BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
THERE have been some great stories on NPR on the amazing life of Nelson Mandela. Here is the main page of their coverage, there are lots of links, click on them, and listen to the ones that offer that choice because there are both funny and moving and musical stories to be shared. And the Frontline show The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela is well worth watching http://video.pbs.org/video/2365135079/...
President Obama ordered that U.S. flags be flown
at half-staff until Monday — a symbolic gesture of a nation in
mourning. It's a tradition observed by countries around the world, one
that began as early as the 17th century.
It's worth pausing to consider not only the legacy and
achievements of former South African president Nelson Rolihlahla
Mandela, but also the rich musical associations of his life.
December 5, 2013 A Radio
Diaries documentary offers a window into South Africa's
half-century-long struggle for democracy through rare sound recordings
of freedom fighter Nelson Mandela — and those who fought with and
against him.
December 5, 2013 The South
African leader's life held special power for black Americans, who lost
many iconic civil rights leaders tragically early. Karen Grigsby Bates
reflects on Mandela's legacy.
THE plight of Syrian refugees isn't being ignored by the American public. While there have not been any big fundraising campaigns for funding NGOs providing aid to these refugees, the American public made it very clear when the Obama administration considered military intervention after assad used chemical weapons on his own people that we opposed US military involvement but supported humanitarian aid. The American people, through our government, are sending tens of millions of dollars in food, medical and shelter aid to these refugees. Yet we have seen on mainstream American media these same refugees complaining about being ignored by the West, by America, and how they need more help, and many Americans are turned off by what is seen as anti American, anti Western rhetoric. Maybe if these refugees publicly condemned the rich Muslim nations by name for failing to live up to the teachings of the Prophet regarding charity and compassion, for allowing fellow Muslims suffer for lack of food, shelter, medical care and education, maybe there would be a push from the American people for our government to provide more. We don't expect or want the Syrian refugees to beg or grovel. We just expect them to be fair in their condemnations and accusations. We want them to share the guilt, God knows there is enough to go around.
By Morton Abramowitz,
Published: December 5
Morton Abramowitz is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and a former U.S. ambassador to Thailand.
A
mericans pride themselves on helping the distressed. They have
indeed been generous when people and countries are in trouble. But our
public and government have also been complacent in the face of massive
human suffering. Recall Rwanda and Cambodia. More recently, the U.S.
public has watched passively for well over two years the continuing
destruction of a highly developed state: Syria, where more than 120,000 civilians have been killed and more than 6 million left homeless. Nine million people need humanitarian assistance. More than 2 million Syrians are refugees
in neighboring countries. More than 3 million others are now beyond the
reach of humanitarian agencies, according to the United Nations. All of
these numbers increase daily;
hence the urgent international calls for more direct humanitarian
assistance and the scrambling diplomatic activity. With no prospect of
Western military aid to end the conflict and little likelihood of a
negotiated solution, greater humanitarian assistance is seen as the only
way of helping millions of beleaguered people for an uncertain time —
an extraordinary admission of political failure.
Americans have not collectively expressed great concern or
reached deep in their pockets to provide desperately needed aid, nor
have humanitarian agencies aggressively pursued funds from the public.
Aid has come mostly from increasing government appropriations. The
absence of public clamor has made it easier for the Obama administration
to stay on the sidelines of this international wreck, seek empty U.N.
resolutions and get away with providing funds for humanitarian
assistance without doing more to resolve the issue. The U.S. secretary
of state did not even attend the most recent U.N. pledging conference to scrounge monies from stingy states. Our government does not want public clamor.
Many
would argue that the anemic public response to the Syrian debacle is
not surprising. It is incessantly pointed out that Americans are
exhausted after two wars and that much more needs to be done at home, as
the president asserts. Some always feel that Americans squander too
much on others’ problems. The country is also supposedly tired of its
massive continuing military involvement in Muslim countries. For many
Americans, getting involved even in humanitarian efforts is something of
a slippery slope to military involvement. Too often they have heard the
siren song.
Yet many constituencies that would usually promote
greater involvement appear to be sitting out the Syrian crisis.
Evangelical churches that urged presidents to provide greater help for
southern Sudanese seem uncharacteristically silent as a country full of desperate Christians
sinks steadily into oblivion. Why do they not cry out to help their
brethren? Many would ask whom should they support in Syria, a country
beset by deepening sectarian divisions. Syrian Christians have suffered
badly and feel desperate about a future in an Islamist-dominated
country. Their support and security still come mostly from President
Bashar al-Assad. Many U.S. churches apparently choose to remain silent
in an anti-Assad world.
What about the U.S. Jewish community?
Jewish advocates have been in the forefront of responses to humanitarian
crises from the Balkans to Africa, where they helped generate sustained
support for Bosnia and Darfur. Strong eloquent voices such as Elie Wiesel still call out the U.S. government, but many Jews seem circumspect about getting involved in Syria,
where bad guys abound on each side and the Israeli security benefits
from Assad’s demise are uncertain. Many are torn by the human disaster
and want Assad to go, but, like other Americans, they are wary about
military action, including the armed delivery of humanitarian assistance within Syria.
Humanitarian
agencies have been doing extraordinary work in and around Syria, but
they either have tried and failed to arouse the U.S. public, or they are
averse to beating public drums for Syrian relief. Major agencies focus
on the federal government when seeking funds for Syria and regional
refugee relief. Few have gotten together to raise public awareness or
private funds.
Even Hollywood has been mostly silent on Syria.
It
is already very late. More money is needed for the displaced and those
who will soon swell their numbers. Just as important, an agreement
between the warring parties and their international patrons or some
other approach is now required to get much greater assistance into Syria.
Assad and his foreign supporters have not had to fear what an energized
U.S. public might demand of its government. Ways must be found beyond
bombing runs for the United States and other Western governments to save
the millions of Syrians at risk as well as limit the destructive
spillover for friends in the region. Those who care must rally around a
common banner of pressing the U.S. government to urgently take
extraordinary steps to save many more Syrians.
THE political party that launches an annual propaganda campaign about the "war on Christmas" is guilty of waging (GASP!) war on Christmas. The unemployment rate is still 7%, tens of millions of Americans who want to work can't find jobs. We are still in a recession. But the gop / tea-baggers who claim to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ are insisting unemployment benefits for the tens of millions of unemployed in the U.S. will not be extended. Benefits for 1.3 million of these people will end on 28DEC13 unless Congress passes an unemployment benefits extension, more will loose their benefits after the new year. Please sign this petition telling Congress to pass an unemployment extension before they go on their holiday break. Ever gotten a dirty look for wishing someone "Happy Holidays"?
