Every year, Benoit College puts together a list to show the mindset of incoming freshmen. It's useful. I remember once when I was in grad school, I had to take an undergraduate course and the professor made a comment about Yul Gibbons. Yul Gibbons, as you might recall, was a naturalist who ate things like pinecones, and hawked natural cereals. I might be simplifying things a bit, but the point here is that none of the students in the class (except for me because I was a little bit older) knew who he was, so whatever reference the professor was making was lost on the class. Hence the value of such a list.
This year's list has some of the kinds of things you'd expect: the Class of 2011 has always had bottled water, for example. The one that struck me is this: Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.
Mandela: author, Nobel-prize winner, first democratically elected president of South Africa, activist. Jailed from 1962 to 1990. Most people think of Mandela as a promoter of peace, but in frustration, it was his view that the African National Congress should have a military wing, because it "would be wrong and unrealistic for African leaders to continue preaching peace and non-violence at a time when the government met our peaceful demands with force." He became an enduring symbol when he refused to compromise his position to gain a quicker freedom. Since being freed, he has continued as a tour de force for peace. Did I mention he was trained as a lawyer?
I remember the day Mandela was released in February of 1990. I had been boycotting all products of manufacturers that had a presence in South Africa for a long time, and continued to do so until everyone in that country, no matter their color, got the right to vote. I remember reading all the accounts of his leaving jail in all the newspapers, and I can clearly remember feeling very hopeful and happy, sure that we were on the brink of something big. Something right. Something just.
In a way I'm sorry for the incoming freshmen, that they missed such a joyful moment, the amen of a prayer for humanity. More broadly, I wonder if those who haven't known a particular struggle can ensure that it doesn't happen again. Santayana said that those who can't remember the past are condemned to repeat it. He didn't elaborate on whether they had to understand it.
Sources:
http://www.beloit.edu/~pubaff/mindset/2011.php
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1993/mandela-bio.html
http://www.anc.org.za/people/mandela.html
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2 comments:
Guess I wasn't in that undergrad class with you - I would have remembered Yul Gibbons (mmm...Grape Nuts).
You were not. But it was Professor Morrison who said it, in one of the pre-req classes. I felt so old that day. It was good preparation for law school.
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