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| Muhammad Ali in 1967 (Public Domain) |
You don’t get nicknamed “The Greatest” for nothing.
Three-time world boxing champion Muhammad Ali has never given up the fight. He has been battling Parkinson’s disease for years, and has recently been hospitalized twice for a urinary
tract infection.
Always a winner, Ali was released from the hospital just in time to celebrate his 73rd birthday. His
daughter, Maryum Ali, posted a picture of them relaxing at home on that occasion.
Another notable fight was won when Ali refused to participate in the Vietnam War. When the United States government would not grant him conscientious-objector status, Ali sent appeals all the way up to the Supreme Court, and finally won the case.
Ali’s courage in standing up for his convictions (even after being arrested and stripped of his boxing title and license) impressed a generation of anti-war protestors, not the least of whom was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
After being inspired by Ali’s example, King “began to voice his own opposition to the war for the first time.” King had
previously hesitated to do so “for fear of alienating the Johnson Administration and its support of the civil rights agenda.”
Ali fought brilliantly with words, as well. One of his famous Vietnam quotes was this: Why should they ask me to put on
a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and
drop bombs and bullets on brown people in
Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville
[Ali’s home town] are treated like dogs and denied
simple human rights?
Resources
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2914618/Muhammad-Ali-pictured-home-celebrate-73rd-birthday-released-hospital-urinary-tract-infection.htm
Copyright January 19, 2015 by Linda Van Slyke All Rights Reserved
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