It's the same story every year. December rolls around, and the next
thing you know Bill O'Reilly and FOX News get to work raising the blood
pressure of conservatives everywhere, telling tall tales of how evil
liberals won't let them sing carols or display nativity sets. And every
year, most of those stories turn out to be false -- not that it ever
deters the talking heads from telling them.
Well, this year there is a real "War on Christmas"; and it's not being waged by the ACLU or the Democratic Party. This
year, the Republicans are playing Scrooge, robbing 1.3 million people
across America of desperately needed unemployment benefits right in the
middle of the holiday season -- and setting the stage for robbing
millions more of the same benefits later.
Yesterday,
Nancy Pelosi stood up for the unemployed in a big way, saying she won't
support any budget deal in the House that doesn't guarantee these
crucial benefits. But Republicans refuse to extend them. Congress
is scheduled to go on holiday break in just a few short days, and if
they don't reach a deal benefits will be completely cut off on December
28th, sending people who are already in a tough place scrambling for
income even as temporary holiday jobs disappear and more people find
themselves without work.
When it comes to
Christmas, Republicans talk a big game, but sometimes it's hard to tell
if they understand what holidays are really about. Regardless of what
you call them or how you choose to observe them, the holiday season is
about family. It's about community. It's about lifting up people who are
struggling and taking care of each other. And that's what makes this
situation so appalling.
I know that getting Republicans in
Congress to act is always a long shot, but if we can get them to move on
anything, it's this. After all, at the end of the day, even the Grinch had a heart.
And deep inside, Republicans know that at this time of year especially
we should be showing each other compassion and care -- not taking from
those who really need it.
Thank you for standing with us, Jim Jim Dean Chair, Democracy for America
WASHINGTON -- A coalition of House Republicans is preparing a letter
to send to their party's leadership pleading for an extension of
long-term unemployment insurance, a rare positive sign for the plan's
legislative prospects.
The members are currently trying to pick up additional signatures for
the letter, which may be sent to leadership either Friday or Monday,
according to a House aide. A spokesman for Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) told the Las Vegas Sun
and confirmed to The Huffington Post that the congressman would be
among those signing on. Several sources said Rep. Chris Gibson (R-N.Y.)
is leading the effort, meanwhile, but Gibson's office ignored requests
for comment.
At a time when Congress appears unlikely to pass an extension of
federal unemployment benefits before they expire on Dec. 28, a show of
support from members of the House majority could provide a bit of a
boost. Still, the prospects of an extension passing seem low, meaning benefits for 1.3 million long-term jobless Americans will likely stop abruptly after Christmas.
Moments after the Labor Department announced on Friday
that the economy had added 203,000 jobs in November and the
unemployment rate had fallen to 7 percent -- the lowest level in five
years -- House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) seemingly dismissed the
need for an extension of federal benefits.
"Today’s report includes positive signs that should discourage calls for more emergency government 'stimulus,'" Boehner said.
Boehner's spokesman, Brendan Buck, would not say whether the speaker
was referring to unemployment insurance specifically. Instead, Buck
referred The Huffington Post to a statement Boehner made on the matter
Thursday -- before the jobs numbers were announced -- in which he
promised to look at a proposal if it were put forward by the president.
"I am not the expert [on the issue]," Boehner added. "Talk to the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee."
The White House has not produced a proposal, though the president's team has tried to amplify pressure on Congress by releasing state-by-state data
on the impact a lapse in unemployment insurance would have. The
administration also referenced the need for an extension in its response
to Friday's jobs report.
House Democrats, meanwhile, put forward a budget plan
that includes a $25 billion extension of unemployment insurance, a
provision that would be paid for by funding IRS tax collectors to go
after delinquent taxpayers.
Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced standalone
legislation to reauthorize the benefits as well. But an extension is
more likely to pass if it's included in the budget deal currently being
negotiated in a bicameral conference committee. Those negotiations will
continue to take place over the weekend, led by Senate Budget Committee
Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan
(R-Wis.). One congressional aide familiar with the talks said the
inclusion of unemployment insurance in the final deal was "still an open
item," likely to be resolved with input from the chambers' respective
leaders. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/06/unemployment-benefits_n_4399549.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications
terry mcauliffe D gov elect VA is a corporate Democrat, not of or for the people, he is for whoever can provide the greatest financial benefit for him and his cronies. The very same dirty energy companies that supported cuccinelli are donating tens of thousands of dollars to mcauliffe's inauguration committee to guarantee there is room for them at the corporate welfare trough. Please sign this petition to gov elect mcauliffe telling him to use this money for solar panels on the roof of the governor's mansion in Richmond and to commit to moving Virginia to clean and renewable energy.
Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe's inauguration committee has received
donations from some of the most polluting companies in the commonwealth
of Virginia, including $25,000 from Alpha Natural Resources and $50,000
from Dominion Resources. By using the donations from these companies to put solar panels on
the roof of the Virginia governor's mansion, McAuliffe can show a
direct and tangible commitment to a clean-energy future while lowering
the carbon footprint and operating costs of Virginia's government
buildings.
That's why I started my own campaign on CREDOMobilize.com, which
allows activists to start their own petitions. My petition, which is to
Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe, says the following:
Governor-elect McAuliffe should use funds donated to his
inauguration fund by polluting firms and put them to use in creating a
brighter clean-energy future for all Virginians by putting solar panels
on the Virginia governor's mansion.
WHAT a sad perversion of the teachings of Jesus Christ. In the Beatitudes and other teachings of Jesus He doesn't tell us to care for the poor, the needy, the least among us but only if them meet certain conditions. He gave love, sustenance, support, grace, healing, resurrection, forgiveness to all who needed and would accept it, regardless of who they were and their lifestyle. His life was given the same way, and His offer of salvation is still offered the same way. bill o'reilly's Christianity isn't much different than that of the westboro church's. I just can't reconcile that with the Christianity of Jesus Christ.
It is no secret that Bill O'Reilly is an ass of gigantic proportions.
However, in a segment on last night's O'Reilly Factor, Bill manages to
outdo his own gigantic assiness. In response to recent Republican
efforts to dismantle SNAP and the Vatican's new-found concern for the
poor, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) made a comment in a conversation
with Al Sharpton that when Jesus fed five thousand people with five
loaves of bread and two fish, “he didn’t charge food stamps.”
This made Bill O' ooh so mad and he simply wasn't going to stand for
it. Letting his hatred for all things perceived as "nanny state" fly, he
graciously acknowledged that Jesus would be just fine with feeding the
poors so long as it didn't inconvenience anyone with actual money.
