To the Editor:
I was appalled to see an almost full-page advertisement for a luxury handbag purveyor in the nation’s leading daily financial newspaper in which "The Greatest," Muhammad Ali, is pictured as he gazes admiringly at a young boy wearing a white undershirt and boxing gloves, the text noting that the child is “a rising star.”
How in heaven’s name can the man who has aged prematurely, whose life has been shattered through repeated blows to the head, advocate the same for innocent, impressionable children, and how can the producer of this advertisement exploit such violence?
Boxing is legalized savagery. It is a marker of a warped society that individuals can delight in a “sport” in which the object is to beat the opponent to the point at which he or she loses consciousness. Perhaps the boxing fan would be pleased if gladiator matches were to make a comeback.
Muhammad Ali may not have the cognitive ability to enable him to act responsibly for the next generation, or perhaps he is so greatly in need of money that he will sell out young children. What is the handbag manufacturer’s excuse? I suppose it is that profit is to be maximized at all costs. What a disgrace!
Oren Spiegler
Upper St. Clair
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