Following on from the respect thing below is this little piece.
I know that Muhammed Ali is suffering from Parkinson's Disease and has been for 22 years now. At 63 it's sad to see such a superb athlete now unable to walk unaided.
This is a man that demanded respect for all of the right reasons. Intelligent, articulate, supremely confident, an athlete who was at the very top of his profession for so long, a black man living through times where it was almost impossible for him to be treated as an equal. He spoke up for the things that he believed in and had the courage of his convictions. You may not agree with everything he said, but when he said it you still listened.
"It's not bragging if you can back it up." he once said. I agree completely. He did too, and even now (where during an interview it took him 2 minutes just to get a sip of water) people who see him tell of the steely determination he still has, the fact that he won't let his disease beat him.
A true great.
Posted by AlexC at March 1, 2006 01:25 PM