In a conversation with Pentecostal Pastor Joshua Dubois, Bill tries
to school the good pastor on all those alcoholics and drug addicts
picking his pocket for free food. In actuality, it was Pastor Dubois who
schooled O'Reilly. The video and juicier bits of the conversation
transcribed below.
O'Reilly: The problem I have, as I stated
is that you’re helping one group by hurting another group and a bigger
group, and so I don’t know if Jesus is going to be down with that.
Dubois: Jesus would be down for the poor. He would
want to make sure every single person in this country had enough food to
eat. And the bottom line is if you add up every single private
charitable dollar that feeds hungry people in this country, it’s only 10
percent of what we would need to make sure everyone has food in their
stomachs. The rest comes from the federal government. O'Reilly: You’re making a powerful argument, but
there is one huge mistake in it. And that is that some of the people who
don’t have enough to eat, it’s their fault they don’t have enough to
eat. Particularly with their children.
If you’re an alcoholic or heroin addict or a drug addict and you
can’t hold a job, alright, and you can’t support your children — and
that’s a circumstance of millions and millions of people, not most, but a
lot, a substantial minority — then it’s your fault, you’re bringing the
havoc, that you’re asking people who may be struggling themselves to
put food on the table to give their tax money to you. And then you’re
not even going to buy food with it, you’re going to buy booze and drugs
with it. Dubois: With all due respect, there’s a lot of
misconceptions in what you just said. The vast majority of that program
goes to elderly people, people who are disabled, 46 percent are children
and most people are working families. O'Reilly: My parents didn’t make a lot of money and
they were able to put food on the table. I give a lot of money — and you
probably know this — to children’s charities, okay? Children who have
derelict parents. And I say, it’s not the kids’ fault so I’m going to
give the money to the kids. But I don’t give it to charities unless the
charity hands it to the kids, gets it right to the kids. So, I’m
circumventing the drugs and the alcohol and the other craziness,
alright? Dubois: I don’t live in a derelict country. There
are some folks that have the problems that you described, but that is
not the vast majority of food stamp recipients.
I have to applaud Pastor Dubois for standing up to O'Reilly so
pointedly. O'Reilly only served to come off as the cruel, heartless
Republican he is. In his mind and in the minds of so many Republicans,
being poor is just exactly what you deserve for having the audacity to
be poor. In order to expunge his putrid soul for these uncharitable
thoughts, he must convince himself that these people are subhuman
addicts not worthy of wiping his shoes on.
I am not a Christian and I do not pretend to speak for Jesus and how
he would have felt about food stamps, but having read a great deal what
he was purported to have stood for, I'm pretty sure that Bill O'Reilly
has this exactly wrong.
Originally posted to Steveningen on Wed Dec 04, 2013 at 09:31 AM PST.
HERE is a really good piece from HuffPost on the living, active memory and legacy of Nelson Mandela. It is followed by the ignorance of dick cheney, I include that to reinforce the activism of Nelson Mandela, a campaign for freedom, democracy and social justice that must be continued in South Africa and applied to the United States and around the world. Godspeed Madiba.....I have more on Nelson Mandela at N'Kosi Sikeleli iAfrika (Miriam Makeba,
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Paul Simon) & Remembering activist and
peacemaker Nelson Mandela 5DEZ13
http://bucknacktssordidtawdryblog.blogspot.com/2013/12/nkosi-sikeleli-miriam-makeba-ladysmith.html
After democracy came, they tore down the prison where freedom
fighters were held and used the bricks to build the nation's first
Constitutional Court.
Visitors to South Africa are often struck by the depth and breadth of
that country's affection for Nelson Mandela. I still have the newspaper
I bought at a supermarket checkout counter there on the day of
Mandela's planned release from the hospital. The headline uses Mandela's
clan name and reads, "Madiba expected to return home today."
20 years ago it would have been unthinkable to imagine kind words
about an ANC leader, much less the use of an African clan name, in a
supermarket tabloid. Times change.
But Nelson Mandela wasn't a "personality" politician. He was the
leader of a movement and a model for the world. We'll be learning from
his example long after the eulogies have ended. Mandela the Teacher
Not long after his release from prison, Mandela made a cameo appearance in Spike Lee's film biography of Malcolm X. As the film ends he reads Malcolm X's words to a room full of schoolchildren:
"We
declare our right on this Earth: to be a man, to be a human being, to
be given the rights of a human being, to be respected as a human being;
in this society, on this Earth, on this day which we intend to bring
into existence by any means necessary."
Mandela was making a
strong political statement by reading those words to American film
audiences in 1992, while he was still negotiating a transition plan with
the apartheid government. (Today it may be a strong political statement
to portray a schoolteacher for American audiences, given the coordinated political assault now underway against public schools and those who teach there.)
Nelson Mandela had, and has, much to teach the rest of the world -
about courage, about idealism, about leadership. His speeches to
activists around the world, especially those who helped in the struggle
against apartheid, often ended with words that would also be appropriate
for a teacher addressing his students.
"We respect you," Mandela would say, "we admire you, and above all we love you." Mandela the Fighter
Outside the Magistrates Court in Johannesburg stands a statue of
young Nelson Mandela as a boxer. The sculpture is based on a 1953
photograph of Mandela sparring on a rooftop with a professional boxer
named Jerry Moloi.
Nelson Mandela was a lawyer by training and an amateur boxer by
avocation. He was not afraid to fight when fighting was called for. His
willingness to read those words of Malcolm X's - "by any means
necessary" - mirrored his own evolution as a leader.
We will hear much in the coming days about Mandela the peacemaker.
We'll probably hear less about the underground years when peaceful means
were denied to him. The world came to know a sage and grandfatherly
figure, but in his youth Mandela was a powerful fighter for his ideals.
We're fortunate to live in a country where we have nonviolent tools
for change, even if we sometimes lack the will to use them. But we have
something to learn from Mandela the fighter, too: he could not have been
a peacemaker in his later years if he had not been a fighter in his
youth. Mandela the Prisoner
27 years. 27 years in prison couldn't break the will of an individual or a movement.
Victory seemed impossible. Western nations opposed or ignored them.
Their own nation treated them as subhuman. They were shot, beaten,
starved, and tortured. Their words were never published in the papers,
never heard on radio or TV. They were not allowed to congregate, to
print their own literature, even to exist as a movement.
And yet, even after 27 years, they never gave up. Not Mandela, not his colleagues, not the people of South Africa.
In this country we're told that it's "politically impossible" to
enact policies which reflect the needs of the majority. Nelson Mandela
and the ANC gave the world a case study in accomplishing the
"impossible," in much tougher conditions and against much longer odds
than we will ever know.
