“Build Bridges, Not Walls”
Things That Make One Wonder … and Think
This was a comment from Muhammad Ali, a Black Muslim American from Louisville, Kentucky. How quickly we, the people of this country, forget.
I wonder how many of those today espousing racial hatred, and religious hatred would dare to do so today if The Champ were still alive. Certainly never in front of him.
It’s mind-boggling to me we have members of Congress, politicians in general, members of law enforcement, and people who refer to themselves as Americans, citizens, and patriots (they are not) who decades later find the need to disrespect Muslim Americans, Black Americans, and Jews in order to justify their own inadequacies in life.
Ali was a great American who refused to see barriers. He fought against obstacles and broke down walls. He once said, “I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me.”
Ali used to go jogging in the early morning and invited Billy Crystal to join him. Billy said he couldn’t and Ali said “c’mon it’ll be fun”. He explained it as a private golf course and Crystal said he couldn’t. Ali asked why and Crystal explained that Jews were banned and not allowed at that club. Ali never went there again.
He had Billy Crystal’s back then and always. A Black Muslim and a Jew were not only best friends but referred to each other openly as brothers. Ali’s nickname for Crystal was “little brother”.
These are the types of stories from our past, a part of our history, that politicians, particularly Republicans wish to erase. Today, the mention of race, mention of anything other than Christianity in schools is forbidden. These are subjects not to be spoken of in schools. These are the basis of books not to be read in schools and libraries.
Every American should listen to Billy Crystal’s Eulogy for Muhhamad Ali. It shows how successful we can be by building bridges, not walls, between people. And it is indeed a perfect example of respect for another who is so different from us.
Building bridges, not walls are what this nation needs. It should be the byline to our future as a nation. But it will never have until we change as a nation and as a people. This starts with our elections and changing our government, changing the people in our government who spend their days collecting salaries to espouse hatred of all kinds, not fixing problems but creating more problems.
Let’s start building bridges, not walls.