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:
We have an exciting week in store for you come Monday.
We will start it off with an exclusive expose of a generally taboo subject — sex behind bars. You will never guess who is writing it.
OK, you already know, it’s contributing RP Jeff Smith, who spent a year in a federal prison in southern Kentucky. So you also know it will be entertaining, hilarious and informative, while offering some big-picture lessons about politics and society.
And, as previously mentioned, next week is Resolutions Week here at The Recovering Politician, so send in your own New Year’s Resolutions by Saturday at 10 PM to Staff@TheRecoveringPolitician.com. We want to hear your stories.
By Chris Schulz, RP Staff, on Fri Sep 30, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
The Politics of the Planet
An interesting graphic about water use and water shortages. [npr.org]
Killer cantaloupes are on the loose. Luckily they are being traced to a single source. [nytimes.com]
In Nigeria, A Nobel Peace Prize winner dies. Her work focused on the relationship between the protection of the environment and quality of life. [latimes.com]
As Jews around the world celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, we will be devoting next week to New Year’s resolutions.
All of next week at The Recovering Politician, our contributors will be sharing their own New Year’s resolutions. And whether you are Jewish, Jew-ish, Gentile, or with no religious beliefs at all, we encourage you to do the same.
Just send us your New Year’s Resolutions to staff@TheRecoveringPolitician.com by Saturday at 10 PM. They can be a sentence or two; or if you prefer, send us a 1500 word essay. Or anything in between.
Thanks, and we look forward to reading your resolutions in next week’s The Recovering Politician.
Is there a generational bias on the federal courts regarding marriage equality? It’s a fair question following the recent dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a married binational couple who were denied a marriage-based green card by immigration officials. In the decision, U.S. district judge Stephen Wilson, a 1985 Reagan appointee, said that the court was bound by a 1982 case—a case in which officials at the time wrote that the gay couple’s attorney “had failed to establish that a bona fide marital relationship can exist between two faggots.” Should decisions involving civil rights issues be based on precedents set thirty years ago? The Advocate
The current recession touches many lives, but, as is so often the case, it is innocent children that feel the pain of poverty without any understanding of the forces affecting their lives. Right now, it is Latino children that are statistically the poorest group in the United States. Learn more from the Pew Research Center.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Fri Sep 30, 2011 at 9:15 AM ET
The sports world has a pretty good grasp of steroids testing at this point. However, testing for Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is still lacking. Congress is now taking an interest.
“In letters obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday, leaders of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee invited NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith and the chief executive of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to a meeting on Capitol Hill.” [ESPN]
By John Johnson, on Fri Sep 30, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
Dear Tito,
I wake up this morning and can only imagine the shock. September 1—everything seemed great and cruising to a world series title. September 30- epic collapse and out of the playoffs. Sports pundits everywhere likening this to every bad Red Sox memory…Aaron Boone, Mookie Wilson, Bucky Dent. The bad part about history and having such a devoted fan base is they hang on everything—good and bad. Its easy to recall all the bad things when bad things happen, just like its easy to remember all the good things when good things happen. The truth is probably somewhere in between, but insane expectations, like the fans of Boston have, can be a career killer.
I can only imagine how bad you feel. Real loss, especially when you think you have done your best, hurts. And it also is much worse when you care so much. I hate failure too…and yet I find I fail far more often than I ever want to. Sometimes the harder I try, the worse I fail. It seems like the Red Sox suffered from that a lot this month.
Terry Francona
There are all sorts of calls for your head—fire the manager. Blame you. But cooler heads usually prevail. Boston will remember the glory of 2004 and 2007. Boston will remember the way you comported yourself in the good times. Boston will give you the benefit of the doubt for the classy way you have managed the team. Or maybe they’ll just forgive you because we all are human, and even epic mistakes can be treated with compassion.
Take solace in the fact that you have fans, that a big loss hopefully will lead to a better team next year. A chance to fix things that maybe seemed ok but weren’t, a chance to rebuild, and rebirth. I always hate the flowery poetry of baseball—“leaving you when the seasons turn darkest, and returning in the Spring” but the good news is there will be another chance. I really hope it is in Boston, but if somehow you do get fired, I’ll be a fan wherever you go.
It hurts now. But try to learn a lesson from all this. And keep your head up. Can’t wait for Spring training and next year.
By Zack Adams, RP Staff, on Thu Sep 29, 2011 at 3:00 PM ET
The Politics of Tech
“The Fraying of a Nation’s Decency” An interesting article about Amazon.com. [NY Times]
The White House has been petitioning on a number of issues. However, the petition to “Direct the Patent Office to Cease Issuing Software Patents” has been a hit. [Technology Review India]
Diebold voting machines can be hacked by remote control? What?! Unbelievable. [Salon]
Since Spotify has been released in Sweden music piracy has dropped by 25%. [TorrentFreak]
Three Senators: Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Al Franken (D-MN), and Chris Coons (D-DE) have condemned OnStar for tracking its customers. Schumer called it “one of the most brazen invasions of privacy in recent memory.” [ars technica]
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