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We are the 99 percent

Glisten for Mandela

Posted 10 years ago on Dec. 12, 2013, 4:48 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Tags: revolution, magic, Nelson Mandela

(why public transportation is dangerous)

Train experience today - I was talking with my fellow commuters about the NY Post cover, we had a collective sigh and head shake over Mandela's funeral and the Post's front page image focusing on Michelle Obama's "jealousy" at Obama's "flirting."

Right after that, a black dude walks in to do a speech. And he does not ask for money. He says he is speaking to get over his fear of public speaking, he says he's rich and does not need our money. He says that he is there to tell us that we all have a light, a greatness inside of us and we can all do grand things like end apartheid as Mandela helped to do. He said that we are all working jobs that strip away our souls and we need to seize that part back.

Politics aside, we were a bunch of surprised commuters, the guts on this dude. Conversations evolved as people started talking about their inner painters, singers, playwrights, activists that we've ignored for our wage work. One dude said, "you know, I was in this car for a reason."

Now that's what I call remembering Mandela, when you can use a persons' life to remind us that we all got magic in our hands, even if we don't always use it as it should be used. Cynicism about Mandela is good, but today, I'm ok with me and my fellow commuters having a little glisten.

2 Comments

2 Comments


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[-] 6 points by shadz66 (19985) 10 years ago

Man gets tired - Spirit don't ; Man surrenders - Spirit won't ;

Man crawls - Spirit flies ; Spirit lives when man dies

Man seems - Spirit is ; Man dreams - Spirit lives ;

Man is tethered - Spirit is free ; What spirit is man can be ... .. .

''The baleful grip of neoliberal capitalism, and the growing pressure to break with it, is a challenge that goes far beyond South Africa, of course. But along with the struggle for social justice and national liberation, the right to resist tyranny and occupation, and profound opposition to racism and imperial power, that is part of the real legacy of Nelson Mandela.'' & finally ...

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” (Nelson Mandela, 'Long Walk to Freedom')

amor vincit omnias et respice, adspice, prospice ...

[-] 5 points by grapes (5232) 10 years ago

Life is fire burning slowly in electric water. Life yields the ancient light. A flame flickered out here and there but billions remain to carry on.