WEBVTT 00:00:00.777 --> 00:00:04.465 [cheers] 00:00:04.465 --> 00:00:06.813 Thank you. 00:00:06.813 --> 00:00:14.823 [cheers] 00:00:14.823 --> 00:00:17.055 Thank you. 00:00:17.055 --> 00:00:21.164 [cheers] 00:00:21.164 --> 00:00:27.736 Thank you so much. 00:00:27.736 --> 00:00:32.398 Thank you. 00:00:32.398 --> 00:00:39.906 [cheers] 00:00:39.906 --> 00:00:44.410 To Graça Machel and the Mandela family; 00:00:44.410 --> 00:00:48.177 To President Zuma and 00:00:48.177 --> 00:00:51.451 members of the government; 00:00:51.451 --> 00:00:57.538 to heads of state and goverment past and present, 00:00:57.538 --> 00:01:00.840 distinguished guests. 00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:02.893 It is a singular honor 00:01:02.893 --> 00:01:06.901 to be with you today to celebrate a life 00:01:06.901 --> 00:01:10.947 like no other. 00:01:10.947 --> 00:01:13.575 To the people of South Africa 00:01:13.575 --> 00:01:23.119 [cheers] 00:01:23.119 --> 00:01:29.367 People of every race and every walk of life 00:01:29.367 --> 00:01:30.592 the world thanks you 00:01:30.592 --> 00:01:35.665 for sharing Nelson Mandela with us. 00:01:35.665 --> 00:01:40.166 His struggle was your struggle 00:01:40.166 --> 00:01:44.844 his triumph was your triumph, 00:01:44.844 --> 00:01:46.204 your dignity 00:01:46.204 --> 00:01:50.252 and your hope found expression in his life 00:01:50.252 --> 00:01:53.581 and your freedom. Your democracy 00:01:53.581 --> 00:01:57.953 it's his cherished legacy 00:01:57.953 --> 00:02:04.782 It is hard to eulogize any man 00:02:04.782 --> 00:02:07.450 to capture in words 00:02:07.450 --> 00:02:11.033 not just the facts and the dates 00:02:11.033 --> 00:02:14.973 that make a life, but the essential truth 00:02:14.973 --> 00:02:19.030 of a person, the private joys, 00:02:19.030 --> 00:02:22.342 and sorrows, the quiet moments 00:02:22.342 --> 00:02:27.976 the unique qualities that illuminate someone's soul. 00:02:27.976 --> 00:02:30.420 How much harder to do so for a giant 00:02:30.420 --> 00:02:35.390 of history who moved a nation towards justice 00:02:35.390 --> 00:02:42.038 and in the process moved billions around the world 00:02:42.038 --> 00:02:43.114 Born 00:02:43.114 --> 00:02:47.033 during world war one fired from court orders of power 00:02:47.033 --> 00:02:49.899 a boy raised herding cattle and 00:02:49.899 --> 00:02:54.365 tutored by the elders of his Mambu tribe 00:02:54.365 --> 00:02:57.783 Madiba would emerge as the last great liberator 00:02:57.783 --> 00:03:01.866 of the 20th century. Like Gandhi, 00:03:01.866 --> 00:03:06.420 he would lead a resistence movement, a movement 00:03:06.420 --> 00:03:11.568 that at the start had little prospect for success 00:03:11.568 --> 00:03:15.838 Like Dr. King, he would give potent voice 00:03:15.838 --> 00:03:18.092 to the claims of the oppressed 00:03:18.092 --> 00:03:23.204 and the moral necessity of racial justice 00:03:23.204 --> 00:03:25.364 He would endure a brutal 00:03:25.364 --> 00:03:30.576 imprisonment that began in the time of Kennedy and Khrushchev 00:03:30.576 --> 00:03:35.477 and reached the final days of the cold war 00:03:35.477 --> 00:03:37.415 Emerging from prison without the force 00:03:37.415 --> 00:03:41.373 of arms he would, like Abraham Lincoln, hold his country 00:03:41.373 --> 00:03:45.355 together when it threaten to break apart 00:03:45.355 --> 00:03:47.661 and like America's founding fathers he would erect 00:03:47.661 --> 00:03:55.230 a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations 00:03:55.230 --> 00:03:57.617 A commitment to democracy 00:03:57.617 --> 00:04:01.009 and rule of law, ratified not only by 00:04:01.009 --> 00:04:04.975 his election but by his willingness to step down 00:04:04.975 --> 00:04:15.427 from power after only one term. 00:04:15.427 --> 00:04:17.219 Given