10 Years Later

Earlier this week, one of the blogs I follow included the following passage by Nelson Mandela.  I found it so very fitting for my feelings on this day.

It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people

became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything

that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away

another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice

and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom,

just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the

oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.

I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is mercy and generosity. No one

is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.

People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love,

for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

Nelson Mandela

Long Walk To Freedom

Photo credit here.