JUNIOR: That sounds like confusion to me!!!
DAD: The entire world is still confused about that war. Welcome to the club!
(Enactment: Huge crowd waving. Sound of a gunshot. A Serbian nationalist kills the Archduke and his wife. Flashes are enacted of leaders of different countries speaking in their language, making declarations of war).
EMPEROR OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: We declare war on Serbia.
TSAR OF RUSSIA: We must defend Serbia. I now declare war on Austria-Hungary.
GERMAN CHANCELLOR: How dare they? We, at this moment, declare war on Russia.
FRENCH PRESIDENT: France declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary.
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Germany has attacked France and Belgium. Britain must declare war on Germany.
EMPEROR OF JAPAN: We cannot allow our friends to stand alone. Japan herewith declares war on Germany/Austria-Hungary.
DAD: The United States was neutral until German U-boats torpedoed the ship, Lusitania, leading to the loss of over one thousand lives, including 128 Americans.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States immediately declares war against Germany and Austria-Hungary.
JUNIOR: Wowwwww!
DAD: Yes. Wowwwwwww!!!!!Yes—all they have said in different languages translates to one thing—War.
DAD: Germany surrendered in 1918 after four years of destruction and devastation across Europe. The Allied powers, at the Treaty of Versailles, imposed humiliating and harsh penalties including loss of territory and payment of reparations on Germany. In the middle of this hardship that Germany was going through, Adolf Hitler rose to political prominence with an extremist nationalist and militaristic ideology through a democratic process. The seeds of the Second World War had been sown.
JUNIOR: Democratic process? I thought he seized power.
DAD: Adolf Hitler’s quest for absolute power was satisfied when Heinrich Himmler, head of the Secret Service (SS), executed hundreds of Nazi Party Officials on the “Night of Long Knives.” Hitler embarked on a plan for re-armament and crafted an expansionist vision to regain lost territory and restore German pride. He planned to take over Europe, having learned nothing from history. He committed great atrocities against many countries and races, including the mass genocide of over 6 million Jews. The world took a stand against him. After Germany decimated France in a blitzkrieg—
JUNIOR: Hey dad, slow down. What is a blitzkrieg?
DAD: The word has its origin in German. It is a swift and highly orchestrated and coordinated military onslaught executed with overwhelming force that does not give any room for the enemy to forge a response.
JUNIOR: Wow! So, German forces overran France just like that?
DAD: Yes. German forces overran the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, and France in 6 weeks, beginning in May 1940.
JUNIOR: What happened next?
DAD: A towering and brave Charles De Gaulle fled to England to lead the resistance against German occupation. With American help in the famous D-day landing at Normandy beginning June 1944, France was set free. As President, De Gaulle received credit for leading France towards self-reliance and great prosperity through the sixties. He also helped build a strong European Community as the third leg of a tripod that had the United States and the Soviet Union on the other side. Fearing a similar fate as the French, Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain, 1941-1945, rallied his people with glowing speeches as France fell to the German war machine. He famously declared— “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields, and the streets, we shall fight in the hills, and we shall never surrender—” (Enactment).
JUNIOR: Was that just a motivational speech by Winston Churchill?
DAD: I would say—yes because no one who can fight says— “we will never surrender.” When you have the means to fight, you tell the aggressor— “I am coming to get you, blank, blank.” Without American help, all of Europe would be speaking German today. The Germans are incredible people. They are no-nonsense people with magnificent work ethics. They never stop thinking; they never stop innovating. No country in Europe comes close. It could only take the overwhelming, mind boggling and spectacular American spirit to stop them. America is a country of almost unlimited resources, human, material, and visionary. America entered the war after initially being neutral, just like the first time. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and FDR declared—(Enactment)
FDR: “Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the Naval and Air forces of the Empire of Japan.”
The Allied Forces defeated Germany, and they were never allowed to re-arm till this day. Since 1945, American forces have been in Germany. So, it was in the middle of the Second World War, a great man called Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. was born to Cassius Marcellus Clay and Odessa Grady Clay.
JUNIOR: Where was he born?
DAD: Louisville, Kentucky. Three years after Cassius was born, the Second World War ended.
JUNIOR: How did the war end?
DAD: Good question. President Harry Truman dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The Japanese continued to fight. And then, he dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki. The war ended. Over 210,000 people died instantly, and over the next few weeks and months, close to 300,000 people succumbed to the effects of radiation.
JUNIOR: Just like that?
DAD: Yes.
JUNIOR: But why Japan? I thought it was Germany that started the war.
DAD: There are things we cannot explain. I have wondered about that myself. But do you know what else is interesting?—Harry Truman, as Vice President, did not even know about the “Manhattan project” which produced the atomic bomb. He only found out after he took over as President upon the death of Roosevelt. At the time of his death, Roosevelt had just begun his fourth term in office.
JUNIOR: Does this mean that a Vice President is useless under our Constitution?
DAD: Pretty much. Think of the Vice President as a spare tire in your car.
JUNIOR: Did you just say Roosevelt was on his fourth term in office?
DAD: Yes. There were no term limits until Truman proposed it, and Congress passed it in 1947. After that, ¾ of the States ratified the Bill, and it became operative in 1951. Since then, by law, no President of the United States can serve more than two terms.
MOM: This is the reason I married your dad. He is walking history. Mom kisses her husband. (He is feeling good with himself).
DAD: I am giving you all these details so that you can understand the circumstances of Ali’s birth and the era in which he grew up and how it all shaped his boisterousness. He was as serious as he was playful, boastful as humble, as gregarious as he was optimistic. Like diamond, he sparkled, beloved by friends and held in awe by foes. He was brilliant.
MOM: You should also know that Black vocalists endured racism and humiliating segregation in that period, yet they gave the world timeless music, which we still enjoy today. We had all-time greats like Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Slim Gaillard, Fats Waller, and Billy Eckstine.
(Dancers come in and dance to the Orchestra music of the era, Nat King Cole’s— [Get Your Kicks On] Route 66).
CURTAIN
Look out for more action tomorrow. Please share and subscribe.
