- By ALEXANDRA NEWMAN - HP Staff Writer
Former Kellogg exec recalls traveling with Muhammad Ali to Ground Zero
George Franklin provided this photo of Muhammad Ali posing with New York City firefighters days after the 9/11 attacks. Franklin, then a Kellogg’s Co. executive, accompanied the boxing great and prominent Muslim to the city.
On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, George Franklin was on an airplane heading for Washington, D.C.
At about 9 a.m. his flight was directed to land immediately at Dulles International Airport, and every single flight in the United States was cancelled. In the chaos, he rented a car and drove back to Michigan.
But what the Glenn resident remembers most from that egregious moment in American history happened a few days later when he traveled with Muhammad Ali to New York City and the World Trade Center.
At that time, he was the vice president of government relations for Kellogg Co.
Kellogg’s CEO got a call a few days after 9/11 from New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s office requesting help getting Ali, a Muslim, to New York City to spread a message of peace and hopefully help damper the heightening anti-Islamic rage, Franklin said.
The CEO asked Franklin to be on the plane and accompany Ali from his home near Berrien Springs to New York City.
“Early morning Sept. 20 I drove to Battle Creek from my home in Kalamazoo, met Denny Reed and Dale Alexander, the two Kellogg pilots for the 10-minute flight to Benton Harbor, where we were to pick up Ali and his wife Lonnie, along with two of his other associates, Michael Bingham and Michael Constantine, at the Whirlpool corporate hangar,” Franklin said.
The group flew to White Plains, N.Y., where New York City police officers met them and drove them into the city.
“Parkinson’s disease had obviously taken a toll on one of the most famous and recognizable persons in the world,” Franklin recalled. “I sat in the front seat with Ali and Lonnie, where he tried to eat a muffin, but with his hand shaking, it was difficult to do so without spreading crumbs everywhere. Lonnie was caring and kind and you could see the genuine affection she had for him as she tried to tidy him up as he ate.”
Franklin said as they neared White Plains, Ali seemed to get confused as to why they were going to New York City.
“I addressed him as ‘Champ’ and explained about the terrorists and the attack and the importance of him speaking about Islam as a religion of peace. He hesitated a few minutes and then looked at Lonnie and asked, ‘They’re not mad at me, are they?’ She assured him they were not,” Franklin said.
Once in New York City, their first stop was a fire station near the World Trade Center, where many of the firefighters had been killed and injured.
“There were mounds of flowers on the sidewalk and palpable grief unlike any I’d ever experienced. People’s reaction to Ali throughout the day intrigued me to say the least,” Franklin said. “In this time of grief, total strangers would run up and hug him. He was this human fighting machine who was a total Teddy bear.”
Next the group visited the newsroom at the New York Times.
The New York Times wrote, “He said that he had been devastated by the disaster, but equally sad that his religion, Islam, appeared to be portrayed negatively. ‘Rivers, ponds, lakes and streams, they are all the same,’ said the former boxing champion who was disabled by Parkinson’s disease. ‘They all have different names, but they all contain water. As religions have different names, they all contain the truth.’”
The final stop of Franklin, Ali and the rest of the group was Ground Zero.
“The vision is seared in my memory, but my ability to describe it is elusive. It was as if scripted, a scene out of a movie: a dreary day, military checkpoints with armed soldiers checking to see who went where,” Franklin said.
He said the cops, firefighters, soldiers and medics would stop and yell, “Champ!” and “I remember your bout with so and so.” Franklin said Ali being there really lifted their spirits.
Later that night, Franklin was back home in Kalamazoo and trying to comprehend where he’d just been and what he had just seen and done.
“I still haven’t. I do know that I was very proud of my country, the firemen, the cops and citizens of New York City and the company for which I worked,” he said.
As far as going back to see the 9/11 Memorial now, Franklin says he doesn’t want to.
“There couldn’t be anything more powerful or impactful than that day and seeing those people rallying around Ali,” he said.
He also noted the willingness of everyone to rally on Sept. 11.
“That day was the ultimate gut check day. Everybody rallied – all religions and skin colors. No one gave a damn and were just there to do what they could do,” Franklin said. “Given the divisiveness that we are seeing in the world today, it’s important to remember that when a gut check comes for America again we can stand up and do it again.”
Franklin, who now runs his own company, Franklin Public Affairs, will speak about his trip with Ali at the 9/11 remembrance event in Kalamazoo today.
Contact: anewman@TheHP.com, 932-0357, Twitter: @HPANewman
http://www.heraldpalladium.com/news/local/the-ultimate-gut-check/article_2be94617-c72d-5d1a-9d05-0da1d2216bf0.html
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