The death of Nelson Mandela

[jonathan]

A few years ago, I read Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. I found the life he lived to be fascinating. I'll confess that I don't remember all of the details, and with his death I'm thinking I'll read it again soon. Concerning violence, like many of you I also find it frustrating that the human race is so slow to learn more peaceful ways of conflict resolution. I suppose a ship that size just takes a long time to change course. As far as Mandela's attitude towards violence, I've been using this quote from his book as one of my email signature's for a while, and whether or not you agree with his words, I think it probably says a lot.

"A freedom fighter learns the hard way that it is the oppressor who defines the nature of the struggle, and the oppressed is often left no recourse but to use methods that mirror those of the oppressor. At a certain point, one can only fight fire with fire." - Nelson Mandela