They succeeded - by doing what's right, and by never giving up. Mandela the Idealist
Mandela's movement went underground for many years because powerful
forces had been closed off all peaceful avenues for change. One of those
forces was the conservative movement - here, in Great Britain, and
elsewhere. Right-wingers insisted that it was wrong to impose sanctions
on South Africa or to pressure its government to grant democratic rights
to its people.
Conservatives prolonged South Africa's suffering. They couldn't
imagine that the freedom movement might win, couldn't see that in fact
it was destined to win.
The Right: wrong again. This would be a good day for them to apologize.
Mandela united his country, but he didn't do it by trying to please
everyone. He negotiated, but not before struggling wholeheartedly for
his ideals - and only when he believed that negotiation served those
ideals. Mandela's Movement
A mobilized majority can accomplish great things. The will of a
democratic majority can change the course of history. Mandela's movement
had the power of the majority on its side.
Another powerful weapon against apartheid was the global movement
which opposed it and fought for sanctions against South Africa. Those
sanctions helped convince the white leadership a change was needed.
That movement extended beyond the borders of South Africa, encircling
the world with a common goal and a shared belief: that when one nation
is not free, no nation is free. Today, in this time of worldwide
economic inequality and global free trade deals, we need that kind of
global movement again. Mandela's Mercy
President Mandela named his home "Genadendal," which we're told means
"Valley of Mercy" in Afrikaans. He tempered his justice with mercy. But
justice came first.
Mandela offered clemency to his old enemies, which frustrated many of
his allies, but he only did so after they acknowledged their
wrongdoing. Our country has made a habit of offering premature clemency,
whether to bankers or torturers, without so much as an admission of
guilt or a willingness to make reparations.
Another lesson: Mercy is not surrender, and surrender is not mercy. Mandela's Memory
Liliesleaf Farm, an underground hideout where several ANC leaders
were arrested, is being marketed as a tourist attraction. I toured the
surviving wing of Johannesburg's political prison alongside
schoolchildren in uniforms, for whom the days of ANC struggle must seem
as distant as 1776 did to us.
It would be tragic if Nelson Mandela were reduced to some kind of historical action figure. He has more to teach us, even now.
Mandela's embrace of the Springboks soccer team, memorialized in the film Invictus,
was one of many conciliatory gestures - symbolic and substantial - that
eased racial tensions and made him beloved by many white South
Africans. I heard him spoken of admiringly in South Asian neighborhoods
that were once "colored" townships, and in many villages (especially the
ones not controlled by ANC's rivals in the Inkatha Party).
But South Africa suffers from severe economic inequality, dire
poverty, and widespread violent crime. Corruption arose after apartheid
suppressed generations of potential leaders. The ruling class imprisoned
Mandela through decades when he might have been leading his country
toward a better life.
Nelson Mandela had an egalitarian economic and social agenda, but
first he needed to forge a nation out of bitterly divided communities.
Had he been given more time, he might have come closer to realizing his
vision of a just society. He leaves his nation with a mission as well as
a memory. Unfinished Work
His movement was South Africa's. But it's our movement, too, around
the world and here in the United States. It's a movement for human
rights, for the elimination of discrimination in all its forms, for the
creation of an economy and a society where every human being is able to
live up to her or his fullest potential.
We can remember Nelson Mandela by continuing the work of that
movement, and by remembering through his example that nothing is
impossible if the people are behind it. We can commemorate his life by
pledging to finish what he started.
Nelson Mandela and his colleagues tore down prisons and built halls
of justice in their place. Today his work is done. It's our work now, if
we're worthy of it. "There is no passion to be found playing small--in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."
- Nelson Mandela
Dick Cheney Didn't Regret His Vote Against Freeing Nelson Mandela, Maintained He Was A 'Terrorist'
In 1986, Nelson Mandela -- the former president of South Africa who died Thursday at the age of 95
-- was serving the 23rd year of what would ultimately be a 27-year
prison sentence. The Western world was finally acknowledging the true
horrors of Apartheid, a system of racial segregation that denied basic
rights to blacks -- including citizenship and the right to vote -- and
brutally oppressed a generation of South Africans fighting for equality.
In the U.S. Congress, lawmakers were ready to show their opposition to the South African regime with the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act,
a bill that called for tough sanctions and travel restrictions on the
nation and its leaders, and for the repeal of apartheid laws and release
of political prisoners like Mandela, then leader of the African
National Congress (ANC).
The measure passed with bipartisan support, despite strong and
largely Republican opposition. President Ronald Reagan was among those
most opposed to the bill, and when he finally vetoed the measure over
its support of the ANC, which he maintained was a "terrorist
organization," it took another vote by Congress to override it.
Among the Republicans who repeatedly voted against the measure was
future Vice President Dick Cheney, then a Republican congressman from
Wyoming.
Cheney's staunch resistance to the Anti-Apartheid Act arose as an
issue during his future campaigns on the presidential ticket, but the
Wyoming Republican has never said he regretted voting the way he did. In
fact, in 2000, he maintained that he'd made the right decision.
“The ANC was then viewed as a terrorist organization," Cheney said on ABC's "This Week." "I don't have any problems at all with the vote I cast 20 years ago.''
Cheney went on to call Mandela a "great man" who had "mellowed" in the decade after his release from prison.
In 2004, Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards tore into his counterpart's congressional voting record, calling out Cheney for his vote against freeing Mandela. Shortly after, Cheney historian John Nichols said that he'd spoken to Mandela about Cheney's record and worldview. Like many, Mandela was concerned:
He’s very blunt about it he says one of the many reasons why
he fears Dick Cheney’s power in the United States, and Mandela does
say, he understands that Cheney is effectively the President of the
United States, he says, one of the many reasons that he fears Dick
Cheney’s power is that in the late 1980’s when even prominent
Republicans like Jack Kemp and Newt Gingrich were acknowledging the
crime of Apartheid, Dick Cheney maintained the lie that the ANC was a
terrorist organization and a fantasy that Nelson Mandela was a terrorist
leader who deserved to be in jail. Frankly it begs very powerful
question. If Dick Cheney’s judgment was that bad in the late 1980’s, why
would we believe that it’s gotten any better in the early 21st century?
Miriam Makeba, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Paul Simon performing South Africa's National Anthem, 1989. http://youtu.be/MFW7845XO3g
South African President Zuma on Mandela's death: 'Our people have lost a father'
The world remembers Nelson Mandela
South African President Jacob Zuma mourns the death of Nelson Mandela Thursday.
http://youtu.be/gnMq0tUOPsU
Former South African president Nelson Mandela dies Thursday at the age of 95.
