Nelson Mandela Speaks for Clinton's During Lewinsky Scandal

Thank you very much, thank you all, and welcome to the East Room of the White House. We are delighted to have you all here. We know that many of those who were planning to be here have unfortunately been diverted due to the weather and we are receiving. calls from Detroit in Boston and places like that, so we're very sorry that anyone had any inconvenience, but we're delighted that everyone who traveled to be with us is here today. It is a particular pleasure to welcome you to the White House and share with you this moment in which Bill and I are so fortunate to have our friends spend the night with us.

It's like a pajama party. You know there are so many distinguished people here. I could literally introduce you all. audience, but if you allow me I will do it by category because I could not take the time to listen to the two presidents to introduce everyone, but I do want to welcome all the clergy who are here. I want to welcome you. members of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I want to welcome members of the president's Cabinet and White House staff. I also want to welcome all members of Congress and when I walked in I realized that we also have some former members of Congress. with us too and with all of you who are friends and supporters of the objectives of this president and who have also been friends and supporters of the objectives of President Mandela, we are delighted to have you, but it is a special pleasure to have the newlyweds. with us and we feel very lucky to have known them over the past few years.

We have certainly been fortunate to know President Mandela for a number of years and I have heard of Gration Michelle for many years and followed her work. she has acted with such distinction and bravery and I was very pleased that, because of her relationship with the president of a certain country, she and I were able to spend time together during our official visit to South Africa and then welcome her back as a Friend here tonight , it is also a special honor for me to introduce you to someone who has continued his father's legacy and has carried on the best of what represents not only the ideals and values ​​of America but also those of humanity, always with his own voice and with his own voice. sense of purpose since the ripe old age of 17, when she spoke at the United Nations about apartheid, it has been clear that Reverend Bernice King was put on this earth to preach from that day, she has used the power of the spoken word and written to inspire young people to build bridges of understanding between citizens of all races to confront the persistent evils of racism and poverty around the world and to give all people faith that they too can work to make Realize your father's dream in your own lives so that It is with great pleasure and honor that I present the Reverend Bernice King.

First of all I want to give all praise to God and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this opportunity and to the Holy Spirit for giving me the strength and power to Stand - President Clinton to First Lady Hillary Clinton President Mandela and Mrs. Michelle - Ambassador Sone and Ambassador Joseph - all of you, distinguished brothers and sisters. I must admit that this is truly a great honor and privilege for me right now to be in the presence of so much greatness, great political leaders, great educational leaders, great religious leaders. leaders men and women of God great bishops and prognosticators of the gospel of Jesus Christ but especially being in the presence of the person of President Nelson Mandela who in many ways personifies the essence of who my father was and for that I thank God for this privilege and opportunity to be in their presence and say just a few short words.

They asked me to say a few words and I don't think they noticed, but they asked a Baptist preacher to say a few words and I'll try. follow a bit of protocol as much as possible while watching President Mandela and also thinking about my own father. I am reminded of the powerful words of that great abolitionist and beloved statesman Frederick Douglass, who said that where there is no struggle there can be no progress. Both men in their fight against racist regimes were fundamental to the social advancement of the human race and President Mandela's presence here evokes many memories for me, particularly from my experience when I had the privilege of attending his inauguration several years ago. years.

While traveling to South Africa I must admit that I was on a mission, a singular mission because I wanted to better understand how a man who had spent 27 years in prison at that time, had been my entire life and so I could not even imagine being imprisoned for 27 years my entire life and as I traveled there I looked for signs of bitterness and anger and as I watched and listened to him give his inaugural address because God has gifted me at times the spirit of discernment I ask God to allow me to see the heart of this man and God allowed me to be able to see that there were no traces of bitterness and anger after 27 years of being imprisoned I believe soul unjustifiably and that is actually impressive to say the least and as I thought about it I thought about my father's words from that undeserved suffering is redemptive.

I even thought about the words of Jesus Christ or the experience of Jesus Christ that you must first go through the crucifixion through the crucifixion in to reach the resurrection and I experienced a kind of powerful resurrection as I watched and listened to President Nelson Mandela. No one can deny that his suffering helped redeem and transform South Africa for the person he suffered, along with personal transformation. which I am sure he experienced became the fuel that transformed a beleaguered South Africa into a reconciliatory South Africa. This reconciliation has been characterized by the love and indomitable spirit of forgiveness and understanding that President Mandela brought to his leadership as president of the new South Africa.

We have witnessed his powerful spirit of forgiveness, his powerful spirit of understanding and reconciliation, when he even invited his own jailers to his inauguration and when he established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in That country. I often think about what it would mean if this nation followed that example and established its own if we established our own Truth and Reconciliation Commission so that we can continue my father Martin Luther King Jr.'s unfinished work of reconciliation. We certainly have a great need for healing and reconciliation in this country and it begins with forgiveness. Now I have the distinguished honor of introducing our president and I realize that tonight is not about our president's dilemma, but I want to say briefly and record that in such a way that our Judeo-Christian heritage demands that we allow God will handle the matter by remembering how He handled King David when King David was confronted with his own sin by the prophet Nathan.

