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Here in Michigan there has been much remembering of the time Mr. Mandela came to Detroit's Tiger Stadium four months after he was released from prison. 49,000 people attended. Andria and I were there too, along with our close friends, Joe and Steph who are now my daughter's Godparents.
I spent some time thinking today about Nelson Mandela and what an impact that he and the struggle for the end of Apartheid had on my life.
Andria and I would meet at the soup kitchen in the basement of Wesley Foundation for lunch while we attended WMU in the late 1980's. There was a passionate graduate student, John Lee, lecturing on how WMU was the fourth university to divest its retirement portfolio of businesses doing business in South Africa because of student action. MSU was the first university to do so.
He was the leader of WMU's South African Student Organization (SASO II). The II was used to show solidarity with the South African organization of the same name which had been banned by the South African government and kept that name as long as it existed. The organization's faculty support came from Professor Don Cooney who also sat on the City of Kalamazoo's City Council and the Reverend Don VanHoeven. Our Congressman, Howard Wolpe, fought tirelessly in the U.S. Congress to free Mandela and to divest in South Africa and was a supporter of SASO II.
We quickly joined and attended a number of marches from campus to City Hall urging the city to divest its portfolio. "Break the links, break the links, break the links, Apartheid stinks." We also marched as tribute to the thousands who died in the struggle to end apartheid rule.
We also took trips to Chicago to protest the South African Consulate. We never did get past the front door. We tried. I'm pretty sure we had handcuffs at the ready to cuff ourselves to furniture.
Three years after I graduated Nelson Mandela was free. It was the first time that I saw that the voices of many can ban together to achieve political change. My part was minuscule and done in the confines of my comfortable Mid-western university and its cozy soup kitchen. But, it was something. And, when people join together to do something about an injustice positive change can happen. It may be incremental but the pathway to freedom is build on individual pavers - one brick at a time. I was born in the middle of our own struggle for equal rights, but in the mid 1980's I had an opportunity to do something to help the ongoing world wide struggle.
Little did I know then, that I would spend my lifetime, as a father of black children, continuing to keep the "Eye on the prize," and pushing toward equality.
It was an incredibly moving day, being serenaded by Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin and being in the midst of so many who fought for equality in the US and South Africa. And, hearing Mr. Mandela's inspiring words.
"Your solidarity has given us enormous strength and courage. We will not forget you."
It was like he was speaking to me, personally.
Thank you Mr. Mandela. Your words and passion will echo in my children's voices.
Mr. Neslon Mandela's speech at Tiger Stadium - June 28, 1990
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