Day 26

When people that are historically important reach the end of their lives depending on why they grew to become important will matter of course in how we react to this time.  For the man that is known as Nelson Mandela it will be a very sad time for the people of his country and the world.  Mandela joined the African National Congress in1942.  This was the beginnings of the Anti-Apartheid movement.  For 20 years, Mandela directed peaceful, nonviolent acts of defiance against the South African government and its racist policies, including the 1952 Defiance Campaign and the 1955 Congress of the People. He founded the law firm Mandela and Tambo, partnering with Oliver Tambo, a brilliant student he'd met while attending Fort Hare. The law firm provided free and low-cost legal counsel to unrepresented blacks.  Mandela helped to free his people from the oppression of the British/white culture that had held them back for so very long.  With the freedom that we on the most part take for granted in this day and age it is almost hard to relate to what these people suffered through.  Nelson Mandela was put in prison for 20 years. And released in February of 1990 and then elected president of the National African Congress in 1991.  He continued to negotiate with President FW De Klerk and in 1993 they were both awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their parts in dismantling apartheid.     On April 27, 1994 South Africa held its first ever democratic elections.  At the age of 77 Nelson Mandela was elected as the first Black President of his country on May 10, 1994.  It is hard in our country to believe that within our lifetimes that any country would have its first democratic election.  We have seen a lot more do just this now in the Middle East and the people of their countries in somewhat peaceful ways move to democracy and elections that allow the people to have their say about who they want in office and running their countries.  Then we come to Syria.  A war torn country that has the Soviet Union backing them and providing them with the materials of war.  The Soviet Union could make things easier on the world if they were to ask that the leader step down and allow for a peaceful transition to democratic state and allow for the people to elect their leader.  I wish for those people to have the freedom that we are allowed in the United States and the peaceful lives we get to live.  When elections are held in these countries we cannot control what kinds of parties these people represent just as the party that wins is up to the voters here.  We can only hope that if the people do not like whom they elected that there will be a peaceful transition of power to the next choice.  Our lives here have been able to be peaceful for some time and the growth we have had has been good for the most part.  People in other countries that have bombs and wars going on every day would love to come and live in our peaceful nation.   I cannot understand how a people that love peace as very much as we do could enter into war so easily.  It would seem that we think it is ok for it to happen as long as it is somewhere else.  We should not accept this behavior for ourselves or other countries.  Peace should be what we want for the entire world.  Maybe if we could stay out of wars for a while we just might learn how to live without the war machine that costs us so very much in money and human lives.  This world needs more men like Nelson Mandela not less.