On Not Mourning Muhammad Ali

This photo is all over the web right now.
I do not know the photographer
so I can't give credit. 

The internet has offered me a chance to speak, and allowed my words to reach people.

The internet has taught me to be quiet, and allowed my silence to reach people.

Recently a couple of pop stars died: David Bowie and Prince.

David Bowie recorded a handful of songs I like – "Under Pressure," "Little Drummer Boy," "Major Tom," "Let's Dance," but his death was a matter of indifference to me.

I don't even consider Prince's product to be "music." To me he's just disposable, income-generating noise.

I like using language and all kinds of zinger putdowns of Prince's product whizzed through my mind. I wanted to post them and be funny and sharp.

I didn't.

I didn't because three internet friends I care about a lot, Judy, Dan, and Andrea, apparently were deeply moved by Prince's death.

So, I held my fire. Facebook taught me to be a better person.

I care a lot about the death of Harambe, a 17-year-old silverback gorilla who was shot to death at the Cincinnati Zoo after Michelle Gregg allowed her four year old son Isaiah Dickerson to climb into the gorilla enclosure.

People belittle those of us who care about Harambe's death and Gregg's negligence. People called us "shallow." People called us "intrusive" and "schoolmarmish." People gripe about people griping. How dare we publicly express our opinions? Why didn't we all just shut up?

Fair enough. You want to call me shallow and schoolmarmish? Go for it. Knock yourself out.

I have free speech to talk about Harmabe and animals and zoos and lousy parenting, and you have a right to call me names.

Here's the irony – one of the people making fun of us for caring about Harambe is now all boo-hoo because Muhammad Ali died.

As a little kid, I had an adult-level of loathing for Muhammad Ali.

Arrogant. Hated his own country. Member of an utterly bizarre and idiotic racist cult that calls all white people "devils." The Nation of Islam. They teach that a black scientist named Yakub created white people.

When Malcolm X had an epiphany and left the Nation of Islam, Muhammad Ali broke with Malcolm X. Astoundingly incorrect.

Ali called Islam "my religion not your religion." To Ali, Islam was a black religion, and Christianity was a white religion.

The Muslim Slave Trade dwarfed the Atlantic Slave Trade. When Muhammad Ali became a Muslim, slavery was still legally and openly practiced in Saudi Arabia. There are videos of slave markets in Saudi Arabia. See here.

Christianity ended slavery. Christians fought and died to end slavery. Islam never ended slavery. There are black slaves in the Muslim world today. See here.

Muhammad Ali was a propagandist for pure evil.

Ali said "Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all … No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters"

If this hypocrite had any integrity at all, he would have left the US and gone to live in Saudi Arabia, where he could purchase some of his fellow black people as slaves.

Muhammad Ali made his living by savagely beating other human beings. And being beaten in turn. He destroyed himself. He suffered from a disease that was probably caused by being punched.

Boxing. Human beings watching other human beings damage each other. Evil. Nauseating. Sick. Twisted. Sadistic.

To hell with boxing. Those of you who celebrate it, please know that you celebrate the mangling of human bodies and lives.

And you, who call me "shallow," for caring about Harambe's death, say that it's what – noble? – to mourn Muhammad Ali.

Feh.