. >> my dad was a bombardier in the army air force. my 92 years young father.nd if anybody was going to take an aggressive posture against what ali stood for, it would have been my dad. but my dad always says this. he said, they call us the greatest generation. they talk about how brave we were. he said, that man was brave. and for my dad, that's all it took. >> yeah, that was an act of bravery in its time. charlie pierce is with us, former sports columnist for the boston herald. these days with escwire. i know you want in on this conversation. placing him in the history of our society in the last several decades. >> ever since the news broke, i keep having the walt whitman line ringing through my head. do i contradict myself? very well, i am large. i don't think there's ever been a better line written about america than that. because -- and i don't think there's ever been a more american life than the one born cassius clay, later muhammad ali, lived. because he was one of the great manifestations of the most basic contradiction in american life, which is the f