January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

do. Lots of people disagreed with that and Ali was one of them. He wasn't
alone. |
|7/17/05 12:04:43 AM|Kent|Murrieta, Ca||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|I think the
police of today are 100 percent better than they were in the past and while
there are still some bad ones around, most of the time they do the right
thing.I just get sick of certain groups saying that every time a
minority person gets shot by the police it is racism. I think that most of the
time when police shoot someone it is because the police are defending themselves
or they are defending innocent people of all races from criminals.Are
there still times when the police perform unlawful shootings? Yes I am sure
there are times when this occurs but they are much less prevalent than they were
even thirty or forty years ago. |
|7/17/05 02:14:35 AM|Noam|same||same||||10|FanAli recanted his 'white
men are devils' statement as recently as in an interview with Sir David Frost
earlier this year. I saw it about two weeks ago. Ali said that devils "can be
white, black, and yellow" or words to that effect. Ali acknowledged that it was
silly that he'd made that comment all those years ago.Now I must ask
you, Fan, to comment on Frazier gloating about Ali's injuries. Forest quoted him
on it and I repeated Forest's quote recently. Frazier said that he was happy to
take the credit for Ali's condition. What say you, Fan ? Frazier has never
recanted that comment. Don't you think that Frazier is a callous, cruel, sadist
? Do you agree with Forest that what Frazier said was cool ? To me, Ali
was wrong with the devil comment and was then right to recant it. But Frazier
was wrong to gloat about Ali's injuries and is doubly wrong for not admitting
that error. |
|7/17/05 11:48:35 AM|angelo|dc||funktron@yahoo.com||||10|Kent: Yes, as you
point out, things are better now. If you read "The Greatest, My Own Story" Ali
talks about terrible injustices done to black Americans and this was part of the
catalyst of him buying into the Black Muslim movement. But Kent, I couldn't
agree more with you that most police are good people doing an extremely tough
and dangerous job. Fact is, most of us wouldn't do what they do for ten times
as much as they make. Cops are willing to put their own life on the line to
save others and to uphold the law. Still, up to the 60's, it was not uncommon
for law enforcement in some parts of the country to do some really terrible
things to minorities. |
|7/17/05 12:47:03 PM|Fan|USA||n/a||||10| I will accept that Ali made the
comment attributed to him, although I did not personally hear it. However,
saying devils come in all colors is hardly a repudiation of Farakhan and the
rest of the Nation of Islam and their ideology of race hate. I often wonder
whether Ali's fans would be as open minded of a Caucasian celebrity who publicly
endorsed say, the Aryan Nation.Yes, I am well aware of the context in which
the NOI was formed. If you would like to be similarly informed, I suggest you
start with The Black Muslims in America, the seminal treatise on the subject by
noted (African-American) sociolgist C. Eric Lincoln. You probably know that
their mother load for new recruits is the prison system. That's where Mike
Tyson got "religion". The anger of disaffected young black men is deftly
exploited the way pimps prey on runaway teenage girls. And the Man - the Devil
- is offered as the convenient blame for all evils, real and perceived. I
have never quite understood how it was that Ali was so full of venom as to buy
into the NOI myths, as he reportedly grew up in a middle class part of
Louisville. Perhaps Howard C. can provide some insight in this regard.I
repeat my view that Ali would not have seen combat had he chosen to serve. I
also think that people of good conscience still legitimately disagree on what
was right concerning the War in Vietnam. (I happen to believe the War in Iraq
is similarly ripe for vigorous - but respectful - debate.) But in my own
opinion, the Vietnam question is a red herring re: Ali. The burning issue, in
my view, is his signing on with the NOI. They are hardly pacifists, and I don't