His day is done.
Is done.
The news came on the wings of a wind,
reluctant to carry its burden.
Nelson Mandela's day is done.
The news, expected and still unwelcome,
reached us in the United States,
and suddenly our world became somber.
Our skies were leadened.
His day is done.
We see you, South African people
standing speechless
at the slamming of that final door
through which no traveler returns.
Our spirits reach out to you Bantu, Zulu, Xhosa, Boer.
We think of you and your son of Africa,
your father, your one more wonder of the world.
We send our souls to you
as you reflect upon your David
armed with a mere stone,
facing down the mighty Goliath.
Your man of strength, Gideon,
emerging triumphant.
Although born into the brutal embrace of Apartheid,
scarred by the savage atmosphere of racism,
unjustly imprisoned in the bloody maws
of South African dungeons.
Would the man survive? Could the man survive?
His answer strengthened men and women around the world.
In the Alamo, in San Antonio, Texas,
on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco,
in Chicago's Loop,
in New Orleans Mardi Gras,
in New York City's Times Square,
we watched as the hope of Africa
sprang through the prison's doors.
His stupendous heart intact,
his gargantuan will hale and hearty.
He had not been crippled by brutes,
nor was his passion for the rights of human beings
diminished by twenty-seven years of imprisonment.
Even here in America,
we felt the cool, refreshing breeze of freedom.
When Nelson Mandela took the seat of Presidency in his country
where formerly he was not even allowed to vote
we were enlarged by tears of pride,
as we saw Nelson Mandela's former prison guards invited,
courteously, by him to watch from the front rows his inauguration.
We saw him accept the world's award in Norway
with the grace and gratitude
of the Solon in Ancient Roman Courts,
and the confidence of African Chiefs from ancient royal stools.
No sun outlasts its sunset,
but it will rise again and bring the dawn.
Yes, Mandela's day is done,
yet we, his inheritors,
will open the gates wider
for reconciliation,
and we will respond generously
to the cries of Blacks and Whites,
Asians, Hispanics,
the poor who live piteously on the floor of our planet.
He has offered us understanding.
We will not withhold forgiveness
even from those who do not ask.
Nelson Mandela's day is done,
we confess it in tearful voices,
yet we lift our own to say thank you.
Thank you our Gideon,
thank you our David,
our great courageous man.
We will not forget you,
we will not dishonor you,
we will remember and be glad
that you lived among us,
that you taught us,
and that you loved us all.
"on behalf of the American people." See video version.