John Chuckman
EXPANSION OF A COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“Olympic protest ban is a corporate power play that could backfire badly on IOC”
“Fifty-three years ago, on April 28, 1967, at the U.S. Armed Forces Examining and Entrance Station in Houston, Muhammad Ali refused to respond to the call of "Cassius Clay'' and dodged the draft during the Vietnam War”
I don’t agree with the author that Muhammad Ali’s actions were a “protest.” That is not a description that even nearly fits.
And neither does the expression “dodged the draft.”
Ali refused to take part in something horrible and did so at considerable risk to himself. He stood against a huge, ugly crowd at the time. There were all kinds of threats and name-calling. That’s far more than protest. And he was ready to accept the consequences of his acts.
His refusal represented deep personal conviction.
Some of his finest words then were along the lines, “I beats ‘em up, but I don’t kills ‘em,” and “I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong...No Viet Cong ever called me nigger,” and “I got nothin’ to lose standin’ up for my beliefs…So I go to jail, so what?”
Vietnam was an American imperial holocaust, with an estimated 3 million victims. Another million or so died in Cambodia after the collapse of a neutral government the United States had destabilized with many armed incursions and secret bombings.
I met Ali once, in Vancouver in 1971.
A charming man and someone I admired greatly. I’m sure he could see the admiration in my eyes.
I regret not telling him just why I so admired him.
It wasn’t about boxing, great as he was at that.
It was about his courage in standing up to a powerful establishment.
He paid a serious price, being deprived of earning his living for three years at his absolute prime. He was also fined and sentenced to five years in prison, a sentence he successfully appealed.
He was a genuine hero, the kind we so rarely see.
