KW: This is the man who stood up for his beliefs that were at odds with a system that demanded his submission to its control. His most famous of words, words that I notice are currently not mentioned in any of the media obituaries on line were “I ain’t got nothing against them Vietcong, no Viet Cong never called me nigger”. He refused to be drafted to go to war in Vietnam was stripped of his boxing titles and disallowed from fighting for his refusal. This cost him millions of dollars in his prime fighting years.
But there is so much more about this man
By Martin Gallagher
On Feb. 17, 1966, Muhammad Ali learned that he had been reclassified 1A by his Louisville selective service board.
He had originally been disqualified by a substandard score on a mental aptitude test. But a subsequent lowering of criteria made him eligible to go to war. The timing, however, was suspicious to some; the contract with the Louisville millionaires had run out, and Nation members were taking over as Ali’s managers and promoters.
“Why me?” Ali said when reporters swarmed around his rented Miami cottage to ask about his new draft status. “I buy a lot of bullets, at least three jet bombers a year, and pay the salary of 50,000 fighting men with the money they take from me after my fights.”
But as the reporters continued to press him with questions about the war, the geography of Asia and his thoughts about killing Vietcong, he snapped, “I ain’t got nothing against them Vietcong.”
The remark was front-page news around the world. In America, the news media’s response was mostly unfavorable, if not hostile. The sports columnist Red Smith of the New York Herald Tribune wrote, “Squealing over the possibility that the military may call him up, Cassius makes himself as sorry a spectacle as those unwashed punks who picket and demonstrate against the war.” Most of the press refused to refer to Ali by his new name. When two black contenders, Floyd Patterson and Ernie Terrell, insisted on calling him Cassius Clay, Ali taunted them in the ring as he delivered savage beatings.
On April 28, 1967, Ali refused to be drafted and requested conscientious-objector status. He was immediately stripped of his title by boxing commissions around the country. Several months later he was convicted of draft evasion, a verdict he appealed. He did not fight again until he was almost 29, losing three and a half years of his athletic prime.
However here are some more of his famous quotes:
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it – then I can achieve it.”
“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion’.”
“Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating. It’s just plain wrong.”
“Don’t count the days, make the days count.”
“I’m a fighter. I believe in the eye-for-an-eye business. I’m no cheek turner. I got no respect for a man who won’t hit back. You kill my dog, you better hide your cat.”
“Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.”
“Live everyday as if it were your last because someday you’re going to be right.”
“The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.”
“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.”
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”
“Allah is the greatest, I’m just the greatest fighter”
and finally
“I’d like them to say he took a few cups of love. He took one table spoon of patience. One table spoon, tea-spoon of generosity. One pint of kindness. He took one quart of laughter. One pinch of concern. And then he mixed willingness with happiness. He added lots of faith. And he stirred it up well. Then he spread it over a span of a lifetime. And he served it to each and every deserving person he met.”
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