Another one of my heroes is gone. Muhammad Ali was, if nothing else, one of the coolest guys on the planet. Super-intelligent, articulate – poetic even – and beautiful to look at. I still remember the Thrilla in Manila and the Rumble in the Jungle; the ‘Rope-a-dope’ and of course, Angelo Dundee.

Even before he converted to Islam he had the coolest name ever: Cassius Marcellus Clay.

Ali was a MAJOR part of my childhood and he was everything I aspired to be…except Muslim. Still, he stood up for what he believed in – for what I believed in – and he paid dearly for it. But he was also redeemed in the most incredible way. Watching him fight didn’t even seem violent – it was pure entertainment; or as Howard Cosell put it: “poetry in motion.” My brothers and I would be doubled over with laughter as he toyed with his opponents in the ring.

He was truly awe inspiring.

In March 1967, Ali issued the following statement explaining why he chose to be a conscientious objector of the Vietnam War. One of the greatest statements of principle ever from THE GREATEST:

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?

No, I am not going ten thousand miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would put my prestige in jeopardy and could cause me to lose millions of dollars which should accrue to me as the champion.

But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is right here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality…

If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. But I either have to obey the laws of the land or the laws of Allah. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail. We’ve been in jail for four hundred years.

Ali saved innumerable American lives by refusing to be drafted. He would never have been sent into battle, but instead rather cynically used as a recruitment tool by the MIC. How many more gullible young men would have joined up if Muhammad Ali had been the military recruitment poster boy?