the sweep 00:04:17.219 --> 00:04:21.116 of his life, the scope of his 00:04:21.116 --> 00:04:26.900 accomplishments, the adoration that he so widely owned, 00:04:26.900 --> 00:04:29.173 it's tempting, I think, to remember Nelson Mandela 00:04:29.173 --> 00:04:33.803 as an icon, smiling and serene, 00:04:33.803 --> 00:04:37.078 detached from the tawdry affairs of lessen men 00:04:37.078 --> 00:04:40.811 but Madiba himself strongly resisted 00:04:40.811 --> 00:04:43.525 such a lifeless portrait 00:04:43.525 --> 00:04:54.204 [cheers] 00:04:54.204 --> 00:04:57.958 Instead, Madiba 00:04:57.958 --> 00:05:01.951 insisted on sharing with us his doubts and his fears 00:05:01.951 --> 00:05:07.147 his miscalculations along with his victories 00:05:07.147 --> 00:05:09.002 "I am not a saint", he said 00:05:09.002 --> 00:05:12.530 "unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps 00:05:12.530 --> 00:05:17.081 on trying". 00:05:17.081 --> 00:05:21.871 It was precisely because he could admit to imperfection 00:05:21.871 --> 00:05:24.951 because he could be so full of good humour 00:05:24.951 --> 00:05:29.996 even mischief, despite the heavy burdens that he carried 00:05:29.996 --> 00:05:32.950 that we loved him so. 00:05:32.950 --> 00:05:37.902 He was not a bust made of marble, he was a man of flesh and blood 00:05:37.902 --> 00:05:41.236 a son and a husband, a father 00:05:41.236 --> 00:05:44.199 and a friend and that's why we learned 00:05:44.199 --> 00:05:49.153 so much from him and that's why we can learn from him still 00:05:49.153 --> 00:05:52.585 For nothing he achieved was inevitable 00:05:52.585 --> 00:05:56.206 in the arch of his life we see a man 00:05:56.206 --> 00:05:59.550 who earned his place in history through struggle 00:05:59.550 --> 00:06:05.537 and shrewdness and persistance and faith 00:06:05.537 --> 00:06:08.063 he tells us what is possible 00:06:08.063 --> 00:06:12.406 not just in the pages of history books, but in our own lives 00:06:12.406 --> 00:06:16.781 as well. 00:06:16.781 --> 00:06:20.532 Mandela showed us the power of action 00:06:20.532 --> 00:06:25.391 of taking risks on behalf of our ideas 00:06:25.391 --> 00:06:27.917 perhaps Mandela was right when he inherited 00:06:27.917 --> 00:06:31.896 a proud rebelliousness, a stubborn 00:06:31.896 --> 00:06:35.891 sense of fairness from his father 00:06:35.891 --> 00:06:39.866 and we know he shared with millions of black and coloured Southafricans 00:06:39.866 --> 00:06:43.543 the anger born of a thousand slights 00:06:43.543 --> 00:06:49.173 a thousand indignities, a thousand unremembered moments 00:06:49.173 --> 00:06:52.345 a desire to fight the system that imprisoned 00:06:52.345 --> 00:06:55.310 my people, he said 00:06:55.310 --> 00:06:59.260 like other early giants of the ANC 00:06:59.260 --> 00:07:02.896 the Zulus and the Tambos, 00:07:02.896 --> 00:07:08.400 [cheers] 00:07:08.400 --> 00:07:11.366 Madiba disciplined his anger 00:07:11.366 --> 00:07:14.373 and channelled his desire to fight into organization 00:07:14.373 --> 00:07:18.622 and platforms and strategies 00:07:18.622 --> 00:07:23.186 for action, so men and women could stand up 00:07:23.186 --> 00:07:26.709 for the God given dignity 00:07:26.709 --> 00:07:29.872 Moreover, he accepted the consequences of his actions 00:07:29.872 --> 00:07:35.290 knowing that standing up to powerful entrance and injustice 00:07:35.290 --> 00:07:38.954 carries a price 00:07:38.954 --> 00:07:41.708 "I've fought against white domination I've fought black 00:07:41.708 --> 00:07:44.650 domination." 