On the other side, there is this....
“No, I am not going 10,000 miles to help murder, kill, and burn other people to simply help continue the domination of white slave masters over dark people the world over. This is the day and age when such evil injustice must come to an end.”
“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 are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?”
“My enemy is the white people, not the Viet Cong ... You’re my opposer when I want freedom. You’re my opposer when I want justice. You’re my opposer when I want equality. You won’t even stand up for me in America because of my religious beliefs, and you want me to go somewhere and fight, when you won’t even stand up for my religious beliefs at home.”
He was a mixed bag. At times I liked him, but I found some of his actions and statements to be objectionable.
I am very sorry that he is so ill.
Threw away his medals, got replacements. Kind of like Kerry threw his medals over the White House fence and got to be Secretary of State.
After he won the Olympic gold medal for his country at 18, he came back home and was refused entry into a diner because he was black. Or so the story goes. But given Jim Crow laws in the early 60’s its very plausible.
Wouldn’t that have pissed YOU off a bit?
Conservatives are opposed to the draft, and Ali was correct about the draft and he should have opposed it, it is after all forced service.