Amandla!

Omaha has something they call "First Friday". It is the first Friday of every month in the Benson area. I think most cities have something similar. In SLC it was Gallery Stroll. We went last Friday on accident. Nate asked me on a date Friday afternoon. We actually hired a baby sitter and I dressed up. We ended up in the Benson area because all of the restaurants in the trendy Old Market were booked. We were able to make reservations at Espana, a Spanish restaurant kiddie corner to Benson's "First Friday - Cultural Crawl". This week they had an event to celebrate the refugee community in Omaha. We arrived to an African Choir, I think they were Sudanese. I was overwhelmed. I forget how much I love Africa. I wanted to cry... in fact I did a little. Man! That little celebration really struck a chord on several levels. If I were single I would have known about that event long before it happened, and I would have been there on purpose. I love that we ended up there.... I loved hearing that music. I thanked Nate over and over for taking me.

Then it just so happened that the 2013 movie "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom" arrived Saturday from Netflix. We finished watching it tonight... and now I can't sleep... so I wanted to write down some of these thoughts before they go away. ****SPOILER ALERT******** The film does not glamorize Nelson Mandela. Who knows, perhaps the autobiography "Long Walk to Freedom" doesn't either. I started reading the book once, but had to return it to the library before I could finish. Perhaps it was an accurate portrayal of Mandela, maybe it wasn't. It did portray him as a man who believed that peace is the answer. I believe that about him. The whole world believes that about him. It also showed his wife Winnie. She became angry in the struggle. Very angry. She was imprisoned in solitary confinement tortured for over a year while Mandela was in prison. The experience made her even more angry and made her hate her enemy even more. In the late 90s she was tried for the violence inflicted on others by her body guards. She condoned this violence. *********END OF SPOILERS*******

Nate and I talked about this after the movie. He mentioned her anger... not to be shocked, but I think that he found it interesting. In our conversation I said that I didn't blame her. I talked about the way some people in South Africa spoke of the Africans. People some how thought it was ok to tell us (American LDS missionaries) that the Africans were animals... and they would try and back up there case. I saw outright anger and hate coming out of these people, and it was ugly. I also saw a few Africans who were very angry. I think if Africans felt the same extreme hatred for whites South Africans they usually concealed it from us, probably because I am white. However there was one man in particular who was very angry. He didn't often talk about it, but the anger was a part of him. It encompassed and consumed him. 

As I have thinking tonight I wondered what the answer is. It is easy for me to say that peace is always the answer, but I have never been beaten or tortured. I have never been the victim of someones else's hate. My ancestors were, but not me. At most I have overheard conversations of dislike or misunderstanding for my religion from people I have worked with or associated with. I see that sort of thing in the media too. But I try to avoid it because it makes me feel bad and misunderstood... but still, it isn't directed at me. It isn't life threatening. 

People all over the world live in fear because of who they are or what they believe. Is anger and violent retaliation ever an excusable answer? Excusable, maybe, but if truth is always truth, it isn't right. 

I think of Christ. He preached peace. Even in death. Death could not be taken from him, he gave it up. Some people would say that to lay down your life is weakness... but he rose again, "with healing in his wings"... and in the long run his work continued forward in peace. So peace does not mean a person cowers... it just means they rise above their oppressors and become stronger in the process. (Of course all of the wars that have been fought in the name of Christianity do not count. That stuff wasn't the work of Christ... that stuff was the work of men attempting to use the name of Christ as a means to control. Force and control are the opposite of peace... just in case you didn't already know that)

Anyways...

Hate is ugly. Peace is serene and beautiful. Really. That is what it looks like on peoples faces. So my challenge is, think about who or what you hate, or who/what gets your blood boiling, and figure out a way to love and forgive. Try to figure out how to rise above and move forward peacfully in truth.