Muhammad Ali being embrached by President Bush as a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[/caption]Carol Forsloff --Muhammad Ali protested the war in Vietnam at a critical time in his career as a boxer. Martha Stewart was a household name as an adviser on all things household in a multi-million dollar empire of her making but found guilty of insider trading. Both went to prison for crossing the line in some way they might have avoided through money and influence. How does this differ with Edward Snowden and what might be history's verdict?
Obviously there are differences in the backgrounds of Snowden, Ali and Stewart and the circumstances and behaviors of each when they made decisions that could damage their careers and cause them to be charged with criminal offenses. But there is a prism of values in a broader sense that makes some comparisons reasonable of the behaviors of all three of these individuals, as they have been viewed at the time they made their controversial decisions and what history's perception might be.
Muhammad Ali was a young boxer/fighter of great promise when he won the title of heavyweight champion of the world against George Foreman in the early 1960’s. He was known for his colorful poetic style, his in-your-face manner, and his thumbing his nose at every establishment figure in the world of sports and elsewhere. He was admired for his athletic skills but not beloved for his behavior, so when he became a Muslim and consequently refused to fight in the Vietnam War, few stood up and cheered his stance, except the more shrill of the anti-Vietnam movement at the time. Because he had been drafted, and refused to serve in the war, according to the laws of the United States at the time, he had to go to prison. He did, losing his treasured trophies, his reputation and a good deal of the time he needed to maintain his athletic skills.
Ali left prison a changed man, with a following that expanded over the years, until he has become a respected figure in the eyes of many people in the United States. He was seen by some of the liberal-minded folks of the 1960’s as a heroic figure. Now, however, he is lauded as a man of strong will and the character to stand up for his beliefs in an authentic way, even as he had to stand up against racism that was a visible blot on the American landscape. A movie has been made of his life, and he has received many commendations for his generosity and service in many areas, even as he has suffered disabilities from Parkinson’s disease. His story is now seen by history as the story of American opposition to the Vietnam War and also of how history changes the perception about those who suffer consequences for their beliefs in the manner he did. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in November 2005.
Martha Stewart was accused of having inside trader information in the financial arena. She went through a complex trial, that was already playing out in the press at the time, being found guilty of knowing and using that inside financial information, which was against the law. She went to prison, where she worked with female prisoners, teaching, guiding, consoling and generally being the woman of decorum that remains a figure of stature in the how-to world of both men and women.
Edward Snowden took a job that required a security clearance and took an oath not to reveal any information that was labeled as government secrets. It is the kind of security clearance given to engineers, physicists and others who work in sensitive areas on sensitive government projects. But he took the job, he says, specifically to reveal secrets, thereby violating both his company code and the government’s laws. Rather than going to an American agency or media outlet first, he elected to divulge his secrets to foreign press and governments.
For Snowden, what is the judgment of him now and what will history's verdict be when he becomes the age of Muhammad Ali and Martha Stewart? Will he be seen as a hero or traitor or just a man who made a decision and took the consequences in his own way, without any future redemption? Some people have ambivalent feelings about all three figures in this discussion, but it remains the man or woman who flees, not faces, immediate consequences that does not have history's best assessment. That's because character is often the standard by which many people rise and fall in the long lens of history's accounts.
