Cindy Sheehan, the now-famous California mother whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, was arrested Sept. 27 for protesting without a permit in front of the White House.

Lyndie England, an Army private, was sentenced to three years in prison Sept. 27 for her role in the Abu-Ghraib prison abuse scandal.

Who is better? A woman who peacefully protests can’t be worse than a woman who led naked prisoners around on a leash. Wearing a uniform doesn’t sanctify. Wearing a peace symbol doesn’t demonize.

Some people don’t agree, such as Paul LaLonde my esteemed fellow columnist. His last column attacked Sheehan, criticizing her comment in a blog, which read:

” [I] am watching [CNN] and it is 100 percent [R]ita … even though it is a little wind and a little rain … it is bad, but there are other things going on in this country today … and in the world!!!!”

LaLonde said her actions were reprehensible and a blatant abuse of her freedoms, and her crusade is now about her selfishness and utter contempt for people in pain. LaLonde went on to wish America had less Cindy Sheehans.

Whoa, easy there Paul. While her comment was unacceptably insensitive to people whose lives Rita has destroyed, LaLonde is making an elephant out of an ant.

CNN reported on Sept. 27 two people had been killed by Rita. CNN reported on Oct. 7 floods in Central America had killed 250 people or 125 times Rita’s death toll. Sheehan is protesting almost 2,000 Americans being killed in Iraq.

If Sheehan’s comment is correct, it is also apt. Rita’s two victims likely got more media play than Central America’s 250 or the 100,000 people protesting with Sheehan over the 2,000 Americans killed in Iraq.

Also, since the Iraq war was waged for false reasons and has no end in sight, no one can say Sheehan is selfish, contemptuous or reprehensible in trying to save other mothers’ sons. Americans also can’t abuse their freedoms by peacefully exercising them. Freedom of speech isn’t limited to those who agree with the powers-that-be.

That is shown by my hero, three-time heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Perhaps the greatest heavyweight ever, Ali refused to join the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, saying, “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong.”

People called him a “coward” or “disloyal,” a parallel to the treatment of Sheehan. But he had his reasons for doing it. LaLonde rhetorically asks why people stay if this is a racist country. At least LaLonde, a history major, must admit this was a hugely racist country in the 1960s.

In “Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties,” Mike Marqusee writes, “Physical attacks on blacks by white supremacists had increased fivefold between 1961 and 1966. In 1966, it seemed that racists could assault any black person any time, anywhere, and get away with it.”

He also wrote 30 percent of draft-eligible African Americans were inducted versus 18 percent of eligible whites. Maybe that’s why Ali refused to serve. For doing so, Ali almost went to jail, was stripped of his title and became bankrupt. Even the Nation of Islam expelled Ali for a year in 1969. Yet Ali stood by what he believed and paid the price. He might not have paid any price if he accepted induction.

Another great African-American champion, Joe Louis, went in the Army during World War II. He never saw combat but fought 96 exhibition bouts.

Despite this, Marqusee wrote, “Louis did everything the white establishment asked of him and still ended up broke and humiliated.”

So accepting induction would have not proved Ali brave, merely compliant. Ali would fight any man in the world in a fair fight but not fight in a war he did not believe in. What a wondrous contradiction.

In the end, Ali probably had a better chance of dying fighting the indomitable George Foreman in Zaire in 1975 than joining the Army and fighting exhibition matches like Louis did. Sheehan, England and Ali prove courage and humanity know no uniform or title. The world is more complicated than that.

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.