MANDELA

Here was a man of absolute, unwavering integrity--the greatest of all human qualities, in my view.  Mandela's was tempered by years of the kind of suffering few of us can imagine, let alone tolerate.  And it was through suffering he learned the spirit of compassion that led him into that great initiative to heal the wounds of his nation's past and aspire to reconciliation with those who had sought to break his will with imprisonment and back-breaking labor.  He stands head and shoulders above the majority of leaders, in today's conflicted world, who who see compassion as weakness, shift with the winds of political opportunism, and cater to those motivated by greed and the hunger for power.  Would that we had more men and women of such unshakeable integrity and dedication to so grand a mission.  May his example prove a corrective inspiration to a new generation of world leaders.