Posted on 06/04/2016 8:42:53 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Joe Bruno on Boxing – Muhammad Ali is Not a Hero.
Muhammad Ali passed away Friday night, June 3, 2016. I wrote the article below around the year 2000.
I got to know him fairly well in the 1980’s, when I was Vice President of the Boxing Writers Association. He was a real friendly man, and we had several nice conversations about what I have written below.
Still, his death doesn’t change what he was, and what he did early in his career.
It is with a sad heart that I stand by what is written below.
It’s just the truth, and a man’s death doesn’t change the truth.
Muhammad Ali Hero?—Not!!!!!!! There’s a new phenomenon taking place in boxing, and in the news media in general, which I’ll gracefully call revisionist history. I’m talking about the way the so-called media portrays one of the most controversial figures of all time – Muhammad Ali.
Former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali may have been great fighter, but he was also a shameless draft dodger, who refused to fight for his country in the Vietnam War.
If you say the United States didn’t belong in Vietnam–I agree. If you say it was a stupid war, a war we couldn’t win — I also agree. I didn’t like the war any more than Ali did, but me and hundreds of thousands of other men like me, black, white, or whatever, went into the United States armed service because it was our duty to our country and to our families.
Ali’s refusal to be inducted wasn’t a black/white thing like he and his people tried to shove down our throats. Hundreds of thousand of white men chickened out and avoided service in Vietnam too.
Ali claimed to be a Muslim minister as his exemption
(Excerpt) Read more at joebrunoonboxing.wordpress.com ...
Are you mental? Trump received valid deferments until he was declared 4F in 1972. That meant that the military rejected him. Ali was actually a draft dodger.
Oh please. Trump’s daddy pulled every string he could to get a deferment. Just like thousands of other rich boys did. Ali had no such rich sugar daddy.
Do you REALLY think Ali would have gone to the front lines? Do you honestly think the US Military would have sent the Heavyweight Champion of the world to the front lines? No way. Ali could have easily gotten a deferment had he tried, OR, at worst some cushy stateside billet.
Here’s the difference. He didn’t try. He stood up for what he believed in, and took his medicine. Agree or not, it took more guts that what Trump or Cheney or the rest of them did.
The whole draft system was corrupt and rotten. You either have a draft, or you don’t. You don’t let people out of it just because they have enough money to be in school.
I don’t blame Ali one bit for what he did.
Ali was a racist Nation of Islam member and promoter. A scum and a traitor. A skilled boxer. If you are defending him because he is dead, you are a hypocrite.
He never received a 4-F classification.
Corrected. He never received a 4F until 1972. The draft ended in 1973. Vietnam was virtually over any way.
I’m just defending him from the outraged howls of “draft dodger” on a site where 90% of the participants are rabid supporters of Donald Trump. Who was also a draft dodger.
Seems to me that if draft dodging makes you a traitor, then a LOT of politicans, with Trump at the head of the line, are traitors.
In fact, Trump said that “sleeping around was his personal Vietnam.” Nice, huh?
Ali broke the law. He is worth over $50 million. His passing is being treated like the death o a head of state. You can wallow in all the tributes he is getting all the time, all day for many days to come.
I will remember him as a great fighter and a draft dodger who joined the racist Nation of Islam. He was also a lousy sportsman who demeaned his opponents. Ali was a shameless self-promoter.
“A lousy sportsman who demeaned his opponents. Ali was a shameless self-promoter”.
WOW. Who does THAT sound like. Not a Trump man I take it?
Nope, you're trying to go off on a tangent now, BLM has no relevance to the racism that occurred in the mid 60's...........Nice try.
Just curious, when did you serve in Nam and were you drafted or did you enlist?
Ali made his choice on principle and paid the consequences......4 years suspension of his boxing license and an ultimate reversal of his jail term by the SCOTUS..........
Did you get your pound of flesh or do you want more?
Who isn't? And as a follow up to my prior question to you, what was your MOS?
Agree...I didn’t say they couldn’t go, just shouldn’t have to go.
You love Ali and hate Trump. I get it. We will just have to agree to disagree about both of the. I'll vote for Trump and you will probably vote for Hillary or not vote. So be it. Good luck.
Well here IS the story so it's now up to YOU to prove it wrong.........
Joe Louis was a patriot. Ali/Cassius Clay wasn’t.
Tell that to BLM. How much have black lives improved since the 1960s?
The black unemployment rate has consistently been twice as high as the white unemployment rate for 50 years:
For the past 50 years, black unemployment has been well above recession levels:
The gap in household income between blacks and whites hasn't narrowed in the last 50 years:
The black poverty rate is no longer declining:
Black children are far more likely than whites to live in areas of concentrated poverty:
Our schools are more segregated today than in 1980
In 1960, 74% of white adults were married, as were 61% of black adults... By 2011, the black marriage rate had fallen to 56% that of the white rate: 55% of whites were married, compared with 31% of blacks."
Relatedly, the Census recently reported that 52.1 percent of black children are living in single-parent homes, versus just 19.9 percent of white children:
Blacks are still far more likely to be uninsured than whites. That's true for both adults and children:
The racial disparity in incarceration rates is bigger than it was in the 1960s:
Just curious, when did you serve in Nam and were you drafted or did you enlist?
I served in country in Danang 1967-68 for one year and spent another 10 months off the coast on an LPH 1965-66. I was an NROTC grad in 1965. Served a total of 8 years in the USN.
Naval Officer
Why not? Do we have two classes of citizenship?
LOL. It is satire. Didn’t you get it?
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