Posted on 06/09/2018 11:32:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
President Donald Trump, we are told, is thinking "very seriously" about pardoning the late boxing great Muhammad Ali. While the move may have some useful public relations advantages, it further inflates a mythic balloon that should have been punctured a long time ago.
In early 1966, with the conflict in Vietnam escalating, Selective Service lowered the bar to include those whose mental aptitudes were in the 15th percentile or higher. That meant Ali. He was not pleased. He immediately had his attorney apply for a deferment based on the financial hardship it would cause his parents, but the request was turned down. Ali was reclassified 1-A.
The New York Times' Robert Lipsyte was with Ali in Miami when he first heard the news. "How can they do this to me?" Ali griped. "I don't want my career ruined." Throughout the day, meanwhile, his ever present Nation of Islam (NOI) retainers filled his head with the likely horrors of Vietnam, horrors visited not by "Charlie" as in the V.C., or Victor Charlie, but by Mister Charlie. "Some white cracker sergeant is gonna put a shank in you," Ali heard over and over again in one variation or another.
Finally, after a day's worth of mind games from his friends and phone calls from reporters, Ali sounded off: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong." Out of this one chance comment, mindless and peevish, planted by the Muslims, inspired by a little more than a looming inconvenience, a mighty legend was born.
In 1966, journalists, especially the sports journalists, still took patriotism seriously. Almost to a person, Ali's behavior offended them, even the liberals among them. Most athletes felt the same way.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Pardon Fatty Arbuckle!
The flip side of the argument would be: Why fight for a country who’s white citizens look at blacks as inferior, undeserving of equal rights?
Nope,no pardon for the cowardly Cassius Clay.The woman who got life for selling drugs...maybe.But not draft dodger Clay.
From your other post. He doesn’t want one apparently...
the athlete’s attorney said that is “unnecessary” because the Supreme Court overturned his previous conviction.
My dad, who flew 20 missions as a waist gunner, never forgave Ali for his refusal. He held pretty much the same view as Robison. He wasn’t too good to make millions from the country he refused to fight for
Ali’s draft evasion conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1971.
Six years later, then President Jimmy Carter pardoned every objector who declined the draft.
An attorney for the estate said “We appreciate President Trump’s sentiment, but a pardon is unnecessary. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction of Muhammad Ali in a unanimous decision in 1971. There is no conviction from which a pardon is needed,” said Ron Tweel, lawyer for the boxer’s estate and his widow, Lonnie.
Trump has bigger fish to fry.
This is a meaningless sideshow.
That argument might be plausible for a black guy making $75 a week...but not for Cassius Clay.Also,it's highly unlikely that they would have made him 11 Bravo...he probably would have toured the world for morale boosting visits.
It takes 3 seconds to pardon a person. I doubt this is consuming his time
He turned Muslim for a reason! Cassius Clay!
he was acting for the race as a whole not just his own “plight.”
Family Guy on Ali: What if Muhammad Ali had quit boxing?
Ali pretended to be an imam. They still didnt buy it.
On the pardon, I thought the USSC overturned his conviction.
Nothing was accomplished in Vietnam except 50,000 American deaths and countless more maimed and wounded.
Ali paid for breaking the law at the time, but many others suffered far worse. Had I been drafted at the time, I would have followed the law, but I got lucky - I got a high draft number and, soon after, Nixon got us out.
He’s dead. Not sure what pardoning him would accomplish, other than maybe marginally improving his standing among the black community. If it does, I don’t think that would be a bad thing.
The Vietnam War was a Business War to enrich the Defense Department contractors. The Government had no intention of winning, its sole purpose was to make cash. Anyone with a drop of sense knew it was a bogus War.
So that's his story and he's sticking to it? When he was worth millions what,if anything,did he do for "the race"?
Uh...can we put aside the BS politics and get back to the business of returning this country to being the land of the free; the home of the brave please?
I didn’t vote for a political animal in the White House - I voted for “The Donald”.
He resisted the draft.
He was a patroit.
Only an idiot would think othetwise.
Resistance to tyranny is obdeince to God.
Great quote.
Thanks.
Ali either didn’t want to die or go to the military or he was honestly committed to taking a stand against the disproportionate number of black men drafted.
I can’t read his mind. Take your choice.
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