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• Sunday, May 2, 2010 - Hillary and I went to church with Jesse Jackson...
| Hillary and I went to church with Jesse Jackson in Soweto, the teeming township that had produced so many of the anti-apartheid activists
By this time I had developed a real friendship with MandelaHe was remarkable not only because of his astonishing journey from hatred to reconciliation during twenty-seven years in prison, but also because he was both a tough-minded politician and a caring person who, despite his long confinement, never lost his interest in the personal side of life or his ability to show love, friendship, and kindness
We had one especially meaningful conversationI said, Madiba [Mandelas colloquial tribal name, which he asked me to use], I know you did a great thing in inviting your jailers to your inauguration, but didnt you really hate those who imprisoned you? He replied, Of course I did, for many yearsThey took the best years of my lifeThey abused me physically and mentallyI didnt get to see my children grow upThen one day when I was working in the quarry, hammering the rocks, I realized that they had already taken everything from me except my mind and my heartThose they could not take without my permissionI decided not to give them awayThen he looked at me, smiled, and said, And neither should you
After I gucci tote bag caught my breath, I asked him another questionWhen you were walking out of prison for the last time, didnt you feel the hatred rise up in you again? Yes, he said, for a moment I didThen I thought to myself, They have had me for twenty-seven yearsIf I keep hating them, they will still have meI wanted to be free, and so I let it goThis time he didnt have to say, And so should you
The only vacation day on the trip came in Botswana, which had the highest per capita income in sub-Saharan Africa and the highest AIDS rate in the worldWe went on a safari in Chobe National Park and saw lions, elephants, impalas, hippos, crocodiles, and more than twenty different species of birdsWe got very close to a mother elephant and her childapparently too closeShe raised her trunk and sprayed us with waterIt made me laugh to think how happy the Republicans would have been if they could have seen their partys mascot watering meLate in the afternoon we took a leisurely boat ride down the Chobe River; Hillary and I held hands and counted our blessings as we watched the sun go down
Our last stop was Senegal, where we visited the Door of No Return on Gore Island, the point from which so many Africans were taken to slavery in North AmericaAs I had in Uganda, I mulberry style bags expressed my regret over Americas responsibility for slavery and the long, hard struggle of African-Americans for freedomI introduced the large delegation with me representing over thirty million Americans that are Africas great gift to America, and pledged to work with the Senegalese and all Africans for a better futureI also visited a mosque with President Abdou Diouf, out of respect for Senegals overwhelmingly Muslim population; a village that had recovered a section of desert with the help of American aid; and Senegalese troops being trained by American military personnel as part of the African Crisis Response Initiative, which my administration had initiated, our effort to better prepare Africans to stop wars and prevent other Rwandas
The trip was the longest and most comprehensive ever taken to Africa by an American PresidentThe bipartisan congressional delegation and the prominent citizens who accompanied me, as well as the specific programs I was supporting, including the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act, demonstrated to Africans that we were turning a new page in our shared historyFor all its problems, Africa was a hopeful placeI had seen it in the faces of the massive crowds in the cities, in those of the schoolchildren and black and white chanel handbag villagers in the bush and on the edge of the desertAnd Africa had given me a great gift: in the wisdom of a Rwandan widow and of Nelson Mandela, I had found more peace of mind to face what lay ahead
On April 1, while we were still in Senegal, Judge Wright granted my lawyers motion for a summary judgment in the Jones case, dismissing it without a trial, because she found that Jones had produced no credible evidence to support her claimThe dismissal exposed the raw political nature of Starrs investigationNow he was pursuing me on the theory that I had given a false statement in a deposition the judge had said was not relevant, and that I had obstructed justice in a case that had no merit in the first placeNo one was even talking about Whitewater anymoreOn April 2, to no ones surprise, Starr said he would press on
A few days later Bob Rubin and I announced that the United States would block the importation of 1 million assault weaponsAlthough we had banned the manufacture of nineteen different assault weapons in the 1994 crime bill, ingenious foreign gun makers were trying to evade the law by making modifications on guns whose only purpose was to kill people
Good Friday, April 10, was one of the happiest days of my presidencySeventeen dior detective bag hours past the deadline for a decision, all the parties in Northern Ireland agreed to a plan to end thirty years of sectarian violenceI had been up most of the night before, trying to help George Mitchell close the dealBesides George, I talked to Bertie Ahern, and to Tony Blair, David Trimble, and Gerry Adams twice, before going to bed at 2:30 aAt five, George woke me with a request to call Adams again to seal the deal
The agreement was a fine piece of work, calling for majority rule and minority rights; shared political decision making and shared economic benefits; continued ties to the United Kingdom and new ties to IrelandThe process that produced the pact began with the determination of John Major and Albert Reynolds to seek peace, continued when John Bruton succeeded Reynolds, and was completed by Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, David Trimble, John Hume, and Gerry AdamsMy first visa to Adams and the subsequent intense engagement of the White House made a difference, and George Mitchell handled the negotiations brilliantly
Of course, the main credit went to those who had to make the hard decisions, the Northern Irish leaders, Blair, and Ahern, and to the people of Northern Ireland who had chosen the promise of peace over a poisoned tiffany co jewellery past |
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