Counting himself among the millions influenced by Mandela, President
Barack Obama on Thursday mourned the death of the anti-apartheid icon
with whom he shares the distinction of being his nation's first black
president.
"He no longer belongs to us. He belongs to the ages," Obama said in a somber appearance at the White House.
South African President Jacob Zuma addressed a nation in mourning.
"We've lost our greatest son. Our nation has lost its greatest son.
Our people have lost a father," Zuma said. "Although we knew that this
day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and
enduring loss."
PBS NewsHour will continue to update this post as world leaders and
others from around the globe speak on the loss of the former South
African President and activist. President Obama speaks to the nation on the passing of Nelson Mandela:
GWEN IFILL: Nelson Mandela's death was formally announced late today by South Africa's current president, Jacob Zuma.
He expressed the country's love and sense of loss for their iconic
leader, often referred to, out of respect, by his clan name, Madiba.
PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA, South Africa: Our beloved Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the founding president of our democratic nation, has departed.
He passed on peacefully in the company of his family around 20:50 on
the 5th of December, 2013. He is now resting. He is now at peace.
Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.
Although we knew that this day would come, nothing can diminish our
sense of a profound and enduring loss. His tireless struggle for freedom
earned him the respect of the world.
His humility, his compassion, and his humanity earned him their love.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Mandela family. Our thoughts are
with the South African people, who today mourn the loss of the one
person who, more than any other, came to embody their sense of a common
nationhood.
Our thoughts are with the millions of people across the
world who embraced Madiba as their own and who saw his cause as their
cause.
This is the moment of our deepest sorrow. Our nation has lost its greatest son.
Yet, what made Nelson Mandela great was precisely what made him human. We saw in him what we seek in ourselves.
As we gather, wherever we are in the country and wherever we are in
the world, let us recall the values for which Madiba fought. Let us
reaffirm his vision of a society in which none is exploited, oppressed
or dispossessed by another.
Let us commit ourselves to strive together -- sparing neither
strength nor courage -- to build a united, non-racial, non-sexist,
democratic and prosperous South Africa.
Let us express, each in our own way, the deep gratitude we feel for a
life spent in service of the people of this country and in the cause of
humanity.
That is indeed the moment of our deepest sorrow. Yet it must also be
the moment of our greatest determination, a determination to live as
Madiba has lived, to strive as Madiba has strived, and to not rest until
we have realized his vision of a truly united South Africa, a peaceful
and prosperous Africa, and a better world.
We will always love you, Madiba. May your soul rest in peace.
God bless Africa. JUDY WOODRUFF: That was South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma. UPDATED 6:20 EST: Message from The Nelson Mandela Foundation, The Nelson Mandela Children's Fund and The Mandela Rhodes Foundation:
"It is with the deepest regret that we have learned of the passing
of our founder, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela - Madiba. The Presidency of
the Republic of South Africa will shortly make further official
announcements.
We want to express our sadness at this time. No words can adequately describe this enormous loss to our nation and to the world.
We give thanks for his life, his leadership, his devotion to humanity
and humanitarian causes. We salute our friend, colleague and comrade
and thank him for his sacrifices for our freedom. The three charitable
organisations that he created dedicate ourselves to continue promoting
his extraordinay legacy.
Hamba Kahle Madiba"
Nelson Mandela will be remembered by
the world for his peaceful pursuit of equal rights for all South
Africans and as the post-apartheid nation's first president. Former
NewsHour senior correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault looks back at the
activist and peacemaker's 27 years in prison and his victory over
decades of oppression.
JUDY WOODRUFF: And now to a personal retrospective on the life of Nelson Mandela from one of our own.
Former NewsHour senior correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault covered
the South African leader for more than a decade, and interviewed him on a
number of occasions, from the time he left prison to his election as
South Africa's president.
She prepared this remembrance. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: To my generation, the one
that came of age in the '60s, Nelson Mandela was a towering man of myth
and legend, of action and passion, of selfless sacrifice.
And before any of us ever dreamed, he became the embodiment of a
notorious decades-long struggling against white oppression. Many would
call that victory a miracle, Mandela the miracle maker.
These rare images from the book "Mandela: The Authorized Portrait" help us tell the story of Mandela's long walk to freedom.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on July 18, 1918, in a
tiny rural village in the Transkei on South Africa's eastern coast. But
it was here in neighboring Qunu that the man who was to become a legend
was nurtured, spending some of the happiest years of his boyhood.
Qunu is a gentle place of rolling hills and farms, where children
still play Mandela did when he wasn't laboring in these fields as a herd
boy, looking after his mother few sheep and calves. In time, they would
call him Madiba, his Xhosa clan name for respect.
Here, Xhosa boys, even ones like Mandela, descended from royalty,
were shaped by Xhosa ritual and taboo, tradition that taught respect and
responsibility for others. As Mandela grew into manhood, the Xhosa
mantle of responsibility led him to fight against oppressive white
minority rule that deprived and demeaned Mandela and his fellow
Africans.
In 1948, oppression was legalized into a system known as apartheid.
As a young lawyer in the 1940s, Mandela joined the African National
Congress, an organization then dedicated to peacefully pursuing equal
rights for all South Africans.
Mandela emerged as one of its leaders, staging mass rallies, strikes
and campaigns of defiance against apartheid's unjust laws. But by 1960,
the harsh white government's resistance to the ANC's peaceful process
caused Mandela and his ANC colleagues to launch a military wing
operating underground.
Their armed resistance was called Umkhonto we Sizwe, Spear of the
Nation. The campaign was aimed at military industrial and civil
installations, and not soft or human targets. But in time, the ANC's
bombings and urban guerrilla warfare resulted in the deaths of more than
60 people, though exact figures aren't known. But their acts bore no
comparison to the thousands murdered and otherwise disappeared by the
regime. NELSON MANDELA: There are many people who feel that
it is useful and futile for us to continue talking peace and nonviolence
against a government whose reply is only savage attacks on an unarmed
and defenseless people. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: In 1962, a vicious crackdown by the apartheid state was unleashed, and Mandela was caught up in the regime's wide net.
As he sat in prison, his ANC colleagues were also rounded up at a
farm in an area outside of Johannesburg called Rivonia and jailed. In
1963, during what came to be called the Rivonia trial, the government
tried and convicted Mandela and seven of the top command of the ANC on
charges of sabotage aimed at fomenting violent revolution, a capital
offense.
