Boy do we agree with Daniel Pipes' article on Muhammad Ali. My poor deceased father was no doubt turning in his grave as well. How quickly the younger generation folks (like the Bushes) forget.

The awarding of the medal was an insult to all those who served honorably in the Second World War and in the Vietnam War. How easy it is to re-write history. Casious Clay was a loud mouthed ignorant ill bred fighter who defied this Country's laws and all the liberals, yuppies and other draft dodgers were up in arms because Clay was denied his boxer's license for refusing to show up for service in the army.

I thought Bush had lost it when I saw that ceremony on the news. After everything that Ali has said and done to undermine our country and the very society that paid him so well, and our Prez gives him a coveted award like that? Who thought that up?

Compare Ali to Elvis Presley. Elvis, at a high point in his career, followed the law when he was drafted. He served honorably. Elvis showed the kids of his generation that you must obey the law even when it is not convenient.

So maybe now Ali as he draws to the end, starts realizing that he had it real good here and it wasn't because of the Muslim leaders like Minister Louis Farrakhan and others like him. So Ali wants to wind up on the side of the Good guys.

Well lets hear the apologies for the demoralizing he caused those among those who had to serve, get wounded, lose their careers, their livelihood and may be their lives, while he was making millions.

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by J. William Lauderback

I take considerable exception to Daniel Pipes’ trashing of Muhammad Ali in his ConservativeBattleline column, “Honoring Muhammad Ali?”

While Mr. Pipes may believe that opposing the Vietnam War (as I myself did in the 1960s and 70s) is a curse never to be forgiven and that Ali’s allegiance to his Muslim faith has been lacking (who among us is without sin?), to state that, “Ali’s legacy is an exploitative personality, sordid career, vicious politics and extremist religion,” is absurd.

Thanks goodness President Bush does not make his Medal of Freedom selections based on a recipient’s religion or politics. The same day Muhammad Ali received his award, President Bush also bestowed Medal of Freedom awards on to the comedian and actress Carol Burnett (a consistent financial contributor to the Democratic Party and liberal candidates) and soul singer Aretha Franklin (who has made no secret of her support of liberal causes and proudly donated her services in the opening of her hero Bill Clinton’s Presidential Library).

President Bush presented the Medal of Freedom award to Muhammad Ali not to honor the boxing legend’s politics or his religion, but rather because Ali is one of the greatest athletes of all time. He was a Gold Medalist for the United States at the 1960 Olympic Games, the first three-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world, successfully defended the title 19 times, and was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated in 1999.

Did Ali refuse to fight in Vietnam, and did he make some outlandish statements during his early years as a Muslim? Yes, he certainly did. For refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, Ali was stripped of his championship belt and his license to box, and was sentenced to five years in prison. The sentence was overturned on appeal four years later, by a unanimous decision of the Supreme Court. Under Mr. Pipes reasoning, would that decision make those Justices ineligible for the Medal of Freedom Award?

Muhammad Ali was a great boxing champion, and an icon in the hearts of a generation of Americans who came of age in the terribly tumultuous 1960s. He fought for more than boxing titles and the money that came with them. He fought for change, for respect, and for, dare I say it, freedom.

After he won the Olympic gold medal in Italy, he returned to the United States proudly wearing his medal. But upon returning to his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, Ali's first wife remembered him saying "I was young, black Cassius Marcellus Clay, who had won a gold medal for his country. I went to downtown Louisville to a five-and-dime store that had a soda fountain. I sat down at the counter to order a burger and soda pop. The waitress looked at me.... 'Sorry, we don't serve coloreds,' she said. I was furious. I went all the way to Italy to represent my country, won a gold medal, and now I come back to America and can't even get served at a five-and-dime store. I went to a bridge, tore the medal off my neck and threw it into the river. That gold medal didn't mean a thing to me if my black brothers and sisters were treated wrong in a country I was supposed to represent." (Source: The Philadelphia Inquirer)

Since his retirement from the ring, Ali has been a tireless advocate for people in need, having delivered millions of dollars in food and medical relief to countries in Africa and Asia, and having raised in excess of $50 million for charities throughout the United States and the world. In he 1990 was credited with helping secure the release of over a dozen American hostages from Iraq just days prior to the start of the Persian Gulf War, and in 2000, he delivered a second shipment of medical supplies to two impoverished children's hospitals in Havana, Cuba.

Were these the acts of an “exploitative personality” who espouses an “extremist religion” and whose politics are “vicious?”

Mr. Pipes concluded his column by stating that President Bush’s awarding the Medal of Freedom to Muhammad Ali constituted “the nadir of his presidency.” Someone has indeed hit the lowest of the low points here, but it is neither President Bush nor Muhammad Ali.

J. William Lauderback, Executive Vice President, The American Conservative Union

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