Happy Birthday Madiba

Happy birthday Nelson Mandela, a man who never gave up in the fight for freedom, justice, and equality.

No man could accomplish this without the aid of an organized group of purpose driven people and the hope that one day justice would prevail. Before Barack Obama was elected as president of the USA, Nelson Mandela gave the world a totally different image of a nation's leader that cared for the people. This imagery and his style of leadership showed the world that peace could be achieved against all odds. A boy who some said was a troublemaker became a real life revolutionary, who initially practiced nonviolent resistance, then embraced violent terror tactics, then realized that a world political movement would break apartheid system of racial segregation.

Nelson Mandela was arrested and sent to prison in 1962 for his political activism. When testifying before the Supreme Court of South Africa,

Mandela said

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of African people. I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an idea which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an idea for which I am prepared to die."

While in prison he studied with the University of London by correspondence and earned a degree in Law. While in prison, his reputation grew and he bacame the most significant black leader in South Africa.He was classified as a political prisoner and was kept separate from ordinary prisoners. He was only allowed one visitor and one letter every six months.

Mandiba was held in various prisons until 1990 when he was released by president F.W. de Klerk. His release from prison was broadcast live on televisions all over the world. But his business was not finished.

" Our resort to the armed struggle in 1960 was a purely defensive action against the violence of apartheid. The factors which necessitated the armed struggle still exist today. We have no option but to continue. We express the hope that a climate conducive to a negotiated settlement would be created soon, so that there may be no longer be the need for the armed struggle."

Following his release from prison, Nelson Mandela returned to the leadership of the ANC and by 1994 he had successfully negotiated with the South African government which led to the country's first multi-racial elections. On May 10, 1994 he was inaugurated as the country's first black President with de Klerk as his first deputy.

Another famous leader, Solomon wrote Proverbs 24:13-14

"My son, eat honey because it is good,
And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste;
So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul;
If you have found it, there is a prospect,
And your hope will not be cut off."

Happy Birthday Madiba and thank you for your life's work.

Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King

I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate.  I know that it does something to their faces and their personalities and I say to myself that hate is too great a burden to bear. I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality.

Let us be dissatisfied until from every city hall, justice will roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid. Let us be dissatisfied. And men will recognize that out of one blood God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. Let us be dissatisfied until that day when nobody will shout "White Power!" — when nobody will shout "Black Power!" — but everybody will talk about God's power and human power.

I must confess, my friends, the road ahead will not always be smooth. There will be still rocky places of frustration and meandering points of bewilderment. There will be inevitable setbacks here and there. There will be those moments when the buoyancy of hope will be transformed into the fatigue of despair. Our dreams will sometimes be shattered and our ethereal hopes blasted. We may again with tear-drenched eyes have to stand before the bier of some courageous civil rights worker whose life will be snuffed out by the dastardly acts of bloodthirsty mobs. Difficult and painful as it is, we must walk on in the days ahead with an audacious faith in the future. ... When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds of despair, and when our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, let us remember that there is a creative force in this universe, working to pull down the gigantic mountains of evil, a power that is able to make a way out of no way and transform dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.add

Excerpt from  address to Southern Christian Leadership Conference, August, 1967.

Missing Martin

Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth. We must stand up amidst a system that still oppresses us and develop an unassailable and majestic sense of values.

As long as the mind is enslaved, the body can never be free. Psychological freedom, a firm sense of self-esteem, is the most powerful weapon against the long night of physical slavery. No Lincolnian emancipation proclamation or Johnsonian civil rights bill can totally bring this kind of freedom. The negro will only be free when he reaches down to the inner depths of his own being and signs with the pen and ink of assertive manhood his own emancipation proclamation. And, with a spirit straining toward true self-esteem, the Negro must boldly throw off the manacles of self-abegnation and say to himself and to the world, "I am somebody. I am a person. I am a man with dignity and honor. I have a rich and noble history.
We must stand up and say, "I'm black and I'm beautiful," and this self-affirmation is the black man's need, made compelling by the white man's crimes against him.

Don't let anybody make you think God chose America as his divine messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with justice and it seems I can hear God saying to America "you are too arrogant, and if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I will place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God  (Psa 46:10). Men will beat their swords into plowshafts and their spears into pruning hooks, and nations shall not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore.(Isa 2:4)" I don't know about you, I ain't going to study war anymore.

Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, political and economic change. ... Now a lot of us are preachers, and all of us have our moral convictions and concerns, and so often have problems with power. There is nothing wrong with power if power is used correctly. You see, what happened is that some of our philosophers got off base. And one of the great problems of history is that the concepts of love and power have usually been contrasted as opposites — polar opposites — so that love is identified with a resignation of power, and power with a denial of love.

What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. And this is what we must see as we move on. What has happened is that we have had it wrong and confused in our own country, and this has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience.

Excerpt from address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference August 1967 by Dr. Martin Luther King.

Quote from the Dreamer, MLKjr

"One of the great problems of mankind is that we suffer from a poverty of the spirit which stands in glaring contrast to our scientific and technological abundance. The richer we have become materially, the poorer we have become morally and spiritually."