Today is August 1, 2013. It was on this day in 1914 that the Great War began when Germany and Russia declared war on each other and the French government ordered mobilization. No event in history since the fall of the Roman Empire in the West had a greater impact on world history. What became known as World War I was but the first act of a two-act war, the second act of which was World War II. Had the Great War not occurred, there would not have been a Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the rise of Hitler in Germany, World War II, the Holocaust, or the Cold War.
The 11th Olympic Games opened in Berlin (1936) hosted by Adolf Hitler. Hitler saw an opportunity for his new German Reich to be the center of world attention. He also meant for the Olympics to display to the whole world the superiority of the Aryan race. The first aim was achieved, but the second was a failure. Jessie Owens, a twenty-two-year-old African American, won four gold medals. The crowd cheered and Germany’s star athlete, Luz Long, congratulated Owens’ when he won the gold medal in the long jump. Hitler refused to shake Owens’ hand.
Just three days before Anne Frank and her family were arrested and sent to a concentration (1944), she made her final entry in her diary. She talked about the conflict in her personality between the serious and the frivolous.
“I know exactly how I’d like to be, how I am . . . on the inside. But unfortunately I’m only like that with myself. And perhaps that’s why — no, I’m sure that’s the reason why — I think of myself as happy on the inside and other people think I’m happy on the outside. I’m guided by the pure Anne within, but on the outside I’m nothing but a frolicsome little goat tugging at its tether. As I’ve told you, what I say is not what I feel, which is why I have a reputation for being a boy-chaser, a flirt, a smart aleck and a reader of romances. The happy-go-lucky Anne laughs, gives a flippant reply, shrugs her shoulders and pretends she couldn’t care less. The quiet Anne reacts in just the opposite way” (Diary of Anne Frank, 1952).
It is the birthday of Herman Melville, best known for his novel, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, published in 1851. The novel was not a success in Melville’s lifetime. It did not sell out the initial printing of 3,000 copies. Today it is considered one of the greatest American novels.
And finally this. Calvin Coolidge, known as “Silent Cal,” said little, but when he did speak, he spoke words of true wisdom. E. g.: “More people out of work leads to higher unemployment.”
Until next time, be good, do good, and always live under the mercy.
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