Pat Oliphant for December 09, 2013

Lay my burden down.

Free at last, free at last, Great God almighty, free at last!

This is the type of beautiful, pen-sketch editorial art from Oliphant that I’ve always admired. Sculpture on paper.

I don’t get it. Did he own Africa or something?

As always great art work, light humor, simple truths.

Another legendary cartoon from the legendary Oliphant.

The man impacted one nation, South Africa, on one continent and had as of today mixed results with it. Certainly he did far better than Mugabe in Zimbabwe and some other contemporary Africa leaders but that hardly puts him on some pedistal as a world changing figure..Mandella helped South Africa greatly. Acknowledge his accomplisments but don’t deify someone who never was.

I’ll leave the faint praise to those who want to damn him.

He didn’t own Africa, but he carried South Africa forward. Now it is no longer his burden.

As for deification, let’s not deify anyone. But let’s pay tribute to a great man. Rest in peace, sir.

The simple fact that he called for, and achieved, reconcile, rather than revenge, was perhaps his most powerful accomplishment. Those unwilling to honor the man for that, will obviously never be willing to reconcile with those THEy disagree with. That is sad.(and petty)

Your claims are pathetic, half baked lies, spouted by racist pigs. I usually try to avoid such language to describe other posters, but this spew of disgusting venom needs to be answered. Mandela & the early ANC did espouse Marxist ideals, but so did the folks who went on to form the governments of Ireland & Israel in their early, revolutionary periods. What Mandela thought in 1960 was very different from the thoughts of the man who emerged from nearly 3 decades of imprisonment. Even then, he was more interested in equality & democracy than nationalizing South Africa. By the time Mandela was released he had the benefit of seeing the disasters that nationalization caused in other African countries.http://www.moneyweb.co.za/moneyweb-political-economy/what-nelson-mandela-thought-about-nationalisationMandela was moving from non-violent protest to believing that the only way to gain freedom was by meeting violence with violence. The ANC started using sabotage & destruction of property as a means of political protest, but expressly disavowed killing civilians as counter-productive. Mandela seems to have been planning a guerrilla resistance to the state. George Washington was probably one of his role models.Mandela was arrested for organizing strikes & leaving the country without permission. He entered a “plea in mitigation of sentence”, saying that he was, “a black man in a white man’s court.” He was sentenced to five years. At the time, the South African government wasn’t aware of the full extent of his leadership role in the ANC. When they uncovered documents that gave them more information on the ANC’s plans to destroy infrastructure as a means of disrupting the government, Mandela & nine others were put on trial. Mandela plead not guilty.http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2013-12-10-mandela-on-trial-the-ethical-core/#.UqalIWRDtYsThe ANC went on to commit ruthless acts against suspected informers & people considered a threat to the organization. During this time, Mandela was on Robben Island, breaking limestone with a sledgehammer. Newspapers were forbidden. Mandela was allowed one letter & one visit every six months, both under close scrutiny by prison staff. There isn’t a shred of evidence that Mandela was even aware, let alone had a hand in the ANC’s despicable acts at the time.No Man’s “source” is Peter Hammond. As for him, “If you believe Christ wants a holy war to preserve apartheid, the Reverend Peter Hammond is your general, his Frontline Fellowship your army,” wrote the National Catholic Reporter in 1989.Despicable, racist propoganda.

Neat! What would Pat Oliphant had drawn for past figures, such as Mohandas Gandhi in 1948?

The Great Man theory was popular in the Nineteenth Century. Romanticism was into all the arts, and politics and science as well. See Thomas Carlyle, ON HEROES, HERO WORSHIP, AND THE HEROIC IN HISTORY. Do the times make the great man, or does the great man make the times? The debate continues.. As you say, the word “ hero” — and I will add “myth” and “ legend” – are all terms rendered insipid these days , referring as they often do to entertainment and sports people. The only people I really considered heroes in my lifetime were the astronauts and doctors who develop vaccines..Politicians tend to hurt as many people as they help. The bolder they are, the more blood. I suppose it depends on what side of the conflict you are.

Mandela shrugged?

I think Mandela was a hero. The easy comparison is Mugabe, who set back his nation in terrible ways. Mandela turned from that & managed to drag along many ANC members who would have chosen the Mugabe path.I give you a lot of credit for actually making a critique that was based in fact & rational thought. Too little of that going on here. I think anyone who is revered as a ‘hero’ from the ancients of Greece & Rome, to the moderns like Washington & Gandhi, had personal flaws. Too often, we see hero worshippers ignoring the flaws…When we turn to figures like athletes or movie stars, I think you have a point about ‘manufactured heroes’.

HabaneroBuck: No, you will not understand it until you learn that humanity is not defined by the lack of melanin in the skin, but the amount of compassion in one’s behavior.