Let Freedom Ring rights Wherever people are trampled: What can we learn from Nelson Mandela today

When Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected president in the history of South Africa in 1994, the world seemed a very different place. His election was a symbol of a new birth of freedom around the world. They had the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991 and the end of the Cold War to a democratic revolution helped spur not only in South Africa but all over the world. Between the early 1990s and 2005, the number of democracies has risen on the planet about a third of the nations to almost half. Mandela himself was a global icon not only of democracy, but pluralism and his triumph seemed to mark the end of an era of authoritarianism and ethnic nationalism. Now that we Mandela Day, on July 18 a service international day that is celebrated in the middle of a global pandemic crown and democracy and pluralism is under attack in every region of the Earth. From Poland to Turkey, from Russia to Brazil, ethnic nationalism are on the rise and authoritarian leaders and autocratic regimes is the ability of people to undermine the vote, the independence of the judiciary undermine curtail freedom of speech and press. After the nonprofit Freedom House, we are in the 14th year in a global decline in freedom. In America, we are not only suffering from the pandemic, but it is a powerful national movement against racial and cultural injustices, while we have a president who had sent the racist apartheid leaders closer in spirit we thought Mandela in the dustbin of history. As with Mandela was working on his autobiography to write long way toward freedom, I had a little ‘mantra that I would say to myself: WWNMD? What would Nelson Mandela do? It is an excellent guide for life, but not easy to live up to. Mandela has never taken the path of least resistance. Yes, he would compromise, but he would not comment on its core principle endangers democracy for his people was to achieve. Nelson Mandela is by nature an optimist, but it was simple as they come. He must not embrace the comforting vision of history, as in a line often used by Barack Obama said Martin Luther King (quoted) “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” For him, justice never inevitable. If the world would turn toward justice, he should do the same curvature. Mandela never saw America as a shining city on a hill. In fact, Mandela before Ronald Reagan set-President considered used this as a terrorist and his government supported the apartheid South African regime during the Cold War. In his unpublished prison diary, written in 1970 (Mandela was only officially removed from the US list of terror watches in 2008), while he was on Robben Island, Mandela said that while he had friends and American supporters, “I hate all forms of imperialism and considers the US brand, the most heinous and despicable “. in our many hours of interviews for the book, Mandela told me how, when he was underground in 1960, has sought help for his organization the ANC, the United States and other Western nations and was, had always refused. He was well aware of reports at the time that the CIA had turned over on his whereabouts by South African police, when he was underground. I remember when I worked with him in 1993, there is an evening event in Johannesburg was to celebrate the end of apartheid with then Vice President Al Gore as guest of honor. Mandela smiled at me and said, “You Americans think the end of apartheid.” Mandela admired Dr. King and closely followed the American movement for civil rights. A huge difference, Mandela better understood than any other, is that in South Africa, black people were a majority displaced and without rights, without a minority. Mandela welcomed by Dr. King led protests when he should live demonstrations black Matter. Mandela organized and took me many protests in 1950, but it was in 1960, the event Sharpe, the protesters were killed by police in white 69 black who sold part with Dr. King’s commitment to non-violence out. Shortly after this demonstration, he traveled with Chief Albert Luthuli in Natal to take down, then to discuss the leader of the African National Congress (ANC), the organization needs to embrace armed struggle. “And ‘course the decision,” said Mandela, because he was a man who believed me “in non-violence as a principle. While I believed in non-violence as a strategy, who asked for the conditions in which they are subject to change. “for Mandela, the freedom and democracy for his people had the right to the use of almost all means to get the only higher adamant goal. When he visited the United States in 1990, shortly after his release, but before he became president, he was asked if he refrain over and over again by the American press violence in its struggle for freedom. He refused to do so. In Atlanta, it was by a small crowd of protesting white supremacist and former members of the Ku Klux Klan welcomed. In his speech in Atlanta, he finished by saying: “Let freedom ring, in which people’s rights are trampled.” In 1995, President Mandela has abolished the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a public Commission of the roots of apartheid and racial injustice was seen. That was the part of truth. Reconciliation is that people come forward and confess their crimes and receive amnesty. Many white police officers and security officials have done so. The Commission electrified South Africa and has been transcending the country deep trenches for a vehicle. For Mandela, it confirmed his belief that forgiveness helps both, the forgiven and the forgiver. In fact, it was powerful to see the relatives of men and women from the old apartheid government murdered their former oppressors were assigned. A handful of American cities such as Greensboro, N.C. has local truth and reconciliation commissions had, and now Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco have similar program. A number of MPs, including Congresswoman Barbara Lee, California, have called for a national TRC look at the history of slavery and discrimination. The example of South Africa is a powerful precedent for America. A national Truth and Reconciliation Commission in connection with a serious look on the concept of reparations is to find a closure on a terrible way aspects of our history. As Mandela used to say, it is never too late to do the right thing. So many people over the years have told me that Mandela can exceptionally be awarded their oppressors. I smile to myself forever, because I knew how deeply hurt by his past, and I was his suffering. But he realized that as a leader and symbol, the project must always forgiveness, and he never had to do so failed. He understood that while it was impossible to really forget the past, we have to give up his power over us. In 1994, remember me driving, what would be his office at the Union Buildings in Pretoria with him to that of the old apartheid government had been the seat. As you drive in the impressive complex, switch to 10 meters high statue of J.B.M. Hertzog who was the Prime Minister of South Africa in 1930. Mandela smiled as we walked. In 2013, the Statue of Hertzog became a distant part of the land and moved by a huge bronze statue of Nelson Mandela with his arms raised triumphantly replaced. Fortunately Nelson Mandela Day.
Picture copyright by Trevor Samson AFP via Getty Images