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:
Sorry, but the die is cast here. Dick Cheney was the Bush administration’s most powerful proponent of a decade of failed wars of choice that cost our nation dearly in prestige, treasure, and most lamentably, blood. Two-thirds of the country strongly agrees with that sentiment.
He was the guy who argued that “deficits don’t matter” even as the tax cuts he relentlessly pushed exacerbated our already-difficult fiscal situation that every demographer (and most policymakers) understood would become perilous upon baby-boomer retirement.
In every major policy area in which he was involved, Dick Cheney was dead wrong – and many of his co-partisans actually agree with that assessment. If he thinks it will help him now to trash the people (I.e., Rice, Cheney) who at various junctures made rather ineffectual attempts to slow the train of destruction he conducted, he is sorely mistaken.
The five best weight-loss foods may surprise you. [Psychology Today]
The movie “Contagion” is freaking out moviegoers all over the United States… but could such a large scale epidemic happen in real life? [Huffington Post]
Baby will you divorce me? A new trend in couples divorcing, will it catch on? Would you wear a divorce ring? [Huffington Post]
Maybe a television show is a good place to find love after all. Bachelor Pad’s Holly Durst and Blake Julian are engaged! Yes my friends, she may have won the show with another man, but her new ring shows where her true loyalties lie! [Us Weekly]
Studies show that sexist men are warmly receipted by non-feminist women. Does this encourage their aggressive methods of approaching women? [US News]
Will North Carolina continue to be a rebel? Currently the only southeastern state to not have a legalized ban on gay marriage, the North Carolina is going to put the issue to a citizen vote in May. [New York Times]
Stress and strains caused by low income levels and reliance on government assistance are shown to cause tension in other areas of a couple’s life. This financial pressure has recently been linked to unhappy marriages and higher rates of divorce. [Science Daily]
By Jonathan Miller, on Wed Sep 14, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET
OK, so it’s not Oscar season. Not even close.
But wandering this week through the back alley ways of Italy reminded me of the extraordinary contributions of Italian-Americans to our modern cinema: Scorsese, Coppola, Tarantino, Brando, De Niro, Pacino, Pesci, Travolta, Poppy from Seinfeld (seen at left with Italian-American (?) Cosmo Kramer), yaddio, yaddio, yaddio…
Maybe it’s the Italian air — or my own conspiratorial fantasies — but I’ve concluded that too many of the above greats have something quite compelling in common: the tragedy of losing an Oscar award that they manifestly deserved, to a much inferior, non-Italian-American film/director/actor.
5. 1974: Al Pacino (Godfather, Part II) loses to Art Carney (Harry and Tonto)
Godfather II is my favorite movie, period. Probably because of the entry of politics into the narrative and the focus on the Jewish mafia’s powerful role (via Lee Strassberg’s portrayal of Meyer Lansky stand-in Hyman Roth), Part II ekes out Part I for the greatest movie of all time. And throughout the magnificent duology (I choose to forget the very good, but not closely comparable Part III), Al Pacino is simply sublime as the lead protagonist, Michael Corleone. His oh-so-subtle and delicate embodiment of the young idealist family man who transforms into a furious, violent mobster is to me the greatest acting of his generation. That the Best Actor nod went to Marlon Brando in Part I is forgivable if only due to the legend’s common ancestry. But losing to Art Carney because of the Academy’s sympathy for a long career and a signature role on The Honeymooners (of all shows!) is tragedia of the highest form. The only redemption came in 1992, when Pacino most undeservedly got the same career honorific Academy treatment when won his first Oscar for his strident over-acting in the forgettable Scent of a Woman.
4. 1976: Robert DeNiro (Taxi Driver) succumbs to the late Peter Finch (Network)
While Robert DeNiro did pick up the Best Supporting Actor for his brilliant work in Godfather II (speaking almost entirely in Sicilian-Italian), two years later he was robbed of his first Best Actor statue for the finest acting of his long, incredible career — his portrayal of the deranged Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. Deniro’s maniacal energy was palpable in every scene, yet his most indelible work was opposite the young Jodie Foster: DeNiro showed the romantic humanity deep inside a very disturbed man. DeNiro’s method in this movie has inspired a generation of actors — and, unfortunately, John Hinckley as well — but again, the overly-nostalgic Academy selected a guy whose death preceded the award ceremony by only a few months. When I remember this Oscar theft, I become as MAD AS HELL AND I JUST CAN’T TAKE IT ANY MORE! Sorry about that…You talkin’ to me?!? You talkin’ to me?!?
