To have the audacity (or as we call it here in Texas, the cojones) to title themselves as “global elders” who will travel the world “support[ing] courage where is fear, foster[ing] agreement where there is conflict, and inspir[ing] hope where there is despair.”
Personally I prefer the original version of the Highwaymen.
Thx to HotAir
July 25, 2007 at 5:36 pm
“One of the world’s most revered statesmen, Nelson Mandela led the struggle to replace South Africa’s apartheid regime with a non-racial democracy. His anti-apartheid activities led to his sentencing in 1962 to five years in prison, and in 1964 he was jailed for life because of his involvement in underground armed resistance activities. He served 27 years in prison.
Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994. Since stepping down in 1999, he has become South Africa’s highest profile ambassador, and has campaigned tirelessly in the fight against HIV/AIDS. He was also active in peace negotiations in African countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.”
Yeah—I can see your point. The man only served 27 years in prison for pursuing basic human rights, abolished apartheid, got elected President, and works tirelessly to educate his country-men and women on the prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS, and has the balls to try to spread his positive message and share his personal success with the world. What an ass.
July 25, 2007 at 6:09 pm
BB,
I take it by your reply that you mean to label me an a$$ and not President Mandela. Let me be the first (followed quickly by my wife) to agree with your estimation of my audacity in dithering about the title that these people have chosen to bestow upon themselves.
That said, their website and mission statement still strike me as undeniably grandiose and sententious. The reality is that these undeniably accomplished and historic figures could only accomplish their stated goals while still in office, but cannot now be the harbingers of world peace as nonprofit, self-appointed global “elders.”
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