Yesterday the world lost a great man, maybe even one of the last truly great men left. Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95 leaving a legacy of hope, justice and forgiveness behind. I became aware of Nelson Mandela in the 1980's when the issue of Apartheid in South Africa was the popular issue for world activists much like Free Tibet is today. Songs like Sun City, Biko, and Free Nelson Mandela along with movies such as Cry Freedom brought the issue of racial segregation to the middle class suburban masses of Canada and the United States. It was through the story of Nelson Mandela that as a teenager I became interested in history and the stories the world held beyond the typical cold war rhetoric I had grown up with. For me Nelson Mandela became a man to look up to, someone embodied strength, determination, compassion, sacrifice, caring and the willingness to sacrifice himself for his ideals. Since my teenage years Nelson Mandela has always been there as a symbol that not all sacrifices go unrewarded, sometimes right does win and individuals do matter. For me Nelson Mandela was the living embodiment of histories greatest figures like Martin Luther King Jr and Ghandi.
The world is messier now than it was then. We like to focus on the failings of people and we live in a world where people's personal lives and every misstep are often exposed to the world. Professional athletes are regularly in the news for being arrested, our politician caught in scandal, our heroes constantly being brought back down to earth. Mandela and his fight against Apartheid reminds us of a simpler time when there was a right and wrong stance and it was OK to pick sides, even if the people you were siding with weren't perfect.
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