Another Bloomberg Absurdity

Mayor: we'll honor him by opening the Nelson Mandela School of Social Justice, small school in famed Boys and Girls HS building in Bed-Stuy
— Lindsey Christ (@LindseyChrist) December 6, 2013

Mayor Bloomberg ran New York City as Soweto on the Hudson, a place where hundreds of thousands of men of color were stopped and searched just because they were of color.

His police chief, Raymond Kelly, is famed for saying he wanted every black and brown man to leave his home in fear that he could be searched by the police.

Why would a mayor who has fought so long and so hard to ensure this city used stop and frisk tactics to harass black and brown people want to open a school named for Nelson Mandela?

Quite frankly, Bloomberg has more in common with P.W. Botha than Nelson Mandela.

Mandela

The Guardian puts his death in perspective:

The death of Mandela will send South Africa deep into mourning and self-reflection nearly 20 years after he led the country from racial apartheid to inclusive democracy.

But his passing will also be keenly felt by people around the world who revered Mandela as one of history's last great statesmen, and a moral paragon comparable with Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King.

It was a transcendent act of forgiveness after spending 27 years in prison, 18 of them on Robben Island, that will assure his place in history. With South Africa facing possible civil war, Mandela sought reconciliation with the white minority to build a new democracy.

He led the African National Congress (ANC) to victory in the country's first multiracial election in 1994. Unlike other African liberation leaders who cling to power, such as Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe, he then voluntarily stepped down after one term.

Mandela, often affectionately known by his clan name, Madiba‚, was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1993.

At his inauguration a year later, the new president said: "Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another ... the sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement. Let freedom reign. God bless Africa!"

I can add nothing to those words above.