King David was heard saying similar to what our president said. It has been heard that I have sinned against the Lord and the Prophet replied that the Lord has also taken away your sin. David remained King, he remained king as God refined both his circumstances and his prospects. God protected him as he purged his appetites and made clear the devastating consequences of returning to the old path, ultimately God is the one who seeks the hearts of all men and I know a little about God, just a little, and I know that he he can handle his affairs and he can handle them alone because he is God and he is alone and he doesn't need anyone's help, so mr. president because I know that none of us are perfect because we have everyone, everyone, from the highest to the lowest, from the media to the Capitol, we have everyone from the pulpits, in the pews, we have all sinned and We have not achieved the glory of God, and that is why I and I believe there are many others in this room who forgive them.

I want to say it's time. I believe we leave our president alone knowing that by leaving him alone, we are leaving him in trustworthy hands. We leave it in trusted hands. from a God Abel who shaped and created him and can properly correct him and restore him completely because God is capable of doing much more than we can ask or even think and we also leave him alone with his family who will help him in the process of healing and closure With this and I bring to the president the words of the Holy Scriptures that speak in this way from the book of Colossians, therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and very loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, let us endure each other and Forgive the grievances that you have against each other, forgive as the Lord forgave you and above all these virtues put on love that unites you all in perfect unity and may the Peace of Christ reign in your hearts, since as members From one body you were called. to peace and to be grateful, God is calling us.

I believe that all of us in the world in general, this nation and his people repent, forgive, so that he forgives us and he can speak to us and heal our land. I introduced a great leader. great world leader, as we witnessed again yesterday and a great statesman, our president, President Clinton, thank you, thank you very much, thank you very much, the Scriptures say that it is more blessed to give than to receive. I was sitting here thinking, although in this case I wish we were on the side of giving instead of receiving, that's all, it's hard to absorb the depth and breadth of what I've heard and what you've given me through the words of the Reverend King and through your expression and I thank you, I thank you.

Also for what you have given to our country, I thank the members of Congress and the administration, the educators, the ministers, the ambassadors, all of you who are here and our friends in South Africa. Hillary and I are delighted to have President Mandela and Gracia here, we thank Russia for its concern for the children who were victims of war by being forced to fight as children and for the scars they left and we thank you, mr. President for being the person we would all like to be on our best day. I would like everyone to think for a few moments before speaking to President Mandela, not about the terrible and unjust sacrifice of his 27 years in prison, but about what he has done.

With the years since he was released from prison, it is not about how he purged his heart of bitterness and anger while still a prisoner, but how he resists every day the temptation to return to it in the pettiness and pettiness of human events in some way, That is, even more notable, there were many blessings for Hillary and me that far outweighed all the tests of the American people giving me the opportunity to serve in this position and live in this house, but certainly one of the greatest has was the friendship. of this good man and I want to tell you a little story.

I try to never betray any private conversation that I have with anyone, but I want to tell you this when President Mandela was once talking to him and I said, "You know, I have listened carefully to everything you said, how you put aside your anger and your bitterness. , but the day you got out of prison, Hillary and I were living in Arkansas, in the governor's mansion, our daughter was a very little girl, and I got her up early on a Sunday morning and sat her on our kitchen counter. because we had an elevated television and I said Chelsea, I want you to see this, this is one of the great events of your life and I want you to see this and she saw President Mandela walked the last road to freedom after all those years in prison , so I told him when I said, "Don't tell me this.

I know you invited your jailers to the inauguration and I know how hard you've worked on this, but didn't you get angry once again when you were walking down that road? He briefly said yes. He was. I don't know if you remember. He said yes briefly. I was. And then I remembered. I have waited so long for freedom and if my anger goes away. If he were to leave this place with me, I will continue to be his prisoner and I want to be free. I say this to set the stage for what is now happening in Nelson Mandela's life.

Yesterday we were at the United Nations and he and I spoke face to face. Back then we had this lunch and we were talking about the problems in the Congo, we were talking about the continuing almost compulsive destructiveness of the people there and all the countries outside trying to get into action to make sure that those who don't do it like they don't has an advantage and we were lamenting the colossal waste of human potential in that phenomenally rich country and I thought to myself that apartheid is no longer the law in South Africa, but it is still alive in the hearts of almost everyone on earth. one way or another and here is this man still giving himself away to try to remove apartheid from the hearts of the people of his continent and, indeed, the people of the world.

