Show Notes
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” - Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born July 18th, 1918 in Mvezo, Transkei, into the Madiba clan of the Thembu royal house. His father, a chief, was stripped of office by a colonial magistrate for refusing to answer to colonial authority. Raised after his father's death as ward of the Thembu regent, he underwent Xhosa initiation at sixteen and took the name Dalibunga. He was expelled from Fort Hare in 1940 for a student boycott, fled an arranged marriage to Johannesburg, and qualified in law. He joined the ANC in 1943 and co-founded its Youth League, pushing the organization from petitions toward mass action. He served as Volunteer-in-Chief of the 1952 Defiance Campaign and opened South Africa's first Black law firm with Oliver Tambo. After the 1960 Sharpeville massacre and the banning of the ANC foreclosed legal protest, he went underground and co-founded Umkhonto we Sizwe, the movement's armed wing. Arrested in 1962 and tried at Rivonia, he opened his defense from the dock in 1964, calling a free and democratic society an ideal he was prepared to die for. He received life imprisonment and served 27 years — most of it on Robben Island as prisoner 466/64, breaking limestone in a quarry that permanently damaged his eyes, denied leave to bury his mother and his eldest son. He refused conditional release in 1985, answering that a prisoner cannot negotiate. Freed in 1990, he steered negotiations through near-civil war, shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk, and became president in May 1994 after the first non-racial election. His single term produced the 1996 Constitution and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He stepped down in 1999, in a region where liberation leaders rarely did. The unfinished business was economic: the Freedom Charter's redistributive commitments were traded away, land reform stalled, inequality endured. He admitted his government moved too slowly on HIV/AIDS, then spent his last years campaigning on it. He died 5 December 2013, aged 95.
References Boehmer, E. (2008). Nelson Mandela: A very short introduction. Oxford University Press. Chikane, F. (1988). No life of my own: An autobiography. Skotaville. Frankel, P. (2001). An ordinary atrocity: Sharpeville and its massacre. Yale University Press. Gevisser, M. (2007). Thabo Mbeki: The dream deferred. Jonathan Ball. Gordimer, N. (1990). My son's story. Bloomsbury. Kathrada, A. (2004). Memoirs. Zebra Press. Lodge, T. (2006). Mandela: A critical life. Oxford University Press. Madikizela-Mandela, W. (1985). Part of my soul went with him (A. Benjamin & M. Benson, Eds.). W. W. Norton. Madikizela-Mandela, W. (2013). 491 days: Prisoner number 1323/69. Ohio University Press. Mandela, N. (1964). Statement from the dock at the opening of the defence case in the Rivonia Trial, Pretoria Supreme Court, 20 April 1964. Mandela, N. (1994). Long walk to freedom: The autobiography of Nelson Mandela. Mandela, N. (2010). Conversations with myself. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Mandela, N. (2018). The prison letters of Nelson Mandela (S. Venter, Ed.). Liveright. Meredith, M. (2010). Mandela: A biography (rev. ed.). PublicAffairs. Sampson, A. (1999). Mandela: The authorised biography. HarperCollins. Steinberg, J. (2023). Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a marriage. Alfred A. Knopf. Suttner, R. (2008). The ANC underground in South Africa, 1950-1976. Jacana. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. (1998). Report (Vols. 1-5). Juta. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. (1997). Special hearing: Mandela United Football Club, Johannesburg, 24 November - 4 December 1997. Umkhonto we Sizwe. (1961). Manifesto, 16 December 1961.
