Mandela Impacted Who I and Millions of Others Are Today

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

06 December 13

Amandla (power) Awethu (to the people)

t was a cool spring morning on the campus of Syracuse University when I first heard those chants. Hundreds of students were protesting outside the administration building. I stopped and listened to young boy in a wheel chair talk about what it was like to be black in South Africa. It was 1985. Mandela was still in prison.

South Africa’s president was P.W. Botha, who that year offered to release Mandela if he would renounce armed struggle. Mandela refused, saying: "Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts."

I became active in the divestiture movement on campus, the first activism that I engaged in. I began to read everything I could find about Nelson Mandela. He was my first political hero. Others would follow, Archbishop Oscar Romero, Phillip Berrigan, Mitch Snyder, William Thomas, Paul Wellstone, to name a few. Mandela though was the first.

I changed my major from broadcasting to political science. My life changed forever.

One quote that helped shape my activism was:

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."

I was always in awe of Mandela, Tutu, Boesak and others who even during the hateful apartheid regime spoke of reconciliation and hope. They knew in their hearts that they would end apartheid and they did not wish to punish those who punished them. They understood that if they adopted the hate of their oppressors then they too would just be replacing them.

"Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies."

Another quote from Mandela that influenced people’s lives. I always wondered how someone who spent decades in prison and who lived the under the oppressive apartheid regime could so easily forgive.

Ironically the quote from Mandela that probably had the greatest influence on me was one he was too charismatic to follow himself:

"Lead from the back - and let others believe they are in front."

I was always the dedicated foot soldier organizing from behind the scenes. Mr. Mandela, you were never in the back - you led from the front. You made the world a better place and inspired me and millions of others to be better.

Amandla! (I can hear you saying) Awethu!

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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