RF23- Forgive and Forget..Not me.

With the news that the great Joe Frazier was death-fully ill and now passed. I read the news obituaries and comments about Smokin. Joe. Frazier. One report had that Don King, the same Don King, who if you heard being interviewed, can't be quieted was emotional and quieted by the death of one half of the thrilla of the manilla cast. And then there was Ali, Ali made a brief statement saying he respected Frazier.

Really Ali?

You see, I, like every young fan of boxing, who watched Ali fight with my dad and brothers, was a Muhammand Ali fan, a big Ali fan, everytime Ali was on with the great Howard Cosell, he demanded instant attention and for me my respect. Because you see, I heard the stance Ali took in regard to Vietnam. I read his auto-biography that told us that he grew up in Louisville, KY and the reason why he began boxing in the first place, was because someone stole his bike.

Ali was the greatest. But then I saw the HBO documentary about Ali v. Frazier's first fight dubbed the "Fight Of The Century." I. was. pissed., I was mislead about the so called greatest. You see Ali may have been bullied as a boy, but what he did to Joe Frazier was tantamount to black on black crime and the weapon used was the most dangerous weapon of all..

The tongue.

And for what?

Money? to get back what he lost? jealousy? hatred?

Today, Ali can't articulate in his own words of what caused the behavior he exhibited towards Frazier and continued to do so after the first fight.

He called Frazier a Tom. a Gorilla. his fans called Frazier a sellout and doing the devils (white man) bidding for fighting Ali, who a good portion of the public felt that if the average black person who was drafted and giving their lives to a war, they didn't start but doing their duty in comparison to Ali who refused and said, No Viet-Cong never called him, nigger.

But he called Frazier worse things.

That documentary had me so disappointed and angry at Ali, I couldn't look at him. Of course, when that program came on, I was making my transition from being a X-Clan listenin', Malcom X hat wearing and blaming da white man, black militant. I started to see the country in a different way. I stopped blaming some unknown white person for my own bad choices! and I realized what I wanted in my government and in my country. And the more right, I went, the more insults I received..

Sell Out..Tom..boot licker.

Somehow, I went from being articulate to non-thinking and unable to give good credible reasons of why I'm a Republican. A Black Republican.

A parrot.

This does not compare to the hell, Ali put Frazier through. His wife..His children! Only one man of color could know of what Frazier was going through and I don't know what his stance was during the "Fight of Century" and that was Hank Aaron.

And Aaron was being victimized by racists! who could not bear the sight of a black baseball player breaking the record of their so called greatest! And I can go further than Aaron! Jack Johnson! and he went through a helluva lot more than Aaron!

And you have a black man in Ali, to do what he did to this man, his family and his values for a buck! Oh! the documentary said that when Ali was banned from boxing it WAS JOE FRAZIER THAT GAVE HIM MONEY!! TO FEED HIS KIDS!! TO TAKE CARE OF HIS FAMILY!!

and he did this to this great champion. I will always respect Ali for his talents in the ring. But I will never, ever! respect the man outside of the ring.

Forgiveness was yet again another great feat that Joe displayed.