When I was a child, I spake as a child. And I was a child of the Maggie Thatcher Revolution. The same Margaret Thatcher who supported the regime in South Africa which kept Nelson Mandela under lock and key.
When I became a man, I put away childish things. And when I was old enough to understand more about the world, Nelson Mandela, finally released from prison, taught me many things.
The most important was that the most precious human commodity one can cherish, and the most awful one can try to suppress, is dignity. Nelson Mandela never lost his.
He remains one of the primary forces that moved me from my early rightish views to positions that allow more for the humanity of man (and woman). Where I am comfortable believing that people are more important than politics. Empowerment more important than direction. And dignity more important than pride.
I do not remember Nelson today. I never forgot him. And I miss him already.
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