The world lost one of its greatest citizens last week when Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95. He was a former South African president who did more than, perhaps, anyone else to help bring freedom to all people who inhabit this world in which we live.
Compare him with Abraham Lincoln and others who finally ended the slavery that eliminated the freedom in the lives of many who lived under oppression. He did to South Africa what Lincoln and others did to the United States of America.
He preached his message without hesitation. But in the midst of it, he was always a cheerful man with a smile on his face. His thoughts and desires always went toward the promotion of freedom for all people on earth to live a life without the bonds that many of his predecessors in South Africa and in other parts of the world suffered.
He was a revolutionary, no doubt about it. As a result, he served 27 years in prison for attempting to bring that freedom to the apartheid government of South Africa. But he also was undeniably a forgiving person who was ready to reconcile with even his worst enemies.
After his release from prison, he became the first black president of South Africa and he has helped set the stage for an end to racism which for centuries has infected the world. When his term as president was ended, he stepped down peacefully and allowed others to rule in their newly democratized country.
Without question, he had a love for humanity that, seemingly, has overwhelmed the world. That love unquestionably was returned to him during this past week after his death when people everywhere have expressed cheers for his existence that helped make our earth such a much better place in which to live.
Nelson Mandela can be praised as one of the greatest individuals to ever inhabit the earth. He was indeed an historic figure.
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