Power to the people

So, it was my birthday yesterday and I enjoyed my celebrations but at the end of the evening, I heard the news that Nelson Mandela had gone to be at peace.

Since then I have cast my mind back to when Mandela was released from prison, which seems like an age ago to me. He was released on a Sunday which I remember because I was living in London then and working in the Shaftesbury Theatre and Sundays were my days off. Watching the TV news, the sight of Mandela being freed was amazing, because for what had seemed like forever there was activity, campaigns, concerts, petitions, sanctions, boycotts, badges and posters of all sorts to fight for his release.

I had just turned 20 (I think) and my life has changed so much since then. Maybe the world has changed too. People just don't seem to get behind major campaigns like this in the same way and at the same level anymore.

I learned something incredibly important that day:
That if enough people get behind a cause, enough churches get people praying, enough people with influence in politics, in music, film, business etc., use their platform to speak out, then change will happen. He was incarcerated for 27 years but I really believe that it was this combination of factors that led to F W de Klerk ordering Mandela's release back in February 1990.

I wish more people could be fully aware of the power they have. There is so much that together we could all achieve because it is "by the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more than we achieve alone, so as to create for each of us the means to realise our true potential and for all of us a community in which power, wealth and opportunity are in the hands of the many, not the few, where the rights we enjoy reflect the duties we owe, and where we live together, freely, in a spirit of solidarity, tolerance and respect."

We could fight to have our NHS protected and restored, to ensure that everyone has access to primary healthcare free at the point of use and doesn't have to jump through hoops just to get an appointment with a GP or get to see an NHS dentist. (This is a sore point with me at the moment.)

We could even end poverty, hunger, racism, homophobia, all discrimination, human trafficking, inequalities, (insert your own passion in here, what would you like to change? what will be your lasting legacy?  .....................).

The following is a quote which is often attributed to Mandela but was written by Marianne Williamson.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

 So come on, get involved, speak up, do something and do not accept that the status quo is the way it has to be.