Is Muhammad Ali a National Hero?

National heroes are rare. They appear in times of crisis or times of great upheaval, representing our best and highest qualities when those virtues are most in doubt.

In the United States, Presidents have an almost exclusive claim to the honor of the title "national hero". From George Washington to Abraham Lincoln to John F. Kennedy, it is the U.S. President that has represented our best and highest qualities.

Leading our country in times of strife and turmoil, these men stood firm in the face of adversity. That's what our stories say anyway.

Kennedy's era was arguably the last period of American schism where the battle against communism, the civil rights struggle, and a sense that the social fabric was irrevocably torn all came to their boiling points between 1960 and 1970.

A short list of events from the era serves to demonstrate the nation's turgid state: the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, race riots in major cities across the country, protest demonstrations from Birmingham to Washington, King's "I Have a Dream Speech", the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

And the list goes on.

National heroes, in this period of crisis, were abundant. By some stroke of great fortune the country was graced by individuals of great integrity, intelligence and courage.

To our collective sorrow, the greatest of these figures were cut down by assassins.

But there is a man who still stands who I think of as a hero. He was an athlete who superseded his sport and all sports. He traveled abroad as an unofficial ambassador. He stood up for his religious beliefs and his political beliefs. He held nothing back and he challenged the world to love him or hate him. Above all else he was true to himself at a time when that show of integrity was exactly what America needed.

As the great ones where stolen from our midst, war raged and our soldiers died, the world where America had been a shining light seemed to sour before our eyes...but we had Muhammad Ali, shouting, singing, dancing, defying the shockwaves of sadness that tore through our country.

He was a hero then and he is a hero today because he showed us our best and highest qualities.

Yes, he boasted. And he backed up his boasting in the ring.

Yes, he was a "show boat". He was a gifted entertainer - a genius of self-articulation, humor and bravado.

In a time when we needed one hero to stay standing, Ali did the rope-a-dope and defeated his fatigued opponent in the last round. He stood. He stood and did not fall.

He still stands - an American hero of a rare type.

Ali was never president. He was just Ali.

That was enough.

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There have been more tragic figures than Muhammad Ali. There have been men who fought for our country in word and deed against foreign enemies. I do not argue here that we should put Muhammad Ali on the one dollar bill.

The renowned boxer has been celebrated too. I do not argue that Muhammad Ali is unappreciated.

Rather, the argument I put forward is a simple one. Muhammad Ali represents the greatest American virtues. He should be regarded as more than a genius fighter and entertainer.

Integrity

The United States of America was born in rebellion. So was Muhammad Ali. The United States found that certain uses of British power were insufferable. As a fledgling country, we put our values first and rejected English rule, English taxes, English religion and the rest.

Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Clay but he found a new faith and changed his name. Why is this significant?

The fact that Ali changed his name is significant because he was already famous. Prominent entertainers don't lightly change their names in accordance with the dictates of little understood religions.

In the act of changing his name, Muhammad Ali was demonstrating the great American virtue of rebellion in favor of being true to himself.

Dignity

One hundred years before Muhammad Ali came on the scene, a fight was brewing in the United States between the north and the south. The two sides came to battle in the war that still bears the dubious distinction as being the most costly in terms of American lives - the Civil War.

Human dignity was a key issue in the war that ended slavery in the United States. In the 1960's, America entered another civil war, this time in Vietnam.

A draft was instituted. Muhammad Ali was called to fight and he refused claiming that had no quarrel with the Viet Cong and that no Viet Cong had ever degraded him (the way he had been degraded by racial comments in America).

He stood on his principles and refused to fight an unjust war. Muhammad Ali stayed out of a conflict that naturally did not include him.

Sent to jail as a conscientious objector, Ali stood for conscience and dignity and the right to choose peace. He risked his career in the decision, but came out a champion once again when all was said and done.

Ali had this to say about his refusal to fight in Vietnam:

I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is 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. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs¹.