In June 1964, the eight were sentenced to life in prison. Even from
his cell on Robben Island, the Alcatraz-like site of the country's
harshest, most remote prison, six miles off the coast of Cape Town,
Mandela was uncompromising, says Helen Suzman, then a particularly
representative who spoke out against apartheid. HELEN SUZMAN, former South African politician: He
had no hesitation. He rattled off all the complaints about the bad food,
the fact he was sleeping on sleeping rolls, not proper mattresses, the
fact that the visits were too few and far between, and mostly about the
behavior of a warden, yes, who has a tattoo on the back of his hand of
the swastika. And he said, this man really is very bad. He treats us
badly. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But even then, Mandela was ever the statesman. HELEN SUZMAN: His bearing, his self-confidence,
remarkably self-confident man. He was never making outrageous remarks
about the government. He was always thoughtful. And what he said was,
you know, in keeping with someone who wanted peace. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: And he used the captive
audience in prison to educate his young followers for the future he
envisioned. They even called it Mandela University.
Tokyo Sexwale was one of the students. TOKYO SEXWALE, African National Congress: And that's
where he was teaching of the spirit of reconciliation, studying
history, studying science, studying everything that we were supposed to
equip ourselves, economics, to prepare ourselves for the new South
Africa. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Mandela's life sentence
removed him physically from the fight against apartheid, but his spirit
was felt throughout the townships of South Africa.
The government pressed hard to retain control of a black population
that refused to be silenced. In 1985, I made my first trip to the land
of Mandela's birth to find out what was driving the country's people,
black and white, and also to determine how much of Mandela's spirit was
still alive.
What -- what are you singing about? Tell me, what is this about? What is the song about? GIRL: Mandela, Mandela. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Mandela? GIRL: Mandela. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Mandela and...
(CROSSTALK) WOMAN: We want Mandela to be released from jail. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Really? WOMAN: And those who are exile to come back. MAN: There's one man we all respect and we take him -- we call him our father, none other than Nelson Mandela.
If and only if that man can be released, and then we can see the direction of South Africa. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: From those otherwise dark days, a new direction was on the horizon, as pressure at home and abroad mounted on the regime.
The apartheid system was crumbling. Mandela, who had been moved to a
different prison, began four years of secret negotiations with the
government that would eventually lead to the release of many of the
political prisoners and the unbanning of the ANC. Change seemed
inevitable. And the South African foreign minister admitted as much in
an interview with me following my reporting on South Africa for NewsHour
in 1985. ROELOF FREDERIK "PIK" BOTHA, former South Africa Foreign Minister: I made my position clear. We have said that we have outgrown apartheid. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But Mandela's own release would not come for another five years, in 1990.
After 27 years, Nelson Mandela took his first steps as a free man. He
was 71 years old. And few had seen him or any up-to-date photograph of
him in all those years. At his side were now Winnie Mandela, his defiant
wife who had kept his name and his message alive, and other comrades
from the African National Congress. NELSON MANDELA: Friends, comrades and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy and freedom for all.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) NELSON MANDELA: I stand here, before you, not as a
prophet, but as a humble servant of you, the people. Today, the majority
of South Africans, black and white, recognize that apartheid has no
future.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) NELSON MANDELA: It has to be ended by our own decisive mass action in order to build peace and security. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: I left for South Africa as
soon as I saw those pictures. And within a few days from his release
from prison, I found myself sitting with him in his backyard in the
black township of Soweto, where I soon gleaned insight into Mandela's
iron resolve, as well as his humility. NELSON MANDELA: We fought back. And as I -- I must stress again, I was not the only one who fought back. We all fought back. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: In what way? I mean, in what... NELSON MANDELA: And the amount of bravery, of
courage that was displayed was absolutely marvelous. And we had hunger
strikes and resisted doing anything which we considered to be
humiliating. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Were you aware of this
mythical character that was being built up in the outside world, through
portraits on television, movies, this sort of thing? And did that
concern you at all, or... NELSON MANDELA: Well, that worried me a bit. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Why? NELSON MANDELA: Because I wanted to be presented as I
am. And I'm an ordinary human being, with weaknesses. And you don't
want that to be built up into something that you are not. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Still, Nelson Mandela was
the man of the hour, and he wasted no time on efforts to dismantle the
apartheid regime, even before a full United Nations assembly in 1990. NELSON MANDELA: We know also that you harbor the
hope that we will not relent or falter in the pursuit of that common
vision, which should result in the transformation of South Africa into a
country of democracy, justice, and peace. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: In 1993, the year before
apartheid ended, Mandela shared his vision of a new South Africa as he
shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the man who had seen the handwriting
on the wall and acted, the last apartheid president, F.W. De Klerk. NELSON MANDELA: South Africa will be like a
microcosm of the new way that is striving to be born. This must be a
world of democracy and respect for human rights. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But, in South Africa, change was accompanied as the last gasp of the regime as it backed black-on-black violence.
Still, Mandela's way prevailed. And on the 27th of April, 1994, Mandela himself voted for the first time in his life, at age 75.
A few days before, Mandela and I sat down in Johannesburg, and I got a
rare glimpse into his steely side when I asked him about De Klerk's
assertion that a liberation movement wouldn't know how to govern and
that Mandela's presidency wouldn't be as powerful as his. NELSON MANDELA: My power of persuasion is sufficient.
I have wielded power as a prisoner, without occupying any position,
and Mr. De Klerk had to recognize that. We have taken decisions and
forced him to use his legal powers. The decision was taken by us.
Take, for example, how he dismissed two ministers. We gave him an
ultimatum that you must appoint a judicial commission to investigate the
question of violence. He must dismiss a certain two ministers. And he
came out and he said he would never do that.
We embarked on mass action. He was forced to do exactly what he said
he would never do. So, we have wielded power even before we assumed the
government of the country. And that is how the situation should be
examined. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: On May 10, 1994, Nelson Mandela took another giant step on a journey that took him from prisoner to president. NELSON MANDELA: We enter into a covenant that we
shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and
white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts,
assured of their inalienable right to human dignity -- a rainbow nation
at peace with itself and the world. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Elements of the repressive
apartheid past remained, but Mandela and his young government rose above
them, insisting on forgiveness and reconciliation, which would become
the hallmark of his presidency. NELSON MANDELA: It is necessary for one to heal the wounds of the past if you're going to build your country and to have unity.
I am working with people who fought me very bitterly before the
elections. It was my responsibility, as the man who is leading the
majority party, my responsibility to heal the wounds of the past and to
work with people who were my opponents. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Mandela kept his part of the
bargain, enabling a forum offering amnesty in exchange for truth about
apartheid-era atrocities on all sides. It was called the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.
