Observation:
Over 250,000 people are without power after the ice storm last night in the
Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Nelson Mandela passed away yesterday,
December 5, at the age of 95. Wreaths have been hung, songs have been sung, and
prayers are being whispered at his home in South Africa. Now that Mandela
has passed he is being mourned all over the world, but in many of the articles I
have read I am reminded of the way he was viewed by many in the past. One
article I found on The Daily Beast in particular spoke of one of the keys points
made by him which is, “America isn’t always a force for freedom.” He was
put on America’s official list of “terrorist” groups by Reagan in the eighties,
was voted against by Dick Cheney to be released from prison in 1990, and was
called a communist for the Soviet Union being the ANC’s chief external
benefactor.
While Mandela’s ties to communism sometimes caused him to ignore communist crimes, you cannot ignore that, “the ANC was
a genuine, multiracial movement for democracy.” It was those Americans that supported
Mandela in the early days and freedom for South Africa, who realized
what freedom meant to the United States was not necessarily the same around the world. One of
the most powerful quotes I got from the article was that, “American power and
human freedom are two very different things," and while they sometimes coincide
with one another that is not always the case. It is important for us to still be
able to tell the difference after Mandela’s death. While we will all always
remember the inspirational things that he did and what a great man he was, it
is important that we do not forget the reasons why he fought so hard for his country and
what he wanted to accomplish.
