After being held prisoner for 27 years, literally under lock and key in a damp, cramped cell, Nelson Mandela walked out into the sunshine of freedom.
What he did next is what has stuck with me all these years.
He put out his hand.
Not to strike out at those who held him captive. Not to exhort his people to violence. But instead to work together.
Mandela knew something the rest of us continue to struggle with.
We need to work together. We need to seek common ground. We need to embrace - and occasionally shed a tear - with out enemy. We need to love our brother, regardless of the color of their skin.
The power that emanated from tiny prison cell reached the highest levels South Africa. Mandela reached out to work with the South African leader F. W. de Klerk, leader of the white government and the apartheid system that had placed the country's majority black citizens under the yoke of a racist apartheid system.
Together they ended apartheid.
For their efforts, they were awarded both the Liberty Medal here in Philadelphia, and the Nobel Peace Prize.
A few months later, blacks vote for the first time in South Africa. Mandela's African National Congress wins; he is elected president.
He does not seek retribution against his captors. Instead he leads, he governs.
It's a lesson this country has yet to learn.
Witness what is happening in Washington, where governing now takes a back seat to scoring political points, and in particular making sure President Obama enjoys not one scintilla of success.
People are always quick to note "how far we've come" in this country when it comes to race relations.
I have my doubts.
Witness the scorn heaped on the president.
Try reading the comments attached to almost any story on our website, DelcoTimes.com.
See how quick readers were to jump on the tragic, heart-achingly sad story of a young man shot to death for nothing more than his expensive headphones, their words dripping with all the venom on Mississippi in the '60s.
Some went so far as to go online and find a criminal record for someone who shared the victim's name. They didn't check to see if it was the same person. They simply used it to hurl more invective and further their rant.
I will mourn Nelson Mandela. And so much of what he stood for. I will admire more than anything else his ability to put aside the way he was treated in an effort to move forward.
And I will continue to wonder just how far we have come.
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