I always chuckle with I see this photo of me and Nelson Mandela. The photo was taken as a souvenir for tourists when they get off the cable car at Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa. The photo is fake but my deep admiration for Mandela is real. The passing of this great leader pushed me to visit my photo album of my 2001 South Africa visit and the memories always come rushing back–the visit to Mandela’s cell at Robbin Island, the warmth of the South African people, talking with children on the schoolyard, the political discussions in the coffee houses, the hustle of Johannesburg, the dance of the Zula warriors…I reflected on all the work I was a part of during the anti-apartheid movement and felt like a citizen in this new country. I had done my small part of bring the racist regime down but as my eyes confirmed, the dreams of the black masses remain unfulfilled. Amandla awetu! The power shall be ours!
The hostile takeover by the state
The attempt to seize local control from the citizens of St. Louis will be met with organized—and might I add–hostile resistance (think pension, think future raises). That’s because citizens voted for local control of their police department in 2013 by a majority of citizens. That historic vote was the result of more than a decade of tireless organizing under the leadership of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression (CAPCR).
