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 Mon Nov 28, 2011 at 9:15 AM ET
Canadian magazine Adbusters did not start Occupy Wall Street, but its editor, Kalle Lasn, did create the #occupywallstreet hashtag and feed the cultural message of the movement. [NY Times]
Occupy Wall Street is, in its current state, visible, noisy, and not terribly relevant. How can you stay relevant when the first major policy item on your agenda – student loan forgiveness for the unemployed and the low-income – is already law, and the second–substantial tax hikes for the wealthy – has already been claimed by one of the major political parties?
Two other gripes with OWS: first, every modern progressive movement has derived its moral authority from its efforts to elevate some marginalized class of Americans. This is the first left leaning movement whose rhetorical goal is to pull one class of Americans down to size. It is self-consciously divisive in a way that blacks, women and gays never were.
Finally, while the 99 percent is a glib, clever phrase, it literally links the interest of a hungry child in the Mississippi Delta to those of a six figure accountant whose mortgage is underwater. If you are going to mimic the symbols of Dr. King’s Poor Peoples Campaign, at least have the depth to say something specific about poor people.
By Sandra Moon, RP Staff, on Thu Nov 24, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
The Politics of Food
Is talking politics over Thanksgiving dinner a no-no? With some ground rules, it may not be. [CNN]
Here’s an open letter written by health care professionals to the CEO of McDonald’s with a simple plea: stop marketing junk food to kids. [www.lettertomcdonalds.org]
For a visual potluck of culinary inventions with links to recipes, check out this site. [TasteSpotting]
You may know that BPA exposure is linked to plastics, but a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that canned foods are another source of exposure. [NPR]
I first entered politics in 2004 at the age of 17, going door-to-door in my home county of Hamilton County, Indiana for Gov. Joe Kernan and the Kerry-Edwards campaign. I can recall meeting with an organizer at a coffeeshop with a high school friend of mine and being handed a packet of names, a bundle of brochures, and a Joe Kernan for Governor lapel sticker. Out we went, knocking on door after door in the neighborhoods of Noblesville, the county courthouse’s majestic clock tower looming in the background. Having finally exhausted our packets after several hours, we returned to Democratic headquarters where we were greeted by a bevy of seasoned local Democratic activists (read: cute, earnest, little old ladies).
What ensued was a full twenty minutes of gushing and doting that centered on one theme: how precious of you two to be volunteering for a political campaign when you can’t even vote yourselves! They were enamored with us, and we with the compliments. That was the day I decided that an activity that felt this good had to be something I pursued in some more substantive way moving forward, which brings us to the University of Kentucky.
In my first semester as a college freshman, I attended a campus event at which student organizations could promote themselves and happened upon the table for the UK College Democrats. Intrigued, I got to talking to several of their members and agreed to attend their first meeting, which, like any well-planned first semester meeting featured free pizza and soda. I became a regular at these meetings over the coming weeks and when a position opened up at the end of the semester for the chapter treasurer, I was nominated and unanimously elected to the position. I served as the treasurer for some three months before our president announced she would not be running. All heads in the room turned to me and I was once again nominated and unanimously elected president of the chapter, the youngest such president in chapter history. While I was president of the UK chapter, we volunteered for John Yarmuth’s winning 2006 congressional campaign as well as for the campaign of Ken Lucas in northern Kentucky’s 4th district. It was while working on the latter campaign that I first met a man who would come to play a pivotal role in my development as a professional political staffer.
Read the rest of… Richard Becker – How I Got Bit by the Political Bug
College football has an indisputable influence on citizens across America, both while in college and long after graduation. Recently, many questions have been raised about just how big these programs are becoming. In fact, collegiate presidents are beginning to speak out against the large emphasis that has been placed on football programs by university administrations. See here for an account on these issues from former San Diego State University President, Stephen Weber. [Washington Post]
It has become widely known that athletes are afforded opportunities to attend universities that otherwise would not be options for them. With regard to football, reports from the NCAA show that this trend spreads across all conferences in the country, giving football recruits up to ten times better chances of admittance than students in the general population. [ESPN]
In his controversial (and extensive) article, Taylor Branch discusses the case for pay-for-play college athletics, in which student athletes would be compensated for their time on the field. See here for the article as well as an interview with the author. [The Atlantic][PBS]
The enormity of the college football sector has resulted in extremely high expenses and revenues across Division I schools. See here for information on how these figures have changed dramatically since the turn of the century. [Matlab Geeks]
Did you know that China is considering scrapping its one-child policy? Well, that’s according to “Chinese authorities” like the Deputy Director of the Committee of Population, Resources, and Environment (and I thought our government was bloated). I doubt changing the policy is a big priority in China right now… [Market Watch]
A great song by one of the greatest bands of all time. Here is the Grateful Dead with “Liberty.” The Dead first performed it in 1993. Over the next two years, they jammed on it some 50 times. [YouTube]
Interesting blog post on Tim Tebow, “Tebowing,” and religious liberty. [Manhattan Declaration]
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