Goodbye Mr. Mandela

Nelson Mandela has passed and many tears, crocodile and otherwise will be shed. Reams of newsprint and whatever passes for that in cyberspace will be devoted to his legacy.  Even those who were his enemies in life will choke out a few hosannas.  For his country he is a curious mix of Abe Lincoln, George Washington and John Brown.  Along with a cast of thousands, he overturned apartheid and healed the rift between blacks and whites as no other leader in Africa has been able to do.  During the struggle he was reviled by many as a "communist".  The same idiots have applied that label and many others to President Obama.  It seems a black man cannot be a leader without much of white society trying to pigeonhole him it terms they can understand and fear without resorting to racist cant.  Mandela, much as Ghandi before him shows us the blueprint for combating oppression in a non-violent, but nonetheless effective way.  Hopefully future leader of other causes will look to him as someone worthy of emulation.