The Greatest

By Professor Francis A. Boyle

04 June, 2016
Countercurrents.org

Hitching back to UC north on Stoney Island
Through the Black Belt
Not very smart
But I was young,felt invulnerable, and had street smarts
A well off Black Businessman picks me up in a Lincoln
A White Boy like you should not be hitch-hiking through this Black neighborhood
Of course he was right
Maybe that’s why he picked me up
To look out for me
A Black Angel?
Said nothing in response, just smiled
Said he was a business manager for Muhamed Ali

LOL I said to myself, but just smiled and said nothing

You see that Black Fleetwood up there coming south
That’s Ali

Up pulled a Black Cadillac Limo as big as a boat
Driving it was Muhamed Ali
Champion of the World
And hell no I won’t go
A great fighter, and a great man
Simply the Greatest
He was driving with the right hand, left on the side of the car
Wearing white shirt

Young, Black, beautiful, charistmatic, dynamic

I was stunned, mouth agape

All traffic stopped on Stoney, now King
As the two of them shot the breeze
No one cared, it was Ali
Then he continued south
My driver told the truth
Shall never forget that day
When a White kid
Hitching through the Black Belt
Met Muhamed Ali
It was simply the Greatest
And he was and shall always be the Greatest.
Hell no, I wont go!
We all knew Ali was a great fighter
That made him a great man
The Greatest.

Professor Francis A. Boyle is an international law expert and served as Legal Advisor to the Palestine Liberation Organization and Yasser Arafat on the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, as well as to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations from 1991 to 1993, where he drafted the Palestinian counter-offer to the now defunct Oslo Agreement. His books include “ Palestine, Palestinians and International Law” (2003), and “ The Palestinian Right of Return under International Law” (2010).