My dear readers and fans I am right now listening to the music from the movie Invictus. I am feeling both sad and happy today. 20 years ago today Nelson Mandela walked to freedom after almost 27 years in prison.
I was in Pasadena, California when I got the news. I was both shocked and surprised. I was able to live part of this great historical moment with my five years in South Africa. When I cast my vote in the first all-democratic election in 1994 it was one of the greatest moments of my life.
South Africans you are very lucky to have had a wonderful man like Mandela to guide you to all of the changes that had to take place to make your country real and whole. On the inside he must have been bitter with his 27 years in prison and the people who put him there and kept him there. His heart must have ached over the bad things that happened to his family. He also was deeply indoctrinated in the Marxist ideology with the idea that taking from the rich and giving to the poor is the way to run an economy.
I would have loved to know what his exact thoughts were when he walked through the prison gates and the adulation of the world.
Some people who are given power "rise to the occasion." They find vision and wonderful qualities inside themselves they perhaps they did not even know they had. Nelson Mandela was and is that rare man. He was guided by a heart full of kindness and forgiveness and a great vision for his country and all of his people. South Africa did not become another failed Marxist African state like Zimbabwe next door. Instead it has moved forward and grown and prospered. He is truly "The Father of Your Country."
One person who should not be forgotten or over looked on this day is former President F.W. de Klerk. He could easily be described,in one sense, as a "Rechter Lechter Afrikaaner." I know him as a man of incredible intelligence and rare sensitivity. South Africa is blessed to had had him in power at that time. He saw his whole way of life being challenged and coming to an end. He showed rare courage and vision to rise to the occasion and start the reconciliation process.
This 20 years has passed so fast. With some good luck I will have twenty more years. With incredible good luck I will have 40 years more.
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