Serious Thoughts: The Great Mandela

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is  part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us. ~ Hermann Hesse

He's a martyr.
He thinks he's a prophet
But he's a coward.
He's just playing a game.He can't do it,
He can't change it.
It's been going on for ten thousand years.~ The Great Mandela

The single clenched fist lifted and ready,
Or the open hand held out and waiting.Choose:
For we meet by one or the other. ~ Carl Sandberg 

I was seeking a video of The Great Mandela to accompany a post I was in the process of writing. When I can upon the video below—which features the voice of Richie Havens as well as Peter, Paul and Mary—it stopped me cold. This video says more than I can ever say—and in a very powerful way.
Please take the short time required to watch all of it. Please.

The Great Mandela

(The Wheel of Life)

So I told him

That he'd better
Shut his mouth
And do his job like a man.
And he answered,
"Listen, father,
I will never
Kill another"
He thinks he's better
Than his brother that died.
What the hell does
He think he's doing
To his father
Who brought him up right?

Take your place on
The Great Mandela
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now,
You must choose now,
And if you lose you're only losing your life.

Tell the jailor
Not to bother
With his meal
Of bread and water today.
He is fasting
Till the killing's over.
He's a martyr.
He thinks he's a prophet
But he's a coward.
He's just playing a game.
He can't do it,
He can't change it.
It's been going on for ten thousand years.

Take your place on
The Great Mandela
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now,
You must choose now,
And if you lose you're only losing your life.

Tell the people
They are safe now.
Hunger stopped him.
He lies still in his cell.
Death has gagged his accusations.
We are free now.
We can kill now.
We can hate now.
Now we can end the world.
We're not guilty.
He was crazy,
And it's been going on for ten thousand years!

Take your place on
The Great Mandela
As it moves through your brief moment of time.
Win or lose now,
You must choose now.
And if you lose you've only wasted your life.