00:07:47.592 --> 00:07:50.536 I cherished the idea of a democratic and free society 00:07:50.536 --> 00:07:53.540 in which all persons live together in harmony and 00:07:53.540 --> 00:07:59.982 equal opportunities, it is an ideal which I hope to live 00:07:59.982 --> 00:08:02.083 for and to achieve but if needs be it's an ideal 00:08:02.083 --> 00:08:04.374 for which I am prepared to die. 00:08:04.374 --> 00:08:15.401 [cheers] 00:08:15.401 --> 00:08:17.793 Mandela taught us the power of action 00:08:17.793 --> 00:08:21.873 but he also taught us the power of ideas 00:08:21.873 --> 00:08:25.791 the importance of reason and arguments 00:08:25.791 --> 00:08:30.757 the need to study not only those who you 00:08:30.757 --> 00:08:33.653 agree with but also those you don't agree with 00:08:33.653 --> 00:08:37.374 he understood that ideas cannot be contained by prison walls 00:08:37.374 --> 00:08:41.214 extinguished by a sniper's bullet 00:08:41.214 --> 00:08:44.375 he turned his trial into an endowment of aparthaid 00:08:44.375 --> 00:08:46.731 because of his eloquence and his passion 00:08:46.731 --> 00:08:51.396 but also because of his training as an advocate 00:08:51.396 --> 00:08:55.125 he used decades of prison to sharpen his arguments 00:08:55.125 --> 00:08:58.582 but also to spread his thirst for knowledge to others 00:08:58.582 --> 00:09:03.630 in the movement and he learned the language and the customs 00:09:03.630 --> 00:09:06.455 of his oppressors so that one day he might better convey 00:09:06.455 --> 00:09:10.708 to them how their own freedom depend upon his. 00:09:10.708 --> 00:09:18.157 [cheers] 00:09:18.157 --> 00:09:24.666 Mandela has demonstrated that action and ideas are not enough 00:09:24.666 --> 00:09:26.539 no matter high they must also 00:09:26.539 --> 00:09:31.568 be ciselled in the laws and institutions 00:09:31.568 --> 00:09:34.538 he was practical, testing his beliefs 00:09:34.538 --> 00:09:37.533 against the hard surfice of circumstance 00:09:37.533 --> 00:09:40.922 and history, on core 00:09:40.922 --> 00:09:43.917 principles he was unyielding which is why he could rebuff 00:09:43.917 --> 00:09:48.258 offers of unconditional release reminding the aparthaid regime his 00:09:48.258 --> 00:09:53.836 that prisoners cannot enter into contracts 00:09:53.836 --> 00:09:57.072 but as he showed in painstaking negotiations 00:09:57.072 --> 00:10:00.438 to transfer power and draft new laws he was 00:10:00.438 --> 00:10:06.378 not afraid to compromise for the sake of a larger goal. 00:10:06.378 --> 00:10:11.210 And because he was not only a leader of a movement but a skilful politician 00:10:11.210 --> 00:10:15.204 the constitution that emerged was worthy of this multi-racial 00:10:15.204 --> 00:10:18.584 democracy, true to his vision of laws that 00:10:18.584 --> 00:10:22.420 protect minority as well as majority rights and the 00:10:22.420 --> 00:10:29.291 precious freedoms of every Southafrican. 00:10:29.291 --> 00:10:32.273 And finally Mandela uderstood 00:10:32.273 --> 00:10:37.179 the ties that bind the human spirit. 00:10:37.179 --> 00:10:40.873 There is a word in Southafrican 00:10:40.873 --> 00:10:43.135 ubuntu 00:10:43.135 --> 00:10:48.988 [cheers] 00:10:48.988 --> 00:10:50.876 a word that captures 00:10:50.876 --> 00:10:54.992 Mandela's greatest gift: his recognition 00:10:54.992 --> 00:10:58.536 that we are all bound together in ways that are invisible 00:10:58.536 --> 00:11:03.774 to the eye, that there is a ones to humanity 00:11:03.774 --> 00:11:06.676 that we achieve ourselves by sharing 00:11:06.676 --> 00:11:12.293 ourselves with others and caring those around us 00:11:12.293 --> 00:11:15.293 we can't never know how much of this 00:11:15.293 --> 00:11:18.454 sense was innate in him or how much was shaped 00:11:18.454 --> 00:11:23.256 in a dark and solitary cell. 00:11:23.256 --> 00:11:28.037 But we remember the gestures large and small 00:11:28.037 --> 00:11:30.374 introducing his jailers as 00:11:30.374 --> 00:11:32.900 honored guests at an inaguration, taking a pitch 00:11:32.900 --> 00:11:37.960 in a spring by uniform 00:11:37.960 --> 00:11:41.337 turning his family's heartbreak into a call that can run 00:11:41.337 --> 00:11:45.646 HIV-AIDS that reveal the depths 00:11:45.646 --> 00:11:49.983 of his empathy and his understanding. 