I want to say something about the passing a Muhammed Ali.
When you consider the lives that America has made possible, and aside from the
amazing collection of founders. You have a handful of utterly exceptional human
beings. And even then you can parse them out and find within the pantheon of
their characters flaws. Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford--racists &
anti-semites, for example. And I don't need my heroes to be perfect or free
from their cultural context's zeitgeist completely.
But few are as committed to their integrity as was this man.
He trained with integrity. He was an athlete with integrity--he approached and
defeated his opponents with tremendous skill and brutal honesty. He pursued
larger issues around pacifism and racial equality with a depth of integrity
that shunned personal privilege or gain. He converted to a new religion on the
sole context of being integral to his core values in light of the present
culture's mistreatment of people like him in the name of that religion.
I cannot think of another Athlete, American or otherwise,
who so exemplified the Ideal of a Role Model for a race, a faith (Islam), or a
nation. ONLY, and ironically, does Jackie Robinson come in an onion skill close
second. In every way, on every account, America owes this man an apology for
persecuting him, and a debt of gratitude for his life of being what it truly
means to be an American.
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