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 pause our regular programming for this public service announcement:
Last night on The Daily Show, John Stewart was having difficulty repressing himself from telling jokes about Marcus Bachmann, the husband of presidential candidade Michele, who runs a controversial gay repression therapy clinic.
No Labels is a new grassroots movement of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely put them aside to do what’s best for America. No Labels Radio will offer a weekly dose of news and interviews with the policymakers who are working to find bipartisan answers to the otherwise intractable problems our country faces.
No Labels is a new grassroots movement of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents who are united in the belief that we do not have to give up our labels, merely put them aside to do what’s best for America. No Labels Radio will offer a weekly dose of news and interviews with the policymakers who are working to find bipartisan answers to the otherwise intractable problems our country faces.
By Steven Schulman, on Thu Jul 14, 2011 at 12:00 PM ET
One of the best aspects of my wonderful job is that I get to touch so many different areas. In the morning I am a human rights lawyer, advising refugees; by mid-day I am a civil rights litigator; in the early afternoon, I discuss micro-finance with my transactional partners; later I go to Capitol Hill to lobby for improving our immigration courts; and in the evening – at least on this evening – I work on education reform.
I had the pleasure tonight to host a panel of educators prior to a screening of the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” which addresses the failings of the U.S. public education system. In Akin Gump’s New York office we had Richard Barth, CEO of KIPP; Jason Levy, Principal of NY CIS 339 in the Bronx; and Rafiq Kalam Id-Din III, a former law firm associate and the founder of Teaching Firms of America-Professional Preparatory Charter School in Brooklyn. Our panelists were open and honest, and led a spirited debate about the film, the state of the public school system, and the opportunities to fix it. I won’t repeat what was said, in part because I didn’t ask the panelists for permission to quote them on the record, and in part because there is already plenty written that summarizes the debate well (including here, here, and here), but mostly because seeing this film made me think about our country more broadly.
Read the rest of… Steven Schulman: Waiting on Super Action
RP Readers, here’s your opportunity to prove to one and all that you could sit for the SAT without breaking into a cold sweat:
Jon walked to work at an average speed of 6 miles per hour and biked back along the same route at 10 miles per hour. If his total traveling time was 2 hours, how many miles were in the round trip? Your choices are A. 6, B. 6.25, C. 7.5, D. 8, or E. 10.
Chances are you could probably narrow your choice down to two or three possibilities. But, what if you are a high school junior, enrolled in a school that is overcrowded and underfunded, sitting in classes taught in two languages, and nobody in your family has ever taken the SAT before? What are your chances then?
***
My friend Jack did not have to deal with those challenges when he was preparing to apply to college. The road was pre-paved, and Jack smoothed it out along the way as he studied for the SAT, applied to college, and eventually accepted admission at the University of Southern California.
When he got to USC, Jack caught the entrepreneurial bug. It’s like the “politics bug” – once you catch it, you have a hard time running away from it. Not far removed from taking the SAT himself, Jack started tutoring some family friends for the test. Two students quickly turned into ten, and Jack found that he had written enough of his own material to create a full-fledged pre-college outreach program. That’s how Study Smart Tutors was born.
***
This is a brief look into entrepreneurship and education. They are two worlds we don’t think of colliding; but, when they do, the reaction sparks unlimited possibilities. Like in any chemical reaction, however, there must be just the right amount of reactants…
• 1 Part Risk: Jack graduated college and decided to grow Study Smart Tutors. He turned down stable jobs that most recent college grads now dream of, trading them in for a seat behind the wheel of his own company. Recently, I asked him if he was nervous to take on the gamble that is entrepreneurship as a twenty-something. “Now is the time with the least risk,” he said. “When you’re young and unattached is the time to bet big.” Of course there are still nerves and concerns, and by Jack’s own admission, “things aren’t perfect, especially when there are no regular paychecks or bankable guarantees.” But he understands the risk he is assuming, and he knows that it will be more difficult to take these chances as he gets older.
