WEBVTT 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Crowd cheering and clapping hands) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you..... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Crowd cheering continues... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you.... 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you so much.. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Thank you.. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To Graça Machel and the Mandela family.. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To President Zuma and the members of the government, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to heads of states and goverment, past and present,distinguished guests.. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is a singular honour to be with you today to celebrate a life like no other. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 To the people of South Africa [CROWD CHEERING] 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 people of every race and every walk of life, the world thanks you for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 His struggle was your struggle. His triumph was your triumph. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Your dignity and your hope found expression in his life and your freedom, your democracy is his cherished legacy. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is hard to eulogize any man, to capture in words not just the facts and the dates that make a life, but the essential truth of a person 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 their private joys and sorrows; the quiet moments and unique qualities that illuminate someone’s soul. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 How much harder to do so for a giant of history, who moved a nation toward justice, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and in the process moved billions around the world. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Born during World War I, far from the corridors of power, a boy raised herding cattle and tutored by the elders of his Thembu tribe, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator of the 20th century, like Gandhi, he would lead a resistance movement, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a movement that at its start had little prospect for success. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Like Dr King, he would give potent voice to the claims of the oppressed and the moral necessity of racial justice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He would endure a brutal imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev, and reached the final days of the Cold War. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Emerging from prison, without the force of arms, he would, like Abraham Lincoln, hold his country together when it threatened to break apart. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And like America’s Founding Fathers, he would erect a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 A commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step down from power after only one term. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 ( crowd cheeing... continues) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Given the sweep of his life, the scope of his accomplishments, the adoration that he so rightly earned, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 it’s tempting I think to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men. But Madiba himself strongly resisted such a lifeless portrait. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Crowd cheering.......) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Instead, Mandela insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears, his miscalculations along with his victories 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 "I am not a saint", he said “unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection -- because he could be so full of good humor, even mischief, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 despite the heavy burdens he carried -- that we loved him so. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was not a bust made of marble; he was a man of flesh and blood -- a son and a husband, a father and a friend. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And that’s why we learned so much from him, and that’s why we can learn from him still. For nothing he achieved was inevitable. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 In the arc of his life, we see a man who earned his place in history through struggle and shrewdness, and persistence and faith. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He tells us what is possible not just in the pages of history books, but in our own lives as well. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Mandela showed us the power of action; of taking risks on behalf of our ideals. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Perhaps Madiba was right that he inherited, “a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn sense of fairness” from his father. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and we know he shared with millions of black and colored South africans the anger borne of thousands slights, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a desire to fight the system that imprisoned my people, he said. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But like other early giants of the ANC -- the Sisulus and Tambos --Madiba disciplined his anger and channeled his desire to fight into organization,and platforms, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and strategies for action, so men and women could stand up for their God-given dignity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions, knowing that standing up to powerful interests and injustice carries a price. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 “I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 I’ve cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and [with] equal opportunities. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Crowd cheering....) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Mandela taught us the power of action, but he also taught us the power of ideas; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 the importance of reason and arguments; the need to study not only those who you agree with, but also those who you don’t agree with. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls, or extinguished by a sniper’s bullet. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He turned his trial into an indictment of apartheid because of his eloquence and his passion, but also because of his training as an advocate. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He used decades in prison to sharpen his arguments, but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others in the movement. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And he learned the language and the customs of his oppressor 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 so that one day he might better convey to them how their own freedom depend upon his. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Mandela demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 No matter how right, they must be chiseled into law and institutions. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He was practical, testing his beliefs against the hard surface of circumstance and history. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 On core principles he was unyielding, which is why he could rebuff offers of unconditional release, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 reminding the Apartheid regime that “prisoners cannot enter into contracts.” 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But as he showed in painstaking negotiations to transfer power and draft new laws, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 he was not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And because he was not only a leader of a movement but a skillful politician, the Constitution that emerged was worthy of this multiracial democracy, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 true to his vision of laws that protect minority as well as majority rights, and the precious freedoms of every South African. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And finally, Mandela understood the ties that bind the human spirit. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There is a word in South Africa -- Ubuntu -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 (Crowd cheers....) 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 a word that captures Mandela’s greatest gift: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 his recognition that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible to the eye; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that there is a oneness to humanity; that we achieve ourselves by sharing ourselves with others, and caring for those around us. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We can never know how much of this sense was innate in him, or how much was shaped in a dark and solitary cell. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But we remember the gestures, large and small -- introducing his jailers as honored guests at his inauguration; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 taking a pitch in a Springbok uniform; turning his family’s heartbreak into a call to confront HIV/AIDS -- 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 that revealed the depth of his empathy and his understanding. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He not only embodied Ubuntu, he taught millions to find that truth within themselves. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It took a man like Madiba to free not just the prisoner, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but the jailer as well to show that you must trust others so that they may trust you; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 to teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring a cruel past, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but a means of confronting it with inclusion and generosity and truth. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He changed laws, but he also changed hearts. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For the people of South Africa, for those he inspired around the globe, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Madiba’s passing is rightly a time of mourning, and a time to celebrate a heroic life. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time for self-reflection. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 With honesty, regardless of our station or our circumstance, we must ask: 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 How well have I applied his lessons in my own life? 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It’s a question I ask myself, as a man and as a President. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We know that, like South Africa, the United States had to overcome centuries of racial subjugation. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 As was true here, it took sacrifice -- the sacrifice of countless people, known and unknown, to see the dawn of a new day. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Michelle and I are beneficiaries of that struggle. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But in America, and in South Africa, and in countries all around the globe, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact that our work is not yet done. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The struggles that follow the victory of formal equality or universal franchise 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those that came before, but they are no less important. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 For around the world today, we still see children suffering from hunger and disease. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We still see run-down schools. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We still see young people without prospects for the future. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Around the world today, men and women are still imprisoned for their political beliefs, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and are still persecuted for what they look like, and how they worship, and who they love. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 That is happening today. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And so we, too, must act on behalf of justice. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We, too, must act on behalf of peace. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There are too many people who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And there are too many of us on the sidelines, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 The questions we face today -- how to promote equality and justice; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 how to uphold freedom and human rights; 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 how to end conflict and sectarian war -- these things do not have easy answers. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But there were no easy answers in front of that child born in World War I. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Nelson Mandela reminds us that it always seems impossible until it is done. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 South Africa shows that is true. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 South Africa shows we can change, that we can choose a world defined not by our differences, but by our common hopes. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We can choose a world defined not by conflict, but by peace and justice and opportunity. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 We will never see the likes of Nelson Mandela again. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 But let me say to the young people of Africa and the young people around the world -- you, too, can make his life’s work your own. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Nelson Mandela 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land, and it stirred something in me. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 It woke me up to my responsibilities to others and to myself, 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 and it set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be a better man. 99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999 He speaks to what’s best inside us.