FROM SLAVE SHIP TO CHAMPIONSHIP

I love Muhammad Ali…He was my FRIEND FOR LIFE…

Muhammad Ali will never die…He was a fighter for the people…A fighter who “stood up” for what he believed in…A fighter to become the CHAMPION OF THE PEOPLE…whose spirit will never die…HIS SPIRIT WILL LIVE FOREVER!!!

Muhammad Ali, the Greatest of All Time:

“If you don’t stand for something…you live for nothing.”

Muhammad Ali 1942 dash 2016

Aged 74 years, born 1942 the dash is how you lived those 74 years and what you contributed to the life that you lived…for the betterment of humanity. Muhammad Ali recognized early in life, that the system was the enemy of the people. So, he fought ever vigilantly against the system on behalf of the people, man and woman, for equality and their God-given inalienable rights…using himself as the example, willing to take the consequences of his actions in so doing.

Therein, he established his manhood – as a man. A man of principles, fighting for the people and a fighter for the people’s cause…joining the struggle to be free…WITH LIBERTY, JUSTICE AND EQUALITY.

“Without struggle there is no progress.” Frederick Douglass

A man of accountability and responsibility he humbly undertook the task of fighting for women’s rights and people of color’s rights, American people’s rights. Illustrating his faith in God and his invincible spirit of self-confidence and the indomitable courage he displayed in his remarkable performances.

But, it was one event and one trip that shaped his personality and formed who he came to be as a man. The legendary event “Rumble in the Jungle,” which brought him to Africa, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see…” Rumble young man RUMBLE!!!

The event that completely defined Ali was The Rumble in the Jungle. It was not just a great sporting event; it was a moment of truth, a moment of sheer beauty in confidence, a glorious moment of ‘PEOPLE POWER,’ an intoxicating moment of ‘heavenly humanity, unity and togetherness,’ for a global audience to witness the pride, the glory and the joy of the people on the African continent and throughout the world. It was a historically defining redeeming moment…ALI, WAS, TRULY THE GREATEST!!!

I thank God Almighty for the magnanimous gift of his blessings upon me, which enabled me to put that incredible, unbelievable, courageous and audacious historic event together. And, I will always treasure and cherish the photo which Muhammad Ali gave me, in which he wrote: “To Don, thanks for making me THE GREATEST, Muhammad Ali.” He said, “The Rumble in the Jungle was my right of passage as a man.” It was, according to his own words, “The defining moment in an extraordinary life story.”