THE ONE MAN WHO CHANGED THE AMERICAN ETHOS: ALI!

Elvis was drafted... so was I. There are a lot of things in our lives .. but none like getting your hair shaved off, wearing fatigues and combat boots and  running a mile before breakfast in a company of 55 men! Casius Clay wasn't one of them. He claimed he had nothing against the Viet Cong... it's just he was chicken in my view.




His mouth and his glove gained him fame and fortune. He claimed once on Boston talk radio "I'm a loud mouth N......." Ali sure was.




His defiant acts against the Louisville Local Board got him in trouble. Ali lost his Title for several years. Worse yet, his rebellious mannerisms influence millions American youth. I call them Draft Dodgers! Many young Americans begged off from military service with a plethora of alibis from flat feet to heart murmurs. I recently saw some historic records of a North Brookfield youth... and family money...got him exempt from serving.




In my view, Ali poisioned the well of Patriotism. Despite this fact, the U.S. Government hailed him as a hero. Boxer Joe Louis donned a Uniform in WWII. Elvis entertained the troops in Germany.




In California Free Love  revealed a "sick society" and we don't have to go to far today with some millennials sporting nose rings, strawberry-dyed hair, tattoos over tattoos, and marriages to SmartPhones. These young, emerging adults, seem wayward and oblivious to what maturity really means.




Will this spinoff of the "Ali-era" come to their senses or are their lives.....( Fill in the Blanks..)

America.. a society in flux..may or may not be in for a surprise!