There are people in this world who are willing to give away their lives, their time, their whole selves to obtain the freedom and rights of their people.
When Martin Luther King said his famous "I have a dream" speech on August 28, 1963 during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom a lot of things have changed.
His entire life was devoted to ensure equality among all the citizen of the United States in a time when racism was a state of mind considered normal. Although he went under severe stress in the years when he led the American civil rights movement and his life was under continuous threat he never gave up on his beliefs. His death was as big a milestone as his carrier, it made things change and turn into what they are today.
On the other side of the world one man sat in prison for nearly 3 decades actively defending the rights of his people, the people of South Africa. In a country where a white minority was leading and were all attempts to bring equality had been fought back for so many year Nelson Mandela had the courage to stand straight an fight against the system. It was a long struggle that often became violent; it was a fight that made him lose members of his family.
It meant 18 years out of 27 in Robben Island prison where he worked in the lime quarry along with the others prisoners and where black prisoners received the smallest food rations.
All this ended on February 2nd 1990 when then president F.W. de Klerk unbanned the Anti Apartheid organizations and announced that Mandela will be released from prison, which happened on February 22.
He became the first black president of South Africa at the age of 71. Today he has retreated from public life due to his age and health issues but continues to speak out through what he has achieved.
These two man, although from different parts of the world, fought for the same thing, the equality and freedom of those around them. Both lost what others take for granted, their lives, or a great part of their lives, but none of them ever gave up.
They stand as icons of freedom fight today, they are subjects of history studies, they both won the Nobel Prize for Peace and they inspired entire nations to change the world.
They did it so that people can feel like this.
That is something the world must never forget.
