The boxer did us a service

Submitted by MIchael S (United States), Jun 16, 2016 at 03:41

Thank you, Daniel. Point taken. My motivation, was that I saw little in Ali worth criticizing. He was an excellent boxer, with quirky politics and religion. I think he only made the news, because it was a slow news day. His name quickly dropped from the headlines, replaced by an obscure US-born Islamic State terrorist.

It's still a slow news day today. Even with the Orlando thing, life and politics go on as usual. The most earth-shaking even this year, other than a putative Trump victory in November, is a "Leave" majority vote in the "Brexit" referendum. Even The Donald has booked a front-row seat to see how that turns out. You can bet he's not distracted by a boxer from long ago, dying from Parkinson's Disease.

Mohammed Ali made fools of a lot of people who thought they knew which way was up. That did us all a service. So did Ronald Reagan, when he whalloped the political establishment. People like that help us realize that we aren't just cogs in a big machine; that the seemingly unstoppable can be stopped; that things really can change. For that, I give the boxer credit.

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