We were talking just before we came over about a mutual friend of ours, who is the leader of a country and how he called him out and admonished him to try to solve a problem he's had for too long, which is why I say I had to say one thing. Which is kind of funny about this, you know, and the President. Mandela will probably come up here and make some jokeabout being an old man and how he's running out of time and all that, the truth is he's stepping down because he feels like he's about 25 again and he's so happily married that he can't be. problems with all this boring political stuff, whatever it is, I have to say it's the only time I don't need to twist the facts, but that's it.

I'm sure what's going on here, but I ask you to think about it every time Nelson Mandela walks. in a room we all feel a little bigger we all want to get up we all want to cheer because we would like to be him on our best day but what I would tell you is that there is a little bit of apartheid in everyone's heart and in every twisted and distorted situation in the world. world where people are prevented from becoming the best they can be, there is an apartheid of the heart and if we truly honor this impressive sacrifice of 27 years, if we truly rejoice in the infinite justice of seeing this. happily married man in the autumn of his life, if we truly seek some wisdom driven by the power of his example, it will be to do everything we can, wherever we are, to eliminate apartheid from our hearts and from others, ladies and gentlemen. , the President of South Africa, President Clinton and Mrs.

Clinton Reverend Bernice King distinguished guests and friends when I turned 70 a young woman who was now the director of a small university of my company came to see me in prison she was frank and direct she did not flatter me she did not say she said to see you here because of my interest in you she said that if my father were alive today he would be 70 years old and when I read in the newspapers that you were going to turn 70 today I thought I would come and see what a man of 70 looks like now after 80.

I suspect that many of you came here to say how He is an 80 year old man. No visit to the United States, they represented all the people of southern Afghanistan, would be complete without the opportunity to meet with those who are gathered here tonight probably for us. on our last official visit to your country has a special meaning and I very sincerely thank our host for making it possible that more than friends we are among those to whom history has visited the same pains and deprivations and who have served our veterans the founders of Our liberation movement was deeply inspired at the turn of the century by Black America striving under difficult circumstances to fulfill our common aspiration of restoring human dignity.

It is no wonder that the struggle and your activities gained so much strength from here or that we now look to you to work with us as we seek to punish poverty, hunger, illiteracy and ignorance of our name, mr. President, by incorporating his identification with these sad aspirations into the program of his administration, you have a warm place in the hearts of the South African people, as they saw in his visit to our country earlier this year. anus. We know that we have his understanding. While we are fed up with southern countries changing the global economic system towards the needs of the poor and evil, we are one world to the national debate taking place in this country about the president and it is none of our business to interfere. in this matter, but we do want to say that President Clinton is a friend of South Africa and of Africa and I believe a friend of the great mass of blacks and minorities and the disabled in the United States, few leaders of the United States have such a feeling for the position of blacks and minorities.

We understand that we have often said that our morality does not allow us to abandon our friends and that we will get results or not. We are thinking of you at this difficult and controversial time in your lives. A few days ago, the president of Zambia, Frederick Chiluba, for me, is now much younger than me. I think it is because of his sister's income. He only

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to me with a lot of respect and sometimes when we disagree and he tells me, now, look, I am not convinced. president of what you say but in our custom we will never challenge and all that but he projected a new image two days ago when he told me that you did not make a request to me he gave me an instruction and if Madiba I want you to support President Clinton, he was not a painter proper, he was not speaking for himself and he stated that I am speaking for the African continent when he addressed our Parliament and almost brought down the walls of the building when he said that in the United States we have been asking the wrong question, we have been saying what we can do for Africa , that was the wrong question, the right question was what can we do about Africa, those are the men, my friend, who I respect so much, but clearly it is. changing American foreign policy to the satisfaction of all those who accepted the United States as a world leader with the largest economy in the world and he is decisively changing American policy week.

I repeat that I will not interfere in the internal affairs of this country, which you should have seen the way he was received by the general assembly or the United Nations the applause was spontaneous and overwhelming we all stood up when he entered it was the same after who delivered his that sent a strong message of what the The world thinks that men and women who come from all over the world are leaders of false presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers and other opinion makers. That was the strong message they sent, judging by the reaction of the United States National Assembly.

America is completely isolated on this issue, but if our expectations, if our fondest stories and dreams do not come true, then we must all keep in mind that the greatest glory of living lies not in never falling, but in getting up every time. that you fall On a high note I want to tell you a story that I have never told the president. I have a friend who is a minister, a white minister who was in South Africa recently and he was given the opportunity to meet the president, but he was told you will have to go to the airport if you want to meet the president.

He said: I'll go anywhere to shake your hand. He then he said that he was here waiting for me to come and here comes the President through the airport lobby. he said that President Mandela approached this beautiful blonde, blue-eyed girl of about six years old and my friend came over to listen to the conversation and said to the girl, do you know who I am? She said yes, your president Mandela and he looked at her and said if you study hard and learn a lot you can become president of South Africa, that's a lot to say after this life, remember the point, God bless you all, thank you.