Read the rest of… Zac Byer: Entrepreneurship and Education . . . A Much-Needed Marriage
By Grant Smith, RP Staff, on Thu Jul 14, 2011 at 10:00 AM ET
The Politics of Fame
Texas Congressman Ron Paul (R-14) is not running for re-election to the House to focus on another run for the Presidency. One famous Republican strategist believes he could present a strong candidacy. [The Daily Beast]
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) proposes a solution to the debt-ceiling debate. While embraces on Wall Street, it has received a less enthusiastic reception on Capitol Hill. [Bloomberg]
Obama, the budget, and the art of political positioning. Or, “Politics as Kabuki Theater.” [Huffington Post]
Thanks to Rupert Murdoch, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally gets his “revenge.” [The Telegraph]
Austrian man is allowed to wear a pasta-strainer in his driver’s license photo. A pious follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the man argued the pasta-strainer was religious headgear. [BBC News]
By Andrei Cherny, on Thu Jul 14, 2011 at 8:30 AM ET
As most Americans return to work following Monday’s fourth of July holiday, so the nation’s political class also return to their jobs, following majority leader Harry Reid’s cancelling of the Senate’s scheduled Independence Day recess. Top of the agenda will be negotiations to avoid a crisis over the nation’s debt ceiling. But another issue should also top the agenda: the sluggish US jobs recovery.
The labor market has stalled again in recent months, while the debate over what to do about jobs has long been caught in a political cul-de-sac. The traditional economic tools of the right and left – tax cuts and government spending – have failed to offer much relief in a time when the economy is global, capital is mobile and a few extra dollars in a family’s bank account can go to purchase Chinese-made televisions and clothes at Walmart.
Injecting more money into the economy might have worked when we lived in a national, as opposed to a globalised, economy; when big businesses created most jobs; and when the paradigmatic workplace was the regimented assembly line. But America and other modern economies have entered what might be called the “new work order” – an economy where most workers are untethered from large institutions and bouncing from one job to the next. In this economy, each worker is, in effect, their own small business – responsible for guiding their own career and economic future.
Although advocates of the top-down approaches of helping big companies or expanding big government may not realize it, we live in a bottom-up economy: today’s job creators are less likely to be industrialists throwing up factories than to be laid-off workers firing up their laptops in a Starbucks.
Research has shown that during the past generation, start-ups less than five years old have accounted for all net job growth in the US. The current challenge is that the recent economic slowdown is directly tied to a very real entrepreneurial slowdown. The number of new businesses with employees fell by more than 17 per cent between 2007 and 2009. The number of new employer companies in 2009 was at its lowest level since 1992. Self-employment rates have been falling in the past couple of years, even while a study this year from the Small Business Administration demonstrated that 65 per cent of the jobs created by start-ups between 1997 and 2008 were jobs that entrepreneurs created for themselves. As the study’s author put it: “Business creation is job creation.”
[Presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s fundraising underperformance] means a few things.
1) A lot of donors who supported Romney last time are jumping ship or dodging him.
2) As the heir to “establishment” frontrunner status, Romney should’ve been able to cultivate most of the 2008 McCain donors. That hasn’t happened.
3) Given how much Perry raised within Texas alone for a gubernatorial race, and given the oil industry’s success amid the national recession, there will be ample money for him to compete on a national stage.
4) The sheer number of people who continue to give money to Ron Paul, when they presumably have children who ask for toys, puppies, and other things, is mind-boggling.
By Stephanie Doctrow, RP Staff, on Wed Jul 13, 2011 at 1:30 PM ET
Approximately 300,000 youth are sexually exploited in the United States every year. Read the emotional story of one young woman’s escape from a life of prostitution. [CNN]
One of the newest methods of helping children with autism involves tutus and plies. [Time]
The secret to triumph: it’s all in the head. [Newsweek]
For a dose of reality, check out this infographic depicting what it’s life to live on less than $2 a day in a developing nation. [Good Magazine]
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