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Originally posted by Cowperson+Sep 25 2004, 05:42 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Cowperson @ Sep 25 2004, 05:42 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>
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Originally posted by Vulcan@Sep 26 2004, 12:05 AM
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@Sep 25 2004, 04:07 PM
If I'm not mistaken, Cassius Clay, aka Muhammed Ali, went to the draft board and said "I'm not going" and served some prison time.
He didn't jump the border.
I think someone offered earlier the most appropriate viewpoint. Erecting a monument to people who deserted is probably not needed since they literally did nothing that would give us pause to remember them in any kind of light. They certainly weren't heroes.
Let them fade into the darkness of history.
Cowperson
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Ali, despite being a highschool grad failed the army intelligence test twice before the draft board lowered their standards. When push came to shove he said "I have nothing against the Viet Cong" and refused to step forward. He was stripped of his title and became probably the most hated man in the USA among main stream media and the so-called "silent majority". I remember his lawyers kept him out of jail, but really "if you remember the 60's, you weren't there" and I was definitely there.
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This exerpt:
Finally, a soldier told Ali he would have to draft a statement explaining why he declined to serve in his nation's Army. Ali wrote quickly: "I refuse to be inducted into the armed forces of the United States because I claim to be exempt as a minister of the religion of Islam."
And he did serve some time in prison.
When Ali refused to serve, he was stripped of his title, sentenced to prison, and fined $10,000. Freed on appeal, he was inactive for over three years while his case dragged on. The state of New York eventually granted him a license in 1970, and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor in 1971.
A good history here.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/doubleissue/heroes/ali.htm
Cowperson [/b][/quote]
Ali like many others, claimed consciencious[sp] objector status as his official reason for declining service and it rarely worked. He also made the statement about the Viet Cong. I guess he did serve some time, as I said my memory of the 60's isn't perfect. I was, before his draft, during his troubles and after, always a big fan of Ali. The only thing, at the time, was coming to grips with his conversion to the Muslims and his change of name.