While the American media is bombarding us with news about NFL player Colin Kaepernick and fellow players not saluting the flag one thing is very obvious - Americans are ignorant of even recent history.
Let us not forget that Muhammad Ali was stripped of his heavyweight title in 1967 for FIVE YEARS be cause he refused to join the military - for the same reasons Kaepernick & others are protesting for - equality and justice.
"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
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.”
" - Muhammad Ali Let us also not forget that Ali who recent passed away died a hero. Yet many today are expressing disbelief that Kaepernick is doing such a heinous and evil thing as not saluting a flag when Ali took a far more hard line stance and his words were for more pointed and sharp.
The sad part is that nearly 50 years later there is a need for a Kaepnick stance and that is really what we should all be upset about.