Headline July 2nd, 2012

The Spokesman, The Messenger, The Representative, 

The Diplomat, The Ambassador:

"The Peoples's Champion"

He proclaimed himself  ''The Greatest'' But he was always prone to understatement. He beat the kind of giants the fight game no longer breeds---Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, the young and thuggish George Foreman--but the true measure of the man was that he knew instinctively what to do afterward, when power and glory were his. 

No hiding behind the Millions he earned, no 'morphing into the monster' that success makes of so many of us in and out of sports. That of course, would have just been too easy, and, but, Muhammed Ali chose no easy paths in his life outside the boxing ring. 

He shed the name Cassius Clay as if it were a slave master's shackles, he found peace in a religion that confounded the heartland's sensibilities, and he declined to wage war on a country that hadn't come looking for a fight. 

This was a free man in every sense of the word. This was a Man in Full, one who could inspire black Americans when pride became their rallying cry in the 60s. He taught them to believe in themselves, just as he taught the rest of us to believe in him. 

And he made the nation laugh while he was doing it, gleefully tormenting Howard Cosell, performing magic tricks for delighted strangers and astounding the future ''pooh-bahs'' at 'Harvard' with what remains both history's shortest poem and the best description of his impact on society: ''Me./Whee!'' Transcending his sport, Transcending all sports, Ali became the first truly global athlete. 

He took championship fights out of the traditional fleshpots and deposited them in Third World countries whose faraway villages needed no electricity to get word of his greatness. It didn't matter that he ruled the planet in those dark days before ESPN and marketing deals and the other phenomena that have turned his successors into international products instead of mere sports page swashbucklers. 

At the end of a century in which our relationship with sports has evolved from pastime into preoccupation, you can look as long and as hard as you want and never find anyone who is the equal of Muhammed Ali. In all and every fairness only four men ever came close to matching his impact, which may seem a harsh judgement considering the multitude of heroes and champions the world has anointed. 

So in parting, remember, or ask yourself: that if life came with a report card, how many of you would bebringing home straight A's. Haha! 

 And as America sets the pace and heights of greatness, Philippines rises and overtakes India and zeros in on Canada. UK gets sure footed and closes in on Pakistan. And Pakistani Students battle elements and ponder their moves. 

Thank you! God bless our World with Peace, harmony and Love! Prosperity will come by! 

Good Night and God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - The Voice Of the Voiceless!