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:
Has divorce become a reason to celebrate? Instead of mourning what was once considered a tragedy, individuals have started throwing parties to celebrate separating from their spouse. Check out this new trend, divorce parties. [Digital Journal]
Recent research shows that love has the potential to act as a pain killer. Individuals who were shown a picture of their lover reported a 45% reduction in their perception of pain compared to those who were shown a photo of a stranger. [CBS News]
According to a study done by a researcher at TAU’s Bob Shapell School of Social work, LGB teens are becoming more open with their sexuality. In 1991, the average age of coming out was 25, but a recent survey showed that age has decreased to 16. Researchers contribute this decrease to societal progress and cultural changes. [Science News]
A survey of teens’ sexual habits showed that fewer of today’s teens are having intercourse. The survey found that 42% of young women and 43% of young men have had intercourse, down from 51% and 60% respectively in 1988. Teens that had reported engaging in intercourse also reported higher condom usage than in the previous study. [USA Today]
National Public Radio’s “Q”: A popular program — produced by the Canadian Broadcasting Company that reaches hundreds of public broadcasting stations in the U.S — just broadcast a 20-minute interview with Jeff Smith about his career and popular posts here at The Recovering Politician.
Occupy Wall Street has the potential to become a progressive tea party, if its energy and passion is effectively channeled.
The spontaneous uprisings in a variety of cities demonstrate that the dissatisfaction isn’t limited to liberal NYC students and professional activists, but has struck a chord with regular folks around the country.
And the Reid millionaire surtax amendment to Obama’s jobs bill this week suggests that this new populism is being heard in the nation’s corridors of power.
This time, the fire is rising on the left. The “Occupy Wall Street” movement has the sound and the fury, and is matching the size, of the 2009 tea party rallies. OWS is the hard left version of the animus toward elites that is fervent in every sector of the country and there is every reason to think it, or something like it, is about to transform liberalism as much as the tea party has remade conservatism. If you value a politics that can foster consensus and overcome gridlock, this is one more thing that should make you very afraid.
Arguably, the “occupiers” and the tea partiers are the latest flavor of a populism that runs deep in our history. While misunderstood as a conservative phenomenon, populism is actually the ultimate big tent, and has been owned and abused by bullhorns on both sides of the spectrum. In the last hundred years, the populist label has been worn both by southern segregationists who wanted to force a “sharing of the wealth” and garment district leftists who thought industrial unions were too tame.
Read the rest of… Artur Davis: Occupy Wall Street Has Sound & Fury of Tea Party
Here is an interesting, and thorough, account of Liberty’s oft-cited positive-negative dichotomy. Do you favor one or the other? [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
Follow the Statue of Liberty on Twitter @StatueLibrtyNPS …she may be better spoken than the guys on Mount Rushmore. #Americana [Twitter]
The Shadow University is a great read about threats to students’ liberty on college campuses. [Amazon]
The RP will be speaking TONIGHT at 6:00 PM at the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center on the subject of religion and politics as part of the Bale Boone Symposium on the Humanities: “Religion and the 21st Century”
Blog this!