More from Flipping Tables
Sources: On This Day: Federal Reserve History — Stock Market Crash of 1987 | Library of Congress — Black Monday Sanctions waiver: CNBC — Trump waives broad new Russia sanctions | ABC News — Order waiving Graham Act sanctions | France 24 — Rubio: 60 days to analyze | RFE/RL — Ukrainian officials slam waiver | The Hill — Zelensky denounces waiver | White House — Implementing the Graham Act | Debevoise — Graham Act explainer Starshield: Kyiv Post — Rubio: Ukraine lacks access to Starshield | Newsweek — Rubio denies ordered slowdown | CBS News — Ukraine still unable to intercept drones | CNBC — Musk: “ultimately POTUS” Dmitriev: TASS — UK, EU “sabotage” peace efforts | TASS — “Checkmate” | Gazeta do Povo — AI image of U.S. and Russia facing Europe | CNN — Dmitriev praises waiver Bend: CBS News — 3 children, teacher killed | PBS — Shooter attacked special-education classroom | NBC News — Bystander identified | Central Oregon Daily — Teacher threw phone, fought shooter | OPB — Survivors remain hospitalized Wichita: CBS News — Boy among 2 killed, 11 injured | ABC News — Truck drives through soccer game Measles: Al Jazeera — 4,410 cases | CDC — Cases and outbreaks | Contagion Live — October 16 update Omar: The Hill — Obama: probe is a political attack | Yahoo/Fox — Obama’s statement | Fox News — Homan on denaturalization | Arolsen Archives — The expatriation card file | JTA — Thomas Mann’s citizenship cancelled (1936) | Jewish Museum Berlin — 1933 revocation of naturalization UTSA: ESPN — Service member died from fall | TPR — Airman dies in rappelling accident | KSAT — Air Force statement Vance: Daily Beast — Blindsided by grieving husband | Yahoo — Minnesota widower demands answers | IBTimes — Vance: “huge mistake” BBC suit: Forbes — Judge threatens sanctions | Bloomberg — Judge threatens Trump with sanctions | TheWrap — Bailing on deposition Zacharia / East Potomac: CNN — Why Trump fired Zacharia after five days | NPR — Zacharia out | Washington Post — Photos obscuring what appears to be map of East Potomac | CNN — Administration seeks to remove judge | CNN — Work to start mid-November | Washington Post — Satellite images of tree removal France: Al Jazeera — Hundreds of thousands protest | CBS News — 1,800 arrested | France 24 — “Like we had a war” Meta / No Kings: TheWrap — Instagram account disappears | Common Dreams — Censorship fears | Raw Story — “We demand answers” | TPR — No Kings draws crowds with early-voting focus | Arizona Mirror — Crowds channel anger into early votes Norte Fire: ABC News/AP — Blaze burned 6 homes, 16,000 evacuated | FOX Weather — First Santa Ana event Good news: Physics World — Optogenetic therapy shows promise | Technology Networks — Gene therapy helps patients detect objects | NPR — Nobel for optogenetics
Reminder: I will be in Scotland for my birthday next week! Libras UNITE! Yesterday's news will still be coming out leading into midterms, but the time of day may change slightly, I will have a few days that I take off completely from being online, but I will announce those. SOURCES On This Day: JFK Library — October 16, 1962 | Office of the Historian — Cuban Missile Crisis
Sources: On This Day: History.com — Shot in the chest, Roosevelt kept talking | WPR — Shot in Milwaukee, 1912 Youngstown rally: CNN — Trump holds raucous Ohio rally | NBC News — Live blog | AOL — Protester punched in face as Trump calls her "fat guy" | Raw Story — "They're scum" | WFMJ — Live notes | The Vindicator — Trump stumps for Husted, Ramaswamy Musk: CNBC — $276 million, biggest known donor | CNN — Top booster for Republicans | MPR/AP — Quietly becomes biggest donor | The Hill — $366 million cycle total Grassley: BizPac Review — Files for reelection; would be 101 | Townhall — Files for 2028 bid Voting rules: Washington Times/AP — GOP states impose new voting rules | Mississippi Today/AP — Same | CNN — Ohio early voting shift Bankruptcies: Newsweek — Bankruptcies surge | Epoch Times — Filings up 11 percent | Time News — Small trucking fleets file Tariffs: Globe and Mail/AP — Trump sticks with tariffs despite disapproval | CP24/AP — Voters turn against tariffs | CNN — Author of tariff statute says tariffs are illegal | GBQ — Section 301 tariffs on 60 economies Ukraine: CNBC — Zelenskyy accuses Russia of violating ceasefire | Euronews — Russia ignored ceasefire | PBS — Strikes continue despite claim | Axios — Trump announces ceasefire Houston: CNN — Man struck by ICE vehicle broke both legs | Click2Houston — Parra undergoes surgery, family allegations | Houston Chronicle — ICE vehicle hits man Pike: CNN — Emergency help delayed by confusion | CBS News — 911 calls | NBC News — Calls highlight confusion Mamdani: NY1 — Review after teen's death | Yahoo/CNN — Department-wide review | CNN — Marