Moral authority in the face of legal injustice

Mandela in Long Walk tells of a court appearance during early after his capture from his period underground. He was there before a senior magistrate for formal remand. Mandela, of course, was not only one of the top leaders of the outlawed ANC, but he had been, with Oliver Tambo, the first black South African lawyers.

"I had appeared before the magistrate on numerous occasions in my professional capcity and we had grown to respect one another. A number of attorneys were also present, some of whom I knew quite well. It is curious how one can be easily flattered in certain situations by otherwise insignificant incidents. I am by no means immune to flattery in normal circumstances, but there I was, a fugitive, number one on the state's Most Wanted list, a handcuffed outlaw who had been underground for more than a year, and yet the judge, the other attorneys, and the spectators all greeted me with deference and professional courtesy. They knew me as Nelson Mandela attorney-at-law, not Nelson Mandela, outlaw. It lifted my spirits immensely.

During the proceedings, the magistrate was diffident and uneasy, and would not look at me directly. The other attorneys also seemed embarrassed, and at the moment, I had something of a revelation. These men were not only uncomfortable because I was a colleague brought low, but because I was an ordinary man being punished for his beliefs. In a way I had never comprehended before, I realized the role I could play in court and the possibilities before me as a defendant. I was the symbol of justice in the court of the oppressor, the representative of the great ideals of freedom, fairness, and democracy in a society that dishonored those virtues. I realized then and there that I could carry on the fight even within the fortress of the enemy.

The Fibonacci numbers are Nature's numbering system. They appear everywhere in Nature, from the leaf arrangement in plants, to the pattern of the florets of a flower, the bracts of a pinecone, or the scales of a pineapple. The Fibonacci numbers are therefore applicable to the growth of every living thing, including a single cell, a grain of wheat, a hive of bees, and even all of mankind. [Stan Grist]

Honor begets honor; trust begets trust; faith begets faith; and hope is the mainspring of life.

[American statesman Henry L. Stimson]
quoted in Answers in the Heart: Daily Meditations for
Men And Women Recovering From Sex Addiction
(Hazelden Meditation Series) 1989.

South Africa:     Sing the beloved country

Beyers Naudé: swimming against the current

Faith in the very midst of suffering and wrong?

Spiritual treasures of the oldest continent

President Mandela Welcomes President Mbeki

Nelson Mandela Children's Fund : philanthropy

After such knowledge : who can forgive?

---

put children first

Shannon Irish

In His Name





The New Martyrs


Lost is our old simplicity of times;
the world abounds with laws
and teems with crimes.


CARITAS

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