janeck 🇵🇸

[Alon Mizrahi @alon_mizrahi]

In June of 1967, at the same time as Israel was starting to enact its military dictatorship over the West Bank and Gaza, the biggest athlete of his time and one of the most famous and recognizable icons of his era, Muhammad Ali, was sentenced to five years in prison for his refusal to join the US military and serve in the Vietnam war.

Two months earlier, on April 28th, his boxing license was suspended, and he was stripped of his heavyweight world champion title and arrested: 3 times his name was called at a Military Entrance Processing Station in Houston, and 3 times he would not step forward.

Before and after that day, he was active and speaking against the war to American students in universities, in rallies throughout the country, in press conferences, and interviews.

He never once buckled under pressure, and crafted some of the most memorable and popular quotes of the Vietnam era like "I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong", or

"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."
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Choosing wisely, the American state did not destroy Ali. Ali came back to the ring after 3 years of forced absence, reclaimed his title, and, beating all the best heavyweights of the time, created an unmatched legacy in all of sports history.
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Almost 60 years after that, it is impossible to even imagine, say, Lebron James or Stephen Curry talking with anything similar to that clarity and conviction about, say, a certain genocide and their country's support for it. It's inconceivable. They see themselves as nothing but earners and entertainers.

I often think about the timeless greatness of Ali, being not only the greatest boxing champion of all time but a great formidable political spirit as well. Ali who did not succumb to fear and pressure and risked his career, freedom, many millions of dollars, and even his life (in a country notorious for lone assassins) by consistently refusing to join a war the American public was still overwhelmingly for at the time.

And what do we have today? Complete craven silence. All the great athletes, rock stars, actors - deafening silence.

Not one of them has as much to lose as Ali did, at the height of a singular career in global sports. Not one of them risks jail time, fierce public hate, or financial ruin. Still, they find no courage to speak up.

They all count their dollars and likes in the dark, psychologically broken, and morbidly anxious stars of nothingness.
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Nearly 6 decades after he willingly put everything on the line for his principles in a spectacular act of real-time political nonconformity, The Great One still shines as a huge beacon of light in a sea of rancid complicity. An inspiration and a role model like no other.
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The absence of an Ali-like figure of our times tells a sad and uniquely poignant story about the triumph of capitalism and conformity over the human spirit in America in the post-Vietnam era; it also tells us how much of a giant Ali really was.

[inqilāb @tastefullysaucy]

We’d ask Palestinian college students how they feel too but they’re dead and all their colleges have been razed to the ground.

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

@RuruPepito Je ne l'ai pas encore lu, mais suite au dernier épisode de Kiffe ta Race, je viens de commander "Antisémitisme & Islamophobie : une histoire croisée" de Reza Zia-Ebrahimi https://t.co/N3p54ueO1Z

[Ludivine Bantigny @LBantigny]

Demande solennelle à celles et ceux qui mènent les interviews: s'il vous plaît, pouvez-vous indiquer que de nombreux spécialistes des génocides, historiens mais aussi juristes, parmi lesquels des Israéliens, évoquent clairement un génocide à Gaza? Voici quelques exemples🧵

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

Done!

[Rethink35 - Stop I-35 expansion & demand better! @rethink35]

The big announcement is finally here...

We're suing TxDOT over its proposed I-35 expansion!! 😆🎉😆

The lawsuit over the I-35 Cap Ex Central Project will be filed by the end of the week. Then, we will share more about our arguments & diverse co-plaintiff coalition.

Get ready!

[claude askolovitch @askolovitchC]

« Avec la plainte de l’Afrique du Sud contre Israël pour génocide, le Sud conteste une mémoire dominée par la Shoah et lui oppose celle de la colonisation ». Belle -et terrible- analyse de ⁦@SylvieKauffmann⁩ dans ⁦@lemondefr⁩ https://t.co/574nFJ5YpU

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

found the article: https://t.co/g4qjinaLjR

[Les Echos @LesEchos]

Comment les cinémas américains jouent la carte du « premium » https://t.co/97MfjdCckA

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

I was not expected to arrive in France and find an article in @LesEchos that talks about @alamodrafthouse, the « cinémas les plus cools du monde » (the coolest movie theatres in the world)

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

Just got an automated call about Michelle Wolf's show in Austin being rescheduled in May. I was in a loud environment and could not understand everything. What was this about @ParamountAustin ?

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

"Texas could spend federal funds meant to cut carbon emissions on highway projects" 🤡

[Texas Tribune @TexasTribune]

The Texas Department of Transportation plans to spend about half a billion federal dollars on projects that the agency says will lessen the amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide emitted into the air. https://t.co/YVtkgRNBsG

[Wyatt Gordon @yitgordon]

As someone who predominantly walks and bikes to get around, do you ever feel exhausted spending so much mental effort trying to stay alive just to get where you need to go?

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

My heart stopped for a second. What a delight to listen to this album I know by heart ...but now with some extras 😍

[BrooklynVegan @brooklynvegan]

Portishead share remastered & expanded 'Roseland NYC Live' for its 25th anniversary https://t.co/ildaASTlyX

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

@ZilkerGarden @MCKGaston Unfortunately I can't come, please save one for me 🥹

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

@PatrickThevenin ah ah, oui !

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

@PatrickThevenin où j'appris que le G-Stoned est une copie conforme du Bookends de Simon & Garfunkel 🤯

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

@ZilkerGarden Is your beautiful Dîner en Blanc event poster available for purchase?

[Microsoft @Microsoft]

In honor of @MarvelStudios’ #GotGVol3 we’re giving away this never opened Microsoft Zune. We have no idea if it works. Like and RT for a chance to win! US 18+. Ends 5/17/23. Rules: https://t.co/Mdr2C4z9aY. #ZuneSweepstakes

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

@pecsupremacy LOL non mais ce que je me suis dit en fait, et tu dois déjà avoir l'habitude en temps que belge 🤣

[janeck 🇵🇸 @janeck]

@pecsupremacy Bah je ne sais pas si je peux généraliser, mais a chaque fois que je vais à Montréal, les locaux me disent qu'il en ont marre des français qui viennent vivre ici, pas tant par xénophobie, mais plutôt à cause de l'arrogance et sentiment de supériorité des français...