00:11:49.983 --> 00:11:54.302 He not only embodied truth he taught millions 00:11:54.302 --> 00:11:57.991 to find that truth within themselves. 00:11:57.991 --> 00:12:00.208 It took a man like Madiba to free 00:12:00.208 --> 00:12:06.493 not just the prisoner but the jailer as well 00:12:06.493 --> 00:12:08.623 to show that you must trust 00:12:08.623 --> 00:12:12.094 others so that they may trust you 00:12:12.094 --> 00:12:16.265 teach that reconciliation is not a matter of ignoring 00:12:16.265 --> 00:12:19.542 a cruel past but a means of confronting it 00:12:19.542 --> 00:12:25.957 with an inclusion and generosity and truth 00:12:25.957 --> 00:12:28.711 He changed laws 00:12:28.711 --> 00:12:33.873 but he also changed hearts 00:12:33.873 --> 00:12:37.209 for the people of South Africa 00:12:37.209 --> 00:12:39.425 for those he inspired 00:12:39.425 --> 00:12:43.227 around the globe but he was passing .... 00:12:43.227 --> 00:12:51.411 a time of morning a time to celebrate a heroic life 00:12:51.411 --> 00:12:54.789 but I believe it should also prompt in each of us a time 00:12:54.789 --> 00:12:58.305 for self-reflection with honesty 00:12:58.305 --> 00:13:02.704 regardless of our station or circumstance 00:13:02.704 --> 00:13:05.682 we must ask: "How well have I applied 00:13:05.682 --> 00:13:12.456 his lessons in my own life. 00:13:12.456 --> 00:13:15.294 It's a question I ask myself 00:13:15.294 --> 00:13:20.296 as a man and as a president 00:13:20.296 --> 00:13:22.398 we know that white South Africa 00:13:22.398 --> 00:13:25.375 and the United States have overcome centuries of racial 00:13:25.375 --> 00:13:29.881 subjugation as was 00:13:29.881 --> 00:13:33.422 it was true here it took sacrifice, the sacrifices of countless people 00:13:33.422 --> 00:13:39.262 known and unknown to see the dawn of a new day 00:13:39.262 --> 00:13:41.373 Michelle and I are beneficiaries 00:13:41.373 --> 00:13:46.923 of that struggle 00:13:46.923 --> 00:13:49.458 but in America 00:13:49.458 --> 00:13:53.879 and in South Africa and in countries all over 00:13:53.879 --> 00:13:55.958 the globe we cannot allow our progress to cloud the fact 00:13:55.958 --> 00:14:02.205 that our work is not yet done 00:14:02.205 --> 00:14:04.794 The struggles that follow the victory 00:14:04.794 --> 00:14:08.537 formal equality or universal franchise 00:14:08.537 --> 00:14:12.212 may not be as filled with drama and moral clarity as those 00:14:12.212 --> 00:14:17.548 .... that came before but they are not less important 00:14:17.548 --> 00:14:20.504 for around the world today we still see 00:14:20.504 --> 00:14:24.291 children suffering from hunger and disease, we still 00:14:24.291 --> 00:14:28.412 see run down schools, we still see young people 00:14:28.412 --> 00:14:32.631 without prospects for the future, around the world 00:14:32.631 --> 00:14:36.802 today men and women are still imprisoned for their political 00:14:36.802 --> 00:14:37.743 believes and are still persecuted for what they look like 00:14:37.743 --> 00:14:51.214 how they worship and who they love and it is still happening today 00:14:51.214 --> 00:14:52.210 And so we 00:14:52.210 --> 00:14:57.061 too must act on behalf of justice 00:14:57.061 --> 00:15:01.293 we too must act on behalf of peace 00:15:01.293 --> 00:15:04.104 There are too many people that too happily embrace 00:15:04.104 --> 00:15:07.626 Madiba's legacy of racial reconciliation but 00:15:07.626 --> 00:15:12.131 passionately resist even modest reforms, they would challange 00:15:12.131 --> 00:15:17.475 ... of property and bringing in equality 00:15:17.475 --> 00:15:20.456 there are too many leaders who claim solidarity 00:15:20.456 --> 00:15:23.795 with Madiba's struggle for freedom but do not tollerate 00:15:23.795 --> 00:15:33.462 the same for their own people 00:15:33.462 --> 00:15:35.885 and there are too many of us 00:15:35.885 --> 00:15:38.627 too many of us on the side lines, confortable 00:15:38.627 --> 00:15:42.742 in complacency or cynicism 00:15:42.742 --> 00:15:47.047 when our voices must be heard, the question 00:15:47.047 --> 00:15:50.249 we face today 00:15:50.249 --> 00:15:55.131 had a promotive quality and justice, how to uphold 00:15:55.131 --> 00:15:59.001 freedom and human rights, how to end conflict and 00:15:59.001 --> 00:16:02.773 sectarian war, these things do not have 00:16:02.773 --> 00:16:06.628 easy answers, but there were no easy answers 00:16:06.628 --> 00:16:10.961 in front of that child born in 00:16:10.961 --> 00:16:14.713 in World War I, Nelson Mandela reminds us that 00:16:14.713 --> 00:16:19.646 it always seems impossible until it is done 00:16:19.646 --> 00:16:23.256 South Africa shows that it is true 00:16:23.256 --> 00:16:26.481 South Africa shows we can change, that we can 00:16:26.481 --> 00:16:30.538 choose a world defined not by our differences but by our common 00:16:30.538 --> 00:16:34.716 hopes, we can choose a world defined not by conflict 00:16:34.716 --> 00:16:45.880 but by peace and justice and opportunity 00:16:45.880 --> 00:16:48.118 We will never see 00:16:48.118 --> 00:16:51.958 the likes of Nelson Mandela again 00:16:51.958 --> 00:16:56.321 well I may say that the young people of Africa 00:16:56.321 --> 00:17:00.540 that the young people around the world 00:17:00.540 --> 00:17:03.462 you too can make his life's work 00:17:03.462 --> 00:17:06.261 your own. 00:17:06.261 --> 00:17:10.880 Over thirty years ago, whilst still a student 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:14.298 I learned of Nelson Mandela 00:17:14.298 --> 00:17:18.614 and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land 00:17:18.614 --> 00:17:22.820 and it stured something in me 00:17:22.820 --> 00:17:25.844 it woke me up to my responsibilities to other 00:17:25.844 --> 00:17:30.555 and to myself and send me into an improbable journey 00:17:30.555 --> 00:17:35.049 that finds me here today 00:17:35.049 --> 00:17:38.043 and while I will always fall short of Madiba's 00:17:38.043 --> 00:17:42.403 example he makes me want to be a better man 00:17:42.403 --> 00:17:45.594 he speaks 00:17:45.594 --> 00:17:51.545 to what is best inside us 00:17:51.545 --> 00:17:55.841 after this great liberator is let to rest 00:17:55.841 --> 00:17:58.240 and we return to our cities and 00:17:58.240 --> 00:18:03.760 and villages and rejoined our daily routine 00:18:03.760 --> 00:18:05.251 let us search for his 00:18:05.251 --> 00:18:08.662 strength, let us search for his 00:18:08.662 --> 00:18:15.883 largeness of spirit somewhere inside of ourselves 00:18:15.883 --> 00:18:18.664 and when the night grows dark 00:18:18.664 --> 00:18:22.409 when injustice weights heavy on our hearts 00:18:22.409 --> 00:18:27.072 when our best laid plans seem out of reach 00:18:27.072 --> 00:18:29.419 let us think of Madiba 00:18:29.419 --> 00:18:32.797 and the words that brought him comfort within the 4 walls 00:18:32.797 --> 00:18:36.445 of his cell: "It matters not 00:18:36.445 --> 00:18:40.042 how streight the gate, how charged 00:18:40.042 --> 00:18:45.256 the punishment, the scroll 00:18:45.256 --> 00:18:48.535 I am the master of my fate, 00:18:48.535 --> 00:18:52.458 I am the captain of my soul, 00:18:52.458 --> 00:18:58.078 what magnificent soul it was. We will miss him deeply 00:18:58.078 --> 00:19:01.580 May God bless the memory of Nelson Mandela. 00:19:01.580 --> 00:19:07.800 May God bless the people of South Africa.