THE STUPID SELFISHNESS OF THE FIGHTERS AND...

"He didn't want to fight..." That's what I heard in my childhood when I heard comments about Clay in the press. And the complement about the fact was much worse than the introduction: "HE WAS A COWARD!"

Only years later, decades to be exact, did I realize how untrue, how derogatory, how racist, how infamous even these statements about the boxer were! (Boxer).

Clay's act of refusing to go to Vietnam to fight,(1967) more than a suspension, segregation, etc., should have been received with a decoration. The recognition for the ingratitude came years later, more great damage had been caused to the professional and his career!

To refuse to shed blood, to quarrel, to fight, to enter into armed conflict because of the ambition of certain men, is something stupid and senseless, which future generations will abhor. Because we still have, despite evolution, the concept of participation in war, the same name: hero who participates, whoever refuses is accused of desertion...

It would be cowardly, yes, if Clay had refused to go to the fight out of fear! (And in this case, one may be afraid to face various struggles: spiritual, moral, intellectual, etc., and not only war with knives, sickles, pistols, and rifles.) It was because of noble personal conceptions, where per solidarity with his (black) people, he decided to risk everything and speak the truth, when they wanted him to cross the oceans to fight a supposed enemy, when for him and his people, the was being fought on his Earth and in "his backyard", more precisely: the war against prejudice and racial discrimination!"

Had he gone (to Vietnam), he would probably have died, for a cause that did not concern him, for a senseless war, simply so that his country could consolidate its military power, anywhere in the world, in Vietnam or anywhere else, as it did in fact later: Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.

Obviously, the concepts that their Generals had there about war, of course, were quite different from the information that their soldiers had there. From the remuneration to the actual content of the information, about the reason for an invasion, they are quite differentiated. That is, the superiors there, for example, and it still happens like this, had access to all the content and the whys, while for the soldiers, only the necessary slogan (and nothing else) arrived: FIGHT! FIGHT! DIE!

The "men" were very happy when their subordinates thought so. They were even happier when they looked at the contents of their bank accounts, the promises of promotions (and what promotions) and so on. Well, self-seekers like human beings, the silliest of the uninformed, so well paid, would certainly do anything to "participate!"

Of course, in addition to fists, Clay also had and registered THE ABILITY TO THINK, and it was this condition that made him vehemently reject his call to fight and die without knowing or questioning!

The first time Ali lost his world titles wasn't in a loss in the ring. In 1967, drafted to report to the U.S. Army for the Vietnam War, he refused to fight.

"Why am I asked to put on a uniform and travel 10,000 miles to drop bombs and bullets on the people of Vietnam, while the blacks of Louisville are treated like dogs and denied the most basic human rights? No, I will not travel 10,000 miles to help murder and burn another poor nation to simply continue the domination of the white masters over the darkest colored people in the world. It is time for such evils to come to an end!" – said CLAY at the time.

As punishment, Ali was stripped of his belts, banned from the sport for three years, and sentenced to five years in prison. He was released on bail and had the sentence reviewed and reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in late 1970, being able to return to the ring.