Filed under: News, Politics, Race and Civil Rights
Former South African President Nelson Mandela (pictured right), who hasn't been seen in public since last July's World Cup, has been hospitalized for routine testing and is in good spirits, according to a statement from his foundation.
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The 92 year-old icon, who was flown to a Johannesburg hospital from a vacation in Cape Town on Wednesday, has been described as frail by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
I wonder what 92-year-old person isn't frail.
The sad truth is that none of us, not even Mandela, will live forever.
But I have to feel fortunate that we were given the gift of Nelson Mandela's existence for as long as we've had it.
Mandela could have been killed a thousand times over by the white apartheid government of South Africa in the early days of the freedom struggle.
Instead of becoming the beloved father of a nation, Mandela could have been a martyr like Steve Biko, who was killed while in police custody in 1977.
The fact that former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela joined family members at the great leader's hospital bedside leads one to believe the illness is grave.
The bitterness between Winnie and Nelson Mandela is legendary and left portions of South Africa feeling like children in an angry divorce breakup.
In Mandela's village in Transkei, people are giving prayers for his return to good health.
For me, prayers of thanks that Mandela touched our lives make more sense.