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Saturday, 15 August 2020

Saturday Rave: Me by Muhammad Ali.

 In 1975 the great man (and also great boxer) Muhammad Ali was addressing a couple of thousand people at Harvard University. His speech basically said you've got an education, now use it to make the world a better place.

And were the scholars of Harvard content with the best advice they could possibly have had, from one of the twentieth century's most remarkable men?

No, they weren't.

Someone called for a poem.

Now, the problem is that this very short poem was spoken by Muhammad Ali, and not written down, so no one is exactly sure how it went.

It could have been:

Me

We

which might express a sense of solidarity and communion with all mankind: no man is an island, as another great man once said.

On the other hand, some have said it should be written:

Me

Whee!

which in this case may express a delight in his own genius, or the simple relief of an uneducated man at having got out of Harvard unscathed.

Mind you, it would have been a brave man who threw anything.

Word To Use Today: we. The Old English form of this word was wē, but it goes right back to the Sanskrit vayam.


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