3. 1980: Martin Scorsese’s Oscar for Raging Bull is stolen by Robert Redford (Ordinary People)
While DeNiro finally won the Best Actor nod that was rightfully his a few years earlier, the picture in which he starred, Raging Bull, was outrageously robbed of the Best Picture award by the maudlin, effete, and treacly Ordinary People, and worse: Martin Scorsese’s masterful directing was eclipsed by Robert Redford’s Hallmark special orchestration. I’ve made clear in an earlier post of my self-awareness toward an “anti-pretty boy bias,” but while Redford’s acting was always under-rated, and his film festival hosting and environmental activism are quite admirable; when it comes to direction, he does not belong in the same league as Scorsese. And worst of all, it would be precisely a decade later when another pretty boy with environmental inclinations would steal yet another Best Picture and Best Director nod from the much more deserving Scorsese…
Read the rest of… The RP’s Five Worst Oscar Robberies of Italian-Americans
By Michael Steele, on Wed Sep 14, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
Ten years later, President Obama has carried on President Bush’s mission to keep our homeland safe.
Sept. 11, 2001, 8:46 a.m. You remember where you were. You remember what you felt. American life would never be the same again — how we boarded a plane, how we viewed our neighbors. The images of hijacked planes slamming into skyscrapers, streets covered in ash, a scorched field in Pennsylvania, people running — but not knowing where to — are etched in our memories. Our friends, neighbors and family members — 2,977 of them — are gone. And within hours of realizing that a new enemy had emerged, defiant, we, too, became resolved: Never again.
Ten years later we are wiser, smarter and safer; our homeland security is strengthened. The American people have adapted to the new normal, and life, as they say, goes on. But we have paid a price. From the streets of Baghdad to the caves of Afghanistan, America’s blood and treasure have been spilled. To date, 6,234 men and women in uniform have made the ultimate sacrifice to preserve the very freedoms and liberties that have defined this nation.
The decade since 9/11, however, could have been very different if not for the leadership of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
Often the answer to the question, “What happens next?” can be a heavy burden for leadership to bear. Every decision matters and carries with it consequences. So in those hours and days immediately following the attack, decisions were made that would define very clearly for America what happened next.
Read the rest of… A President’s Grasp of the Post-9/11 World
By Robert Kahne, RP Staff, on Tue Sep 13, 2011 at 3:30 PM ET
The Politics of Hoops
The Lockout is serious business–serious enough to make the NBA fine (Bobcats owner/best player ever) Michael Jordan $100,000 [Black Sports Online]
In case you missed it (and you probably did) FIBA held its regional Olympic qualifying tournaments in Europe and the Americas last week. The John Calipari coached Dominican Republic team was competitive, but failed to make the Olympics after their starting point guard, former Louisville guard Edgar Sosa, went down with a nasty broken leg. Beware this footage. [Deadspin]
Here is a sad story about a high school basketball player killed because of gang violence. [Wall Street Journal]
Somebody calculated the fair market value of college athletes. They are worth more than 6 figures. Nobody should be surprised. [AP]
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Tue Sep 13, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
Huffington Post is known for featuring unpaid writers and bloggers, but now the website is taking it to the next level: hiring middle school and high school students as contributors. [Time Techland]
The Poynter Institute presents the 25 most moving 9/11 newspaper spreads of the weekend. [Poynter]
Now there’s scientific proof to back it up. SpongeBob Squarepants makes your kids dumber and fatter. [NY Times]
Talk about the perils of technology. Hackers accessed the Twitter account for NBC News on Friday and posted false messages about a fresh attack on New York’s ground zero. [CNN]
Have you read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand? If you haven’t, you absolutely should. Now, Ms. Rand and Atlas even have their own app. [The Wall Street Journal]
Heavy hands at colleges and universities are policing students’ hookups. Nanny State much? [Philadelphia Magazine]
I imagine most of us would agree that national service is important. But, should it be required? [National Review Online]
From the other side: Give me Liberty and give me Death? That’s what some people believe about Rep. Ron Paul’s ideas. [The Daily Caller]
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