He reminded us of that which we need to be reminded, over and over again, about our own best selves. He reminded us because he was the last one of them, the last in the line that began with George Washington, the last one to witness what Lincoln called for 150 years ago. He was there for a new birth of freedom.
Esquire had good pieces by other writers;Evan Fleischer—
There is no such thing as too much media saturation when it comes to Nelson Mandela's life and Nelson Mandela's memory, because there was once a time when his image didn’t exist, was illegal. As the moments pass after his death, we see a raised fist — Mandela's fist — finding the screen and breaking through.
Chris Jones, on South Africa: "Nelson Mandela's Dream Will Prevail."
Stephen Marche: Mandela as "saint," at least in terms of having won by showing the power of compassion. [On a related note, Bag News: "Reading the Tribute Photos: Mandela's Masterful Body Language"].
And this, by the Esquire editors.
This is important, that "Mandela was a great man because he wasn't a Great Man; his politics were aimed at the ability of the people to realize themselves."
On the Majority Report, Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter brought up how predictably the media avoided noting Mandela's greater agenda: of economic justice and peace. And they discussed how the right is perpetually on the wrong side of history—until it's forced to re-write the past, to claim a Dr. King or a Mandela. With Mandela, as with King, anyone standing for radical change has been branded a communist by the right—until decades later, when a whitewash is in order.
The idea that the anti-apartheid divestiture and boycott movement were first marginalized by "the technocratic center" was discussed (which led into the usual depressing but apt analysis of the Obama agenda).
At 1:20 in the audio, talk returned to the right's claiming Mandela's legacy while "tripping over themselves with mendacity or stupidity, or both." It seems Santorum compared Obamacare to apartheid on O'Reilly's show—"O'Reilly bringing the mendacity, and Santorum bringing the stupidity." Sam wanted to know "When's Rick Santorum gonna go into prison for 27 years to fight this?"
Producer Michael Brooks contributed his impression of new conservative icon Nelson Mandela speaking out: against that assault on the conscience of humanity, "an inconvenient website." Which turned into an impassioned speech about comrades "Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and the other heroes of the struggle against the slightly expanded Medicaid"; which turned into conservative talk radio host Mandela hawking gold...
The jokes were not inappropriate, considering the eulogies that remembered Mandela as having had an "impish" sense of humor. Humor would seem necessary to accomplishing what he did: in struggling against the right enemies and being able, as Cliff said, "to come out of the most brutal prison yet swallow the urge for revenge."
Also funny, but it gets just the right tone: Nelson Mandela Becomes First Politician To Be Missed.
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