Letter: Ali is a role model

Ron@vegas.com

Thursday, Dec. 23, 1999 | 9:07 a.m.

I doubt you will run this letter, but please forward it to Lorrin Peterson (who wrote negatively about Muhammad Ali in last week's letters).

Too bad that medical student she referred to didn't follow Ali's example and refuse to go to Vietnam. He would still be alive today and he probably would have saved quite a few lives himself as a doctor.

Willie Shoemaker, on the other hand, got stinking drunk and got behind the wheel of his car. He was so trashed he zoomed into a pole. Thankfully, he didn't hurt any innocent passers-by. Because the police felt bad for Shoemaker (he was paralyzed), they didn't hit him with drunken driving charges. Shoemaker took advantage of this fact and sued GM and the state of California for his injuries. That is your idea of a role model?

I'll take Ali any day.

I find it sad that just because you disagree with his political views, you refuse to realize that he sacrificed his best years and millions of dollars to peacefully protest what he considered to be unjust.

That is my idea of a role model.

-- SCOTT SHAFFER

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