The funeral for Nelson Mandela has been advertised to be the biggest such event in modern history. President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will travel to South Africa today on Air Force One, accompanied by former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura. As world leaders arrive let's set history straight.
"Apartheid" is an African word that means living apart. In other words, it is an official policy of racial segregation.
This policy began long before South Africa was a nation, back when it was a Dutch Colony. It eventually became the official policy of the nation and was enforced with League Of Nations support even in South West Africa. Eventually the ruling government removed the citizenship of black residents based solely on skin color.
The Apartheid government was the subject of sanctions by the United States and Great Britain. But little else was done to end the serious mistreatment of black people in South Africa.
As blacks protested the worsening conditions of their lives, the government arrested and jailed them. This in turn brought protest to a much more violent confrontation. [Wikipedia]
Educated, wealthy black skinned people in South Africa organized and formed a variety of groups with the mission of ending the Apartheid through negotiations and political pressure. Among those who led such groups was Nelson Mandela.
Mandela was college educated. He was a member of the Thembu royal family. While his early efforts to end Apartheid were non-violent, he eventually formed a militant group called Umkhonto we Sizwe. He aligned himself with the Communists who engaged in many acts of terrorism. Madela was a Communist Party member when he was arrested.
His group had led a sabotage campaign that landed him in jail. He was convicted of conspiracy to overthrow the government and sentenced to life in prison. He spent 27 years behind bars.
Mandela was released in 1990 and began negotiations with the government of South Africa to end Apartheid. Apartheid officially ended in 1994 with multi-racial elections which made Mandela South Africa's first black president.
He only served one term in office after which he focused on social reform, charitable work and became known as "The Father Of The Nation", a respected international figure whose passing will receive world wide notice.
He has been denounced as a Marxist, a Communist and a terrorist. All of these are true. And while many of us to this day hold dear the right to petition the government for redress in a non-violent, peaceful process of debate and persuasion, that has not always been our history here, in the United States. [Wikipedia]
I remind you of the words of Patrick Henry, spoken to the Virginia House of Burgess, at a time when we in this land were under colonial rule, subjects of a tyrant and without the full measure of our God given rights:
Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us; they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne. In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained, we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us!
...The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come. [History.org]
Would our founders have been called traitors? They were. Would their actions have been declared terrorism? They were. Would they have been arrested, killed, jailed and broken by the King's men? All of this happened.
But after our founders won, they established a new nation and in that form gave us each a peaceful way to revolt against the government, to replace those who do not represent us, to end abuses, and govern ourselves. The entire House of Representatives is elected every two years. Every seat at one time. Our forefathers gave us the law by which we can replace our government without blood shed.
Today there are some in this nation who have called for armed revolution. Even among presumably rational people frustration runs high. And in some circles the most radical among us are losing patience and decry the system of elections as not producing the kind of results they want, fast enough.
When the world remembers Nelson Mandela it would be wrong to exclude the facts that he was a Communist and a terrorist as much as it would be wrong to forget that he fought for liberty.
It will be up to you to decide what his life was about, not the revisionists who are working to change history. And it will be up to you to decide if there is ever a rational basis for the murder of innocents.
Let's hope that his funeral will inspire these kinds of discussions rather than the mere glorification of one man's life.
He falls short of Ghandi, but a lot of people do.
The non agression principle is the distinction that I like to draw.
If you change the world and abide by the principle then you are a hero. You really have changed the world for the better. ie MLK.
If you have been claimed to have changed the world by violating the principle then you have not changed it. You have maintained the status quo. ie Malcolm X.
Mandela is both. He was Malcolm X before he was MLK. But at the end he admitted his wrong and post prison he adopted the non agression principle for the rest of his life.
That makes him a hero in my book.
Communist this and socialist that ... is all propaganda and demagoguery.
Unless you are a pure Libertarian (one does not exist at least in politics) you are a communist or a socialist. Don't kid yourself, if you support spending a single tax dollar on anything much less on any social program then you are an advocate for the redistribution of wealth.
A degree is a degree. It is not nothing.
God Bless.
Posted by: Mr. Scott Ryan | December 09, 2013 at 04:33 PM