Nelson Mandela

It is a snow day from school, thus I am watching Nelson Mandela's Memorial Service being beamed from South Africa into my living room through CSPAN. CSPAN is my favorite television station minus the pontificating politicians and panderers, Left, Right, and in-between. Cut them out like a piece of gristle from the steak on the plate. I would can Comcast if it were not for CSPAN.

I read the autobiography of Nelson Mandela a couple of summers ago. I have always preferred non-fiction and real stories versus the make-believe. The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings finally broke through my resistance to fiction, for they had much facts in them.

I gained a greater appreciation for the man, his story, and his struggle. He was not a perfect man, far from it. Yet, he made many decisions that steered South Africa away from a Zimbabwe-like end where the oppressed became the oppressor like that ugly and violent man Robert Mugabe.

European Imperialism and its modern-day emanation of American Corporations, transnationals, who are so eager to emphasize their international and independent character while depending on American military and political power to protect its interests--and let someone else foot the bill--leave an ominous shadow on the world's landscape. Its sins are real. 

Mandela is criticized for his participation in the African National Conference and it efforts to throw off the shackles of Apartheid.  Easy for cushy and slovenly white Right-wing know it all blowhards to say, who hardly see the American Revolution in such a cynical light.

Obama is speaking now in the Memorial Service. Obama, for all of his eloquence and eruditeness, stumbles in his blind endorsement of abortion rights. Liberals can't seem to understand that when you speak up for the oppressed, the weak, and the needy, abortion rights collapse such argumentation from below.  I hope Pope Francis will be able to establish this point in his pursuit of speaking up for the disenfranchised. I would also hope that Conservatives will become more charitable, to stop cursing the darkness but to light a candle. To stop throwing bombs but to plant seeds of hope.