Nelson Mandela: A Hero For The Ages.
A hero for the ages
Twenty years ago this week, Nelson Mandela walked out of the South African prison where he had served 27 years for being an enemy of the state. He was 71. “It was vital for me to show my people and the government that I was unbroken and unbowed and that the struggle was not over for me but beginning anew in a different form,” Mr. Mandela wrote in his autobiography, Freedom.
Nelson Mandela's journey has been an amazing one. First, he was an architect and leader of a movement that advocated the overthrow of white minority rule by any means necessary, including violence. In time, he became a statesman who just five years after his release from prison was elected president of his nation in South Africa's first free multiracial election.
Today, Mr. Mandela is revered the world over, and this week hundreds of thousands of South Africans took to the streets to celebrate the 20th anniversary of freedom for their “Madiba.” Though he wasn's physically up to retracing, as many had hoped he would, his first steps to freedom, Mr. Mandela was present in the public gallery of South Africa's parliament Thursday to hear himself hailed as the uniter of a badly divided nation.
Mr. Mandela's embrace of the necessity for truth and reconciliation set the right tone for a democratic South Africa, which still faces many formidable challenges. Other South Africans surely know, as he did, that it's one thing to be on the outside throwing rocks and quite another to be effective while trying to govern a nation in which so many were kept down for so long. Still, it's cause for celebration that South Africa didn't disintegrate into violence, and that Mr. Mandela emerged as a hero for the ages.
The world is infinitely better off because Nelson Mandela survived his suffering and continues to teach the world that letting go of hate is the first step toward healing.
Twenty years ago this week, Nelson Mandela walked out of the South African prison where he had served 27 years for being an enemy of the state. He was 71. “It was vital for me to show my people and the government that I was unbroken and unbowed and that the struggle was not over for me but beginning anew in a different form,” Mr. Mandela wrote in his autobiography, Freedom.
Nelson Mandela's journey has been an amazing one. First, he was an architect and leader of a movement that advocated the overthrow of white minority rule by any means necessary, including violence. In time, he became a statesman who just five years after his release from prison was elected president of his nation in South Africa's first free multiracial election.
Today, Mr. Mandela is revered the world over, and this week hundreds of thousands of South Africans took to the streets to celebrate the 20th anniversary of freedom for their “Madiba.” Though he wasn's physically up to retracing, as many had hoped he would, his first steps to freedom, Mr. Mandela was present in the public gallery of South Africa's parliament Thursday to hear himself hailed as the uniter of a badly divided nation.
Mr. Mandela's embrace of the necessity for truth and reconciliation set the right tone for a democratic South Africa, which still faces many formidable challenges. Other South Africans surely know, as he did, that it's one thing to be on the outside throwing rocks and quite another to be effective while trying to govern a nation in which so many were kept down for so long. Still, it's cause for celebration that South Africa didn't disintegrate into violence, and that Mr. Mandela emerged as a hero for the ages.
The world is infinitely better off because Nelson Mandela survived his suffering and continues to teach the world that letting go of hate is the first step toward healing.
Labels: News reporting
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 4:44 PM
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