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Boxing legend Muhammad Ali dies at 74[W:194]

TurtleDude said:
Lets get back to talking about a man who can be an inspiration to many people-white and black, poor and rich, powerful and oppressed, Ali is someone all should celebrate as what is good about this country.
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Yep. +1
 
Ali was a great boxer and was courageous in that regard. If you get into the ring with people like Frazier and Foreman, you're not a coward.

However, the idea that he was "courageous" about draft dodging is BS. He didn't "make a stand" against the war. His reasons were selfish - however reasonable. He would rather go to jail than get killed in a war. I don't find that position unreasonable. But it is not courageous.
 
TurtleDude said:
any government that would deprive the nation of the greatest boxer ever is one that should be disrespected and castigated. its a waste of a national resource and the draft was an abomination. The entire administration should have been charged with incompetence and treason
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While I agree the draft should never have happened. His life was no more valuable than any other person who did get drafted.
 
ajn678 said:
While I agree the draft should never have happened. His life was no more valuable than any other person who did get drafted.
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But you have to give him credit for not just running for Canada. He did pay a price:

In 1967, three years after winning the heavyweight title, Ali refused to be conscripted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War. He was eventually arrested and found guilty of draft evasion charges and stripped of his boxing title, which he successfully appealed in the the U.S. Supreme Court where, in 1971, his conviction was overturned. Due to this hiatus, he had not fought again for nearly four years — losing a time of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the war made him an icon for the larger counterculture generation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali
 
apdst said:
Cheney was classified 4F. Al Gore and Bill Clinton werent, though.
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Al Gore served in Vietnam.

Cheney was not 4-F. He received four student deferments plus one more for being a new father. His draft eligibility ran out in 1967.

What planet do you get your information from?
 
Kobie said:
Oh, stop it, grave-pisser. Muhammad Ali denounced the Nation of Islam in 1975.
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Which is proof he still didn't feel the same way?
 
EnigmaO01 said:
We sure killed a lot of them for not being at war.
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We're we at war wit the French people during WW2? We killed a bunch of them, too.

We were at war with the communists.
 
EnigmaO01 said:
I think you have him mixed up with George Bush. Gore was in Vietnam as a military journalist.
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Yeah, I goofed on that one but he was still a pog.
 
apdst said:
A liberal calls me a racist. Gee! I'm shocked! Didn't see that coming...lol
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How can you be racist if you are black too? Anywho, carry on.


Sent from a flower watered by the tears of Trump supporters and crazy newb liberals.
 
Kobie said:
Seriously? Another "prove the negative" scenario?
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I go based on the words that came out of his mouth. Until you can show that he recanted those statements, I will continue to go on with the belief that he meant what he said about race. You really don't know what a "prove the negative" scenario is.
 
ajn678 said:
I go based on the words that came out of his mouth. Until you can show that he recanted those statements, I will continue to go on with the belief that he meant what he said about race. You really don't know what a "prove the negative" scenario is.
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Guess what? Black people in the late 60s had a lot to be pissed off about. He left the Nation in 1975. This is indisputable fact.

‘I Just Wanted to Be Free’: The Radical Reverberations of Muhammad Ali | The Nation

Ali was a man who refused to knuckle under for anyone. Yes, he fell under the spell of some really bad people for some time, people like Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan. His wife basically showed him how wrong they were. And, in the FORTY GODDAMN YEARS SINCE, he has done immense charity work for people of all shades, and helped bridge a lot of racial divides.

But to people who don't think, because he said something that could be construed as racist 40 years ago, he's forever a racist.

You have no idea what the **** you're talking about. You want to dabble in Ali stuff? Be my guest. I know exponentially more about this man than you do.
 
Kobie said:
Guess what? Black people in the late 60s had a lot to be pissed off about. He left the Nation in 1975. This is indisputable fact.

‘I Just Wanted to Be Free’: The Radical Reverberations of Muhammad Ali | The Nation

Ali was a man who refused to knuckle under for anyone. Yes, he fell under the spell of some really bad people for some time, people like Elijah Muhammad and Louis Farrakhan. However, in the FORTY GODDAMN YEARS SINCE, he has done immense charity work, and helped bridge a lot of racial divides.

But to people who don't think, because he said something that could be construed as racist 40 years ago, he's forever a racist.

You have no idea what the **** you're talking about. You want to dabble in Ali stuff? Be my guest. I know exponentially more about this man than you do.
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So basically you still have no proof that he retracted what he stated about white people being devils or that people should not race mix?
 
ajn678 said:
So basically you still have no proof that he retracted what he stated about white people being devils or that people should not race mix?
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Did he issue a formal retraction? Probably not. But are you going to sit there and tell me that his body of work over the last four decades doesn't trump a few bad statements in the 1960s and 70s?

The Ali I remember did more for humanity than you or I ever will. So if you want to sit and spin on some statement he made in 1967, be my guest. It just makes you a small-minded person.
 
Kobie said:
Did he issue a formal retraction? Probably not. But are you going to sit there and tell me that his body of work over the last four decades doesn't trump a year or two of periodic bad statements?

The Ali I remember did more for humanity than you or I ever will. So if you want to sit and spin on some statement he made in 1967, be my guest. It just makes you a small-minded person.
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So I'm small minded because I took the man at his words? That makes complete and utter sense.
 
ajn678 said:
So I'm small minded because I took the man at his words? That makes complete and utter sense.
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His 40-year-old words, completely ignoring anything and everything he's done since.

Yes, that makes you small-minded. Don't like my assessment? Sit on it and rotate.
 
Similar people hate Mandela too.Not surprising.then they deny their racism:shock:
 
Medusa said:
Similar people hate Mandela too.Not surprising.then they deny their racism:shock:
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I see you're going back to the racism thing. You failed last time at this, don't try it again.
 
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