There is a theology, if we may call it such, that asserts something like this: No one person's death is any more significant than another's – regardless of your social, political, or economic status on the national or global stage. No matter the height or brightness of your star, when you dead, you done.
I don't argue with this, in the whole. Yet, taking it apart a bit, or looking at this thinking from another angle, it must be said that everyone has touched someone, affected someone, moved someone.
Even newborns who live but moments. Even people who've committed vile acts against other humans.
Every person's departure from this planet causes a shift – in feeling, in consciousness, in will, in purpose, perhaps in the actions of others.
Someone shared with me today their anger and frustration at hearing Muhammad Ali's death brushed off with this narrow theology, a message that went something like: "Cassius Clay was just like the rest of us. We all gotta go sometime."
End of quote. End of him. That's all, folks! So long. Farewell. Goodbye. Moving on.
I take issue with this theology for a number of reasons, but I'm striving to make a point in brief: We cannot responsibly and accountably – as leaders, teachers, influencers, motivators, advisors – talk about Muhammad Ali's death without talking about HIS LIFE!
Muhammad Ali LIVED before he died. He opened up his life to scrutiny and the possibility of destruction to resist a warring ideology he found to be abstract, unjust, and inhumane.
The details of how he lived are objectionable to some people, indeed. However, that he lived in a way that mattered to black people and oppressed people the world over is undeniable and very important. How he lived is proof that we can be different from each other yet still help each other, cheer each other, give each other hope. His life is an example that we can stand up for other human beings, those whom we don't know, even when governments threaten and attempt to destroy us for doing so. That's what he did. It is documented.
If you're going to preach about him and leave that out, why are you talking?
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