties seem flat out of ideas on how to roll back poverty -but it is not, as the president suggests, a function of government having aligned itself with the powerful. Instead, inequality is one more symptom of an abundant nation not performing at full capacity.
A dramatic hike in upper income taxes tomorrow wouldn’t move the needle an inch on the inequality front.
On the politics of it all, the president’s rhetoric always shines and its a sound contrast to Republicans who are struggling to defend the merits of the modern economy. As substance, its another sign of liberalism spending more time defining the past than solving the future.
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Feb 1, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Dad jeans? I don’t think so.
My teen daughter took me shopping a few days ago for some real jeans. The kind that looks like they’ve been run through an industrial grinder, splotched with bleach and carefully torn and tattered at the edges.
You know, the cool kind.
Actually, they call them “distressed” jeans. Although I’d never thought of it this way, it’s nice to have a pair of jeans that match my sense of self. Distressed. It’s edgy and yet congruent.
I’m 48 and not willing just yet to resign myself to wearing dark shoes, white socks and shorts or dad jeans.
So, how did it work for me?
Did I look like a 25 year old Zac Efron (who I found out last night my wife secretly thinks is really cute but she doesn’t know I know)?
According to my wife, “no” to any comparisons to Zac Efron (who in my opinion uses far too few letters to spell his name, I’m guessing for affect….so I could live with that).
But “yes” as to making me look younger. “Not a day over 45 according to Rebecca.”
That was just enough to whet my appetite. Tomorrow I may change how I spell my name to Jon Brn. I’m already feeling 42 just thinking about it.
$15T of debt, $1T+ annual deficits, and the co-frontrunner for the presidential nomination of the allegedly fiscally conservative party is advocating a moon colony. You really couldn’t make this up.
Call me zany, but I just don’t get Newt’s strategy of doing everything possible to feed into the caricature of him painted by his opponents. Fortunately he can pontificate about moon colonies while his Adelson-funded SuperPAC labors at the last minute to generate a ground game that his official campaign spent a year neglecting.
If I were him, I would be doing everything possible to come off like a solid, grounded, trustworthy person ready to roll up my sleeves and offer very specific policies to facilitate job growth. But then, I thought his campaign was over last June, so what do I know?
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Today in Sunday School we discussed discipleship and how hard it must have been to follow Jesus’ call.
I was assigned to read the verse about Peter denying Jesus three times and asked what would I have done in his shoes, if called by Jesus to drop everything (family, friends, business) to follow Jesus.
Tough spot to be in.
It’s church so, on the one hand, the pressure is on to give the Christian and obvious answer.
On the other hand, it’s church so you better be truthful.
And what if the two conflict?
My answer was that I would have said, “Yes, sign me up! I’m on board….all the way!”
And then later in the day, when no one was looking, I would slip off.
People (including other disciples would wonder, “Where the heck did John go? He was here earlier.” I’d stay gone long enough for the group to move to the next town.
And I’d show up where I left the group the next day. I’d blame Peter for giving me the wrong date and time to meet (pointing out that Peter’s seemed a little off the beam lately with all the denial stuff and I’ve been worried about him and praying for him).
I’d further blame the rest of them for leaving without me. I’d remind everyone I was one of the first to sign on and cite my enthusiasm at the time…..and disappointment for being left behind.
If you hadn’t figured out by now, I went with the “honest” answer over the “most Christian sounding” answer.
I did add –and this was my “save,” sort of. I would quietly monitor the group for several weeks. If after that time it looked like they were completely legit, I’d make a surprise appearance, act like I’d been trying to catch up with them for several weeks and become a loyal disciple once and for all.
By Kristen Hamilton, RP Staff, on Tue Jan 31, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
It’s been said that if it’s not broken, then don’t fix it. But for retailers like Target and J.C. Penney, something needed fixing. Lagging behind their competitors in sales and arguably relevancy, Target and J.C. Penney needed to reassess their brand, which is exactly what they did. But these aren’t the only two major retailers who have revamped the direction of their company – did anybody notice Starbucks’ new logo? Exactly. Say goodbye to the “Starbucks Coffee” label and say hello to just the mermaid lady – a decision that now allows Starbucks to expand their brand into music and other ventures. Or try The Gap – who after several months of disappointing earnings – tried to breathe new life into the franchise by also changing their logo, which didn’t quite work. Nevertheless, much like Starbucks and The Gap, Target and J.C. Penney have decided to switch things up to remain competitive in this steadily evolving retail market.
Read the rest of… The Politics of Fashion: Retailers Get Creative in Dismal Economy
Blog this!
$15T of debt, $1T+ annual deficits, and the co-frontrunner for the presidential nomination of the allegedly fiscally conservative party is advocating a moon colony. You really couldn’t make this up.
