Notes of Concern….
A column by Jack Blair
NO BLACK PRESIDENTS INVITED
Jack Blair
No, this isn’t about our presidential election or the campaign of Senator Barack Obama. If that is what you are looking for, stop reading now!
This column is about former President Nelson Mandela of The Republic of South Africa.
On July 1, 2008, President Bush removed the name of Nelson Mandela from our nation’s Watch List. Being on the Watch List means you cannot visit The United States without special permission from The Secretary of State. In other words, if you want to travel anywhere in our country, from another country, you must go through formal channels, requesting permission, and waiting for a response.
Supposedly, persons on the Watch List are dangerous, or have dangerous associates who might ask them to do terrible things while they are in our country. We consider the ruling party in The Republic of South Africa, the ANC (African National Congress) to be a threat to us. As evidence of how threatening they are, we have sent billions of dollars in aid to help them run their new nation but we won’t let their former leader into our country without roadblocks to his travel!
Nelson Mandela was championed by huge numbers in this country when he was spending roughly 28 years on Robben Island in a very small jail cell on trumped up charges made by the white ruling government of South Africa. People all over the world sought his release. Major corporations in this country stopped doing business in South Africa to protest his treatment. Many of our allies abroad participated in efforts to get Mandela released from prison.
From his little jail cell, this man fueled a revolution that was applauded around the world and which, eventually, led to his release and subsequently to his election as the first black president of The Republic of South Africa.
This man is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The world hailed his achievements. Nelson Mandela was celebrated in capitals all over the world, including our own. I attended a White House Conference on South Africa at which Vice President Al Gore announced billions of dollars in U.S. Aid for the new nation of South Africa. Think how many years ago that event occurred and it will provide perspective on the importance, or foolishness, of the July 1 date when he was permitted unfettered access to our country.
Just the other day I watched as Mandela’s 90th birthday was celebrated, in London I believe, with government officials, politicians, actors, and common people swelling the crowd. He is very feeble now and had to be helped to the microphone by his wife and some of his aids. Although visibly weak, his voice is still strong and his remarks were, as usual, inspiring.
It took us until July 1, 2008 to remove this Nobel Prize Winning citizen of the world from the indignity of having to ask a succession of State Department bureaucrats if he could come to visit us.
No wonder much of the world think we have “lost it”.
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