Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

I was saddened by news of the death of Nelson Mandela today.

Except, he continues to live in a way that few men live. He almost single-handedly saved his people from massive bloodshed when Apartheid came to a sudden end in 1994. There were voices in the African National Congress for revenge, but there was a strong hand at the helm of the ANC—a hand that the people of South Africa trusted. Where the rest of the continent suffers under the yoke of dictatorship or anarchy, South Africa has a future. And that is because of one man.

Just imagine what the world would have been like without Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Kim Il Sung, Pol Pot, Muammar Qaddafi, Slobodan Milosevich, and any number of national leaders who took the other path, the path of power watered by the blood of their own people. No one misses those people.

The whole world will miss Nelson Mandela.