Every Sunday now, Parking Suns posts a YouTube music video about the sun. I was going to post something upbeat today but changed my mind when I learned that Muhammad Ali had died. It’s tragic and shocking, and I’m speechless. He meant so much to so many people, and his enormous impact on the world is incalculable.
So here’s a melancholy “When Sunny Gets Blue,” sung by Hanbyul Kang, who also plays the ukulele. (Is the song’s title an oblique reference to Sonny Liston? OK, maybe….)
I’ll paste a photo of, and quote by, Muhammad Ali below, and add this post to the Parkinson Pantheon category.
Muhammad Ali on why he refused to be drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War:
“Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.”
Click here for previous Sunny Sundays vids.
Enjoy your week! And thanks, Muhammad Ali, for standing out and speaking up!
