16TH UNITED STATES PRESIDENT LINCOLN - EMANICIPATOR; 1ST BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT MANDELA - EMANICIPATED;..........

Going into the three day Presidents' Day weekend, in which we celebrate George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and the 42 others who have served as President of the United States of America, today is Lincoln's Birthday, the two hundred and first anniversary of his birth. It is also the day after the twentieth anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela, from prison in South Africa. Abraham Linciln, who was born in a Kentucky log cabin was elected in 1860, the 16th President of the United States and governed during the Civil War, a four year battle between South and North, primarily over the ownership of black slaves and the right to secede from the national union; and Nelson Mandela, born in South Africa more than fifty years after our Civil War in America, when it was still a British colony, but into a segregated society of blacks fro whites, which evolved into, "apartheid", the enforced separation of the races. President Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War, and facing uncertain re-election the next year, signed, The Emanicipation Proclamation, in November 1863, freeing the American slaves. It would take another century of transition, struggles, civil rights protests, and national legislation, to bring Lincoln's vision of emanicipation and equality to blacks and other peoples of color in the United States of America, the great country of freedom and liberty we are; Citizen activist and apartheid protester, Mandela, was imprisoned at age 44, in 1962, and remained in prison for the crime of seeking equal rights and opportunity for South African blacks for twenty eight years, until his release as an elderly, 72 year old, in February 1990. The necessary transition from apartheid to freedom and equal opportunity for all South Africans, regardless of their race had begun and would not be reversed. Four years later, this former prisoner for justice was elected President of South Africa and President Mandela served for five years until he was 81. Now 91, he continues to inspire people around the world for his determined leadership, courage, and effectiveness, in vanquishing an undignified and discriminatory political system and as a trailblazer of an integrated nation of South Africans, black and white. Both the abolition of American slavery and South African apartheid, also held a spiritual dimension. The Emanicipation Proclamation was promulgated by President Lincoln, just days before ThanksGiving, our national day for celebrating our gratitude for all God's blessings. While imprisoned for more than a quarter of a century the future President Mandela, had as one of his surrogates, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Reverend Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a fierce advocate for social justice and the end of apartheid in South Africa. Prayer, perseverance, patience, were practiced in both instances and made a difference in bringing about overdue change. Not everyone is called or chosen to be a Lincoln, or a Mandela, but we too can make a difference in our society and the world, by answering God's Call to our rightful vocation and fulfilling the responsibilities and opportunities we are chosen and capable of fulfilling..........
Peace + Justice In The Emanicipation and Equality of All Peoples In The World, Fr. Troy