Countless black victims came forward, but almost none of the whites
who had ordered or committed atrocities did or told the truth. But the
process is credited with averting a bloodbath as the government changed
from white to black hands. Moreover, Mandela's government put to rest
concerns that the ANC's past leftist rhetoric would lead to
nationalizing the economy. Instead, he told the world his country would
be a democratic, capitalist society, and kept his word.
Mandela's government also established principles of redress aimed at
bringing blacks into the economic mainstream, while building millions of
houses and providing basic services that didn't exist for the poor, not
enough and not fast enough for all, but enough to earn the gratitude of
millions and the patience of most of its long-suffering people.
But Mandela's own personal life suffered. The Mandelas divorced.
Mandela stepped down after serving only one term, setting a new standard
on a continent of presidents for life.
At the same time, Mandela had set the bar so high, it would be close
to impossible for anyone to fill his shoes or to think of South Africa
as anything but a miracle nation, a perception that would belie South
Africa's down-to-earth realities and create problems for anyone not the
icon Mandela had become, not least because the icon stayed in the
adoring public's eye.
On his 80th birthday, Mandela married his third wife, Graca Machel, widow of Mozambican President Samora Machel.
As his physical walk became more labored, Mandela announced his retirement from public life. NELSON MANDELA: Don't call me.
(LAUGHTER) NELSON MANDELA: I will call you.
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: But, even in his later
years, Mandela kept on walking, joined by his wife in their advocacy for
the world's children and boldly making up for the silence and
inattention on HIV and AIDS dating back to his own time in office.
Mandela had come to realize the disease was overwhelming the country
he loved and threatening the very future he sought to ensure, not least
taking the life of his one remaining son. Mandela took on AIDS as a
public crusade and spoke out forcefully about the need for others in
high positions to join him, though few did. NELSON MANDELA: I am alive because the people gave
me love and support. And that is why I am here today to deal with your
questions. So, there is no difference whatsoever between somebody who is
HIV-positive and myself. CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT: Mandela was equally
passionate about children, the nation's, his own and Graca Machel's. And
in time, he even brought Winnie back into the family fold.
And that extended family will join a cast of millions who will honor
him from far and near as he becomes an ancestor, buried in the Mandela
family cemetery in his quiet village of Qunu, free at last from his epic
journey, free to take a moment of rest on his now long walk to
eternity. GWEN IFILL: That's Charlayne Hunter-Gault. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/july-dec13/obit_12-05.html
ANALYSIS AIR DATE: Dec. 5, 2013
Why the world aspires to live up to the legacy left by Mandela
SUMMARY
Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff reflect on
Nelson Mandela's life with Donald Gips, former U.S. ambassador to South
Africa, John Stremlau of the Carter Center, Gay McDougall, Independent
Electoral Commission of South Africa, and Douglas Foster, author of
"After Mandela: The Struggle for Freedom in Post-Apartheid South
Africa."
GWEN IFILL: For more on Nelson Mandela's
life and legacy, we turn to four people who knew him or watched South
Africa's emergence from apartheid.
Gay McDougall was a member the South African Election Commission,
which administered the country's first democratic non-racial elections
in 1994. Prior to that, she served as director of the Southern Africa
Project of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Douglas
Foster is the author of "After Mandela: The Struggle for Freedom in
Post-Apartheid South Africa." He's an associate professor at
Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Donald Gips
served as U.S. ambassador to South Africa from 2009 to 2013. And John
Stremlau is vice president for peace programs at the Carter Center. He
taught at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
Welcome to you all.
Gay McDougall, what is your first reaction tonight on hearing of the loss of Nelson Mandela? GAY MCDOUGALL, Member, Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa: Well, I'm terribly sad.
Of course, we all expected it. We knew it was coming. But,
nevertheless, it is a shock. And it's quite saddening. I think, first
of all, of the people of South Africa who will be mourning in a very
special way. But I think of us all around the world have lost a hero, a
hero that we desperately needed when he came forward and gave us hope.
RELATED INFORMATION
Remembering activist and peacemaker Nelson Mandela
JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, as we continue
this conversation, we want to -- we do want to say to local stations,
because of the special nature of tonight's program, that we are not
going to be taking a break tonight, so that we can continue to discuss
Nelson Mandela's life and legacy.
And I want to pick up with you, Professor John Stremlau.
You taught, as Gwen just said, in South Africa for a number of years
after Nelson Mandela was released. What did you see of the man? What
did he mean to his country? JOHN STREMLAU, Carter Center: Well, he means everything for his country.
And I think the challenge is to live up to the example he set, as
President Obama indicated. What was great about Mandela was his respect
for the rule of law. Think about it just for a moment -- 27 years in
jail under an illegitimate legal system, and to come and to defend the
rule of law above all else.
When he was asked to appear in court as a sitting president, his
advisers said, no, no, no, you can't do it. You can't appear in this
case on rugby and discrimination that he had asserted. It was a libel
suit of some sort. And he said, look, no man is above the law, and so I
will be there.
I think he inherited this stubborn sense of freedom -- fairness, as
he described himself once, from his father. It was that stubborn sense
of fairness which kept the process on track. And we Americans owe him
and the country of South Africa a great debt, because nothing would have
torn this country apart in the 1970s and perhaps into the '80s than a
race war in South Africa.
So, I -- all I want to do is to celebrate this wonderful, wonderful man. GWEN IFILL: I would actually like to pick up that,
Ambassador Gips, because, by the time you arrived in Johannesburg as
ambassador from the U.S., you had been appointed by an African-American
president.
You went -- you were there and saw the legacy, the real legacy, the
current-day legacy of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. And how did it
resonate? DONALD GIPS, Former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa: It resonated incredibly. His presence still drives the country.
You know, from people on the street to people in government, everyone
aspires to live up to the legacy he left. It is a difficult challenge
to live up to someone of his iconic nature, but he really inspired all
of us, I think, around the world.
And the message that he left for all of us is one that I think the
world needs, whether it's our Congress or people around the world, of
putting -- putting aside our differences to work for the greater good.
You know, I was so inspired -- my most inspiring moment in South
Africa was actually holding some of the letters that he wrote from
prison at the Center for Memory and reading about what he gave up to
fight for freedom and to fight for a better South Africa for everyone.
And I think if -- given what he gave up, we all need to take this moment and decide how we can make the world a better place. JUDY WOODRUFF: Douglas Foster, you got to know the Mandela family.
In the last decade, you moved to South Africa for a time to write a
book about what -- after Mandela, the struggle for freedom after his
time as president. What -- how did you experience this? What would you
add to this question of his effect on the country? DOUGLAS FOSTER, Author, "After Mandela: The Struggle for Freedom in Post-Apartheid South Africa": Sure.
I got to know the old man, as everybody calls him in South Africa,
through his grandchildren, primarily through his grandson Ndaba. And
the last time I saw him at his home in Johannesburg, he did this
typically puckish, mischievous thing.
As my son and I entered the room, he said, "Ah, it's nice that young
people still come to an old man who has nothing new to say."
I think one of the important legacies of Nelson Mandela is to have
given the challenge to the half of the population in South Africa that
is 24 and under and didn't have direct experience of conditions under
apartheid to understand that this is their moment and a time to shape
the freedom that was on in their names.
I think that the South African editor Ferial Haffajee wrote recently
that Mandela had prepared his people for his passing in an unusual way,
she said -- quote -- "like a good parent" -- unquote.
And I think that's worth marking on a day like this, that most
leaders attempt to assert indispensability. That's their sense of their
own role in life. I think one of Nelson Mandela's great gifts was to
live long enough and also to be conscious enough about what it means to
step away from power that he has given his people the gift of
dispensability. The great experiment in creating a non-racial,
non-sexist, non-homophobic and more egalitarian society at the Southern
Tip of Africa survives him. GWEN IFILL: Ambassador Gips, we know you have to
move on from us in a few moments, so I want to circle back to you for a
moment and just ask you a sense about whether Nelson Mandela's one term
as president of South Africa and his heroic status, whether that had an
effect on surrounding countries, on the region, on Africa as a
continent? DONALD GIPS: Oh, I think he inspires people around the continent and around the world.
I think -- I witnessed people coming to South Africa to pay tribute
to him during the World Cup and at other moments. There is no greater
figure in my lifetime. And I think, as President Obama said, he's his
inspiration. So, I think he has inspired people not just in South
Africa or in Africa, but around the world.
But, in the end, what he did in South Africa is an example that we all need to follow. GWEN IFILL: Gay McDougall, how do you explain the
essence of Nelson Mandela? What gave him that impossible-to-understand
strength that he had to come out of prison after 27 years and to go on
to be the great leader that he was? GAY MCDOUGALL: Well, he is quite a remarkable individual.
That's -- I don't think there's no question about that. He has a
certain regalness to him, but also a sort of down-home folksiness to him
as well, but I think the mixture of knowing how to handle and to deal
with power, yet seeing himself very much as a member of a collective of
decision-makers, as a member of a liberation movement, of a political
party, of South Africans as a whole.
I will never forget the really transcendent moment that I was
privileged to spend -- to share with him when he voted for the first
time in 1994. I was there as a member of the commission that ran the
elections then. And President Mandela had put my name forward to be on
the commission.
But it was a remarkable moment for him and for his nation. And, you
know, all of the suffering and struggle that had occurred before that
moment was now telescoped through him and into the future, as he dropped
his ballot into that box.
So he has been a manifestation of all of the hopes and dreams and
aspirations and -- of his country. And he's been able to articulate
that and to live a life that was worthy of that. GWEN IFILL: John Stremlau, I'm curious. In watching
Charlayne's piece, it was interesting to see his personality and his
political side as well. He talked about his own -- his own -- how much
he was convinced in the power of his own moral suasion.
Was that an essential part of his success and his -- his legacy as well? JOHN STREMLAU: Well, absolutely, Gwen.
The one error in the presentation, which is understandable, is when
he said he's just an ordinary man. This was certainly no ordinary man.
He had an appreciation of the humanity in all of us. He took an
inspiration from Dr. King. He understood what the civil rights struggle
was in this country.
And he understood what tolerance and justice is for all. He's helped
to make South Africa, which now celebrates next year 20 years of
democracy -- we are celebrating 50 years of a movement toward greater
racial justice in our own country -- what it meant to be part of a
global, truly global community. And he appreciated the interest and
support that he got from everywhere.
But he also was willing to sort of look at the individual in his own
country and say, you matter, and what you do really does count for
something.
And so, as a professor, the born free, so-called, now, the new
generation of kids coming along who didn't know apartheid, they have to
be reimbued with this Mandela ethic, as was said earlier in the -- in
the obituary. JUDY WOODRUFF: And Douglas Foster, pick up on that,
and talk about why he was the beacon that he was for the rest of the
world. People do amazing things and -- but -- but when you think about
him, I mean, he really stands apart. DOUGLAS FOSTER: Well, I think it's partly in the
context -- if you think about the idea of contingency in history, he
stitched together so many divergent parts of South African culture --
divergent parts of South African culture.
He grew up as a shoeless cowherd. He went to the city and made
something new of himself as a lawyer. But then he traded in that
privilege, that hard-earned privilege to become a figure who was
denounced as a terrorist in the United States and in South Africa,
endured those prison years, as Charlayne told us, and came out with a
singular vision of a different kind of society, and drove towards it so
relentlessly.
I think it's that commitment and consistency, the requirement of a
very disciplined mind and a very steely man, too. As -- as much as
we're tempted on a day like this to only sing praises about the soft and
warm side, he didn't succeed by being a pushover. He succeeded by
being very tough, very strategic, and -- and committed, absolutely
committed to a vision during periods where one wouldn't have guessed
that it would succeed. GWEN IFILL: Gay McDougall, here in Washington,
outside of the remodeled South African Embassy, there is a statue going
up in which Mandela has his fist in the air. And he's right across the
street from Winston Churchill, who has his victory sign in the air.
It's quite a place on Massachusetts Avenue.
It's tempting in moment like this to look at the past and -- and not
to look at the present and the future. So, as you think about Nelson
Mandela tonight, and you think legacy, how do you think about his effect
on the present and the future? GAY MCDOUGALL: Well, I think that he stands for the
importance of personal commitment, for being true to one's principles,
of working with people who share that kind of a vision, and of modeling a
new kind of leadership for the future.
I think these are all lessons that young people in the United States,
as well as throughout Africa, are going to continuously turn to. He is
a figure that is going to, in many ways, live forever. His lessons to
us will live forever.
And so while I think we all of course his passing, I feel that, you
know, very soon, we will be taken with how much of a gift his life has
been to all of us. JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, Gay McDougall, we thank you.
We thank Professor Stremlau, John Stremlau, and Douglas Foster. We
also want to thank Ambassador Gips, who was with us for a few minutes.
We appreciate your joining us on this day. DOUGLAS FOSTER: Thank you. JUDY WOODRUFF: And PBS' special coverage of Mandela's death includes a FRONTLINE documentary, "The Long Walk of Nelson Mandela: An Intimate Portrait of One of the 20th Century's Greatest Leaders." You can watch that online at PBS.org. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/remember/july-dec13/guests_12-05.html
