A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing. | | | | American boxer Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali.
(Underwood Archives/Getty Images) | | | | | |  | "A rooster crows only when it sees the light. Put him in the dark and he'll never crow. I have seen the light and I'm crowing."
| | | | | | rantnrave:// MUHAMMAD ALI is one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. Maybe the most famous athlete that ever lived. He was also someone who stood up for principles he believed in. Whether you liked it or not. He wasn't looking for anyone's permission. You know what else? Much of the media, boxing fans, politicians and others cast him as a pariah. He resisted the VIETNAM WAR draft. The NSA and FBI monitored his communications because of this. During that time he was a traitor to many. A racist black man who hated whites. None of that was true. He was dangerous to the establishment and to the status quo of professional sports. Few remember that now. They remember the glorious athlete with the sharp tongue. The hero, philanthropist, and humanitarian. The one presidents want to meet and call on. Last year at LA's UPFRONT SUMMIT, I walked up to COLIN KAEPERNICK and introduced myself. I wanted to remind him of that history. That sacrifice is never easy but if he sticks to his principles he won't regret it in the long run. Yesterday, he found himself in the thick of support and boycott yet again. NIKE followed its longstanding playbook of endorsing iconoclasts and mavericks like JOHN MCENROE and CHARLES BARKLEY. Colin is the face of Nike's new campaign honoring the 30th anniversary of its "Just Do It" mantra. And given where we are in AMERICA, this may be the company's most controversial one yet. TWITTER is on fire with boycotts and protests. Furious with the idea that Nike picked a side. Spewing that Colin uses race to save a failed career. Pictures of people burning their Nike gear. It's also on fire with support. Some for his cause. Some that don't agree with his cause but agree with his right. I don't want to think that Nike picked a side. It chose to promote someone taking a stand for what he thinks is right. And it thinks that's good business. We are free to debate that issue. But celebrating him isn't binary. You can support Kaepernick's cause while still -- like him -- supporting your country, your country's military, and your country's flag. Should it be possible to separate this campaign from the idea of taking sides? Everybody is so quick to take sides on anything and everything these days. Everything has to be left or right? Blue or red? Why can't it just be a campaign about a sneaker and a citizen-athlete? Then again, some say, of course, Nike is taking sides. Is it possible to not take sides in 2018? Not with a topic like this. Not when the weakminded leader of the free world has turned the topic into an America vs. America crusade. Even if it doesn't want to take sides, it has to know that of course, it is. Right? But you know what? That's not Nike's f***ing fault. Colin K is now a larger-than-life figure just like those "Just Do Its" who came before. In a different way. Why can't a shoe company celebrate that? Is it even possible to find a nonpartisan endorser of any product anymore? Well, maybe. There's one great nonpartisan endorser: MIKE TROUT. He has a Nike deal. And despite being possibly the greatest baseball player alive, he's gone out of his way to avoid being a public figure. To avoid being a celebrity. And, therefore, maybe not Nike's best spokesman. So what the hell is a sneaker company to do? Is it possible to attach yourself to Colin Kaepernick without attaching yourself to the divisive issue he represents? Should it be possible? Was it ever possible? Organized and professional sports have always been saddled with substantial race issues. That's a fact. Not the actual play, but everything around it. And what about debate? I can tell you from what I've seen and experienced. No one wants to debate really. They came in with their stance. I reached out to an old friend on FACEBOOK who I haven't seen since high school. He's boycotting Nike now. I asked if he would like to go for a drink and we can debate it. What did I get back? To paraphrase: "No thanks, I'm good." That's America now. That's the attitude we should boycott... Happy Birthday to TYESH HARRIS, ANIL DASH, JEN BEKMAN, RICHARD GAY, JOSH NORMAND, EUGENIE NIVEN GOODMAN, BRUCE CHIZEN, BARBARA HALEY, ADRIAN SEXTON, and JEFF SHULTZ. | | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator | | | |  | Firing Line with William F. Buckley Jr. | | Episode 130, Recorded on December 12, 1968 Guest: Muhammad Ali | | | |  | ESPN | | Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach Deland McCullough went searching for his biological parents. He found them where he never would have expected. | | | |  | The Atlantic | | Artificial intelligence could erase many practical advantages of democracy, and erode the ideals of liberty and equality. It will further concentrate the power among a small elite if we don't take steps to stop it. | | | |  | Vox | | Swedish researcher Carl Cederström on how corporations redefined happiness and turned hippies into Reagan voters. | | | |  | Forbes | | A must-read for anyone who serves on a board. Kevin Sharer, former CEO of Amgen, breaks down the do's, don'ts and nuances of the art of being an effective director. | | | |  | GQ | | A strange thing has happened to men over the past few decades: We've become increasingly infertile, so much so that within a generation we may lose the ability to reproduce entirely. | | | |  | Salon | | Celebrities like Judd Apatow and Jim Carrey said no thanks to sharing a bill with Steve Bannon. Good for them | | | |  | Aeon Magazine | | We know music is pleasurable, the question is why? Many answers have been proposed: perhaps none are quite right. | | | |  | Vulture | | When Jonah Hill was 7 years old, his parents asked him what he wanted to do when he grew up. He told them, "I want to move to Springfield," the town where the Simpsons live. The Simpsons was Hill's favorite show, though that's like saying the Bible was Billy Graham's favorite book; it undersells the influence somewhat. | | | |  | The New York Times | | Some regulations are necessary, but others could hinder innovation and growth in what is arguably the United States' greatest industry. | | | |  | The Verge | | "Start by breaking off WhatsApp and Instagram." | | | |  | Fast Company | | As we say goodbye to summer, we explain why the drink in your wine glass is probably pink. | | | | | The Atlantic | | A nearly 50-year campaign of vilification, inspired by Fox News's Roger Ailes, has left many Americans distrustful of media outlets. Now, journalists need to speak up for their work. | | | |  | The Washington Post | | Aides routinely stole documents off Trump's desk. Military leaders ignored the president's orders. And the backstabbing went both ways. | | | |  | TED Talks | | The world is becoming increasingly open, and that has implications both bright and dangerous. Marc Goodman paints a portrait of a grave future, in which technology's rapid development could allow crime to take a turn for the worse. | | | |  | Wired | | In a Q&A with Mark Warner, vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the senator talks about the search giant's glaring absence at this week's committee hearings, and the White House's #stopthebias campaign. | | | |  | Slate | | The guitarist whom Dave Davies and Jimmy Page worshipped. | | | |  | Hollywood Reporter | | The network's first-ever non-English series, produced with Italy's RAI network, is the adaptation of Elena Ferrante's novel following the friendship of two girls growing up in 1950s Naples. | | | |  | The Daily Beast | | Comey's revelation about more Hillary Clinton emails days before the 2016 election cost her the presidency, argues author and attorney Lanny Davis. But at least there's Mueller. | | | |  | Daily Review | | Recommendation engines tend to be opaque for commercial reasons, which means that even though we know the result, we can't discover what drives the choices. (Excerpted from "What Matters? Taking Value in Australian Culture.") | | | | |  | | YouTube | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | © Copyright 2018, The REDEF Group | | |
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