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(38,437 posts)He stood up for what he believed in and paid a severe price.
That is the face of a hero.
quinnox
(20,600 posts)Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. They both committed what were considered crimes, to draw attention to their cause. Civil disobedience has a distinguished history.
HappyMe
(20,277 posts)The world will be a much poorer, emptier place without him.
Rebellious Republican
(5,029 posts)Like MLK, Rosa Parks, RFK and many others his legacy will endure!
treestar
(82,383 posts)For that beautiful thought.
A real hero, indeed.
In_The_Wind
(72,300 posts)one_voice
(20,043 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)yup yup
K&R
sheshe2
(84,005 posts)His story is one of courage~
Simply said, beautiful
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)I don't understand the cruel wishes that everything be done to prolong a life which is at an end.
Go in peace with the gratitude of the world Mr. Mandela.
Uncle Joe
(58,506 posts)Thanks for the thread, madamesilverspurs.
MjolnirTime
(1,800 posts)fasttense
(17,301 posts)being a traitor to his country for exposing the horrors and cruelties in his country. They claimed he was a terrorist and exposed his country's shameful secrets to others. Eventually they came around but only after locking him up for years and years. Not everyone needs to go to jail to prove they are a hero.
Coccydynia
(198 posts)He is truly a hero. But you don't have to suffer injustices to be a hero.
Response to Coccydynia (Reply #15)
Rebellious Republican This message was self-deleted by its author.
titanicdave
(429 posts)is truly one of the great human beings of our time......how fortunate we all are to live at the same time as this truly fine gentleman....
SunSeeker
(51,787 posts)He was well educated, with a law degree. He could have left South Africa and had a comfortable life. Instead, he stayed, protested and was imprisoned. He fought for his country, not against it. In so doing, he set a moral example and inspired a generation. I will always be in awe of his strength and courage.
Initech
(100,129 posts)A silent guardian. A watchful protector. A dark knight.
Rebellious Republican
(5,029 posts)Great movie, everyone should rent it and enjoy this very moving film.
http://suite101.com/article/clint-eastwoods-invictus-and-apartheid-a210622
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)Egnever
(21,506 posts)arely staircase
(12,482 posts)one of the greatest men in history.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)To besmirch that word is cruel and ignorant.
Whisp
(24,096 posts)The great German philosopher Schopenhauer, in a magnificent essay on 'The Foundation of Morality,' treats of this transcendental spiritual experience. How is it, he asks, that an individual can so forget himself and his own safety that he will put himself and his life in jeopardy to save another from death or painas though that others life were his own, that others danger his own? Such a one is then acting, Schopenhauer answers, out of an instinctive recognition of the truth that he and that other in fact are one. He has been moved not from the lesser, secondary knowledge of himself as separate from others, but from an immediate experience of the greater, truer truth, that we are all one in the ground of our being. Schopenhauers name for this motivation is compassion, Mitleid, and he identifies it as the one and only inspiration of inherently moral action. It is founded, in his view, in a metaphysically valid insight. For a moment one is selfless, boundless, without ego."
Excerpt From: Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live By. Joseph Campbell Foundation, 2011-03-11. iBooks.
Tarheel_Dem
(31,250 posts)last1standing
(11,709 posts)However, I hope we don't expect everyone who would stand up against their government's wrongs to match his fortitude. If so, we will quickly run out of heroes or even whistleblowers.
Lady Freedom Returns
(14,120 posts)THIS IS A HERO!
Liberal_in_LA
(44,397 posts)Luminous Animal
(27,310 posts)That is right. Mandela was officially recognized as a terrorist by the U.S. government until 2008.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/2008-04-30-watchlist_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip