Veterans Day: American Dissent and Muhammad Ali ~ An Abens Review on the Bryan William Brickner Blog

“American dissent is not descending,” opened Ew Publishing’s Bryan W. Brickner, “rather, it’s one of America’s highest virtues.”

In Veterans Day: American Dissent and Muhammad Ali ~ An Abens Review on the Bryan William Brickner Blog, author William Abens takes a good look at dissent via the movie Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight. Abens, part of the pen name Publius used for The Cannabis Papers: A citizen’s guide to cannabinoids (2011), notes the Supreme Court technical victory Ali achieved – while also becoming a voice of dissent in troubling and turbulent times.

“Whatever being an American veteran means,” Brickner observed, “the discussion always centers around the flag and our freedoms, our liberties.”

Brickner, publisher of The Cannabis Papers, a book banned in 2012 by the Illinois Department of Corrections, drew comparisons between Ali’s religious freedom fight and Publius’ forays; for example, Julie Falco’s dissenting amygdala (essay 30) and Dianna Lynn Meyer’s recalcitrant drug-testing of professionalism (essay 19). Abens contributed a dissenting essay as well, number 21: “Hi, my name is Publius and I’ve been an alcoholic since 1972.”

“With Muhammad Ali and William Abens,” continued Brickner, “you have two Americans who were born into an ill-fitted world. With Ali it was the draft or religious freedom; with Abens it was alcohol or his life.”

“Dissenting voices are a Spirit of ’76 virtue,” closed Brickner, “and veterans tend to honor and defend that spirit and tradition: you know, those things that make us Americans.”

The Bryan William Brickner Blog is a collection of published works and press coverage and an ongoing resource for the political science of constitutions and the biological science of receptors.

Tomorrow, 11 November, Ew Publishing’s Veterans Day run wraps-up with Robert E. Lee’s Nemesis, the Gallant Fourteenth.

The Cannabis Papers is available at online retailers and for free by download.