Ali, GOP on opposite ends of courage spectrum

By Brian Greenspun

Sunday, June 12, 2016 | 2 a.m.

The world said goodbye to Muhammad Ali on Friday.

There is not much I can say about The Champ that wasn’t said so eloquently by President Bill Clinton, comedian Billy Crystal, John Ramsey and others in Louisville, Ky., and by so many other leaders around the world in the days since Ali’s death.

The universal outpouring of love for Ali was appropriate for the most recognizable and respected man on the planet for many decades.

I was at the funeral with my dear friend, Bernie Yuman, who had been at Ali’s side for the past 54 years as his friend, confidant and manager. Bernie brought Ali and his wife, Lonnie, into our lives decades ago, and it has been a most cherished friendship.

When I landed in Louisville on Thursday, I flashed back to the first time I found myself there, some 45 years ago. I was on my way to Fort Knox as a first lieutenant to learn how to command a tank company. It was near the height of the Vietnam War.

Just a few years earlier the entire world learned about Muhammad Ali outside the boxing ring. He refused to be drafted for the war and faced criminal conviction and prison for doing so.

Many of my friends were drafted and went to Vietnam. Some didn’t return. Others chose another route. They fled the country, to Canada or Great Britain, and sat out the war years, returning only after amnesty was granted by a nation looking to heal.

My choices were clear, so ordered my father. Either I fulfilled my obligations as an officer in the Army or I faced criminal conviction — following Ali’s example — because running away was not an option. Because I always intended to live up to my commitment to my country, I didn’t have to seek alternatives.

But the lesson of Muhammad Ali was not lost. Living up to one’s principles sometimes required a price that was difficult to pay.

I thought about that time in my life while considering how fortunate I was to have known The Greatest of All Time. I also thought about Donald Trump.

For while the entire world mourned the loss of Ali and his lifelong message of hope, tolerance and love of his fellow man, we also were subjected to a week that never should have happened in the United States in 2016.

Ali was glib. He had a facility with the English language that was the envy of all who could hear him. When he spoke the entire world listened, and, most of the time, The Champ lived up to his words.

In contrast, Trump does not seem comfortable with the English language. His words are simple, repetitive and mostly hollow.

But this month he used his words to attack a federal judge who, apparently, was not ruling on a case involving Trump in a manner that Trump deemed beneficial.

Trump’s words, by all responsible accounts, were racist!

His attack on a judge who was born in Indiana (that makes him as American as apple pie) to parents of Mexican heritage was about as un-American as one can get. It was also unbecoming of a presidential candidate whose job it would be to support the Constitution of the United States and the basis for our great democracy — three separate but equal branches of government. Especially the judicial branch!

What I also couldn’t get out of my mind was the lack of courage displayed by supposed political leadership in America, as most Republican leaders distanced themselves from Trump’s racist remarks.

Specifically, I am thinking of the dancing on the head of a political pin that Speaker Paul Ryan exhibited. And how a man like Ali might have reacted in the same circumstances.

Ryan got as far away from The Donald’s words as possible, even calling them “the textbook definition of racism.” And then he added “however …” As in, however, we still have work to do that doesn’t include electing Hillary Clinton (my words, not Ryan’s).

At a time when the world was praising Muhammad Ali for risking jail, the loss of freedom and the loss of his livelihood over a matter of principle, here was Ryan claiming what Trump said was textbook racism but refusing to go the distance, on a matter of principle!

The speaker of the House of Representatives was backing the presidential nominee he defined as a racist, in the name of party unity.

Muhammad Ali, The Champ, The Greatest of All Time, would have stood tall and said in the face of Trump’s undeniably racist remarks, “I’m going to knock him out!”

Trump easily could have admitted that he was wrong in attacking a federal judge based on his ethnic heritage. He could have acted presidential and told the public that respect for the court system was a hallmark underpinning of our great democracy.

Instead, he doubled down on his racist rant and put his Republican supporters in a most difficult position.

They would have to stand up for American ideals or stand up for Trump. They couldn’t do both. Most of them, including Speaker Ryan, chose Trump.

Democracy lost that round.

Brian Greenspun is owner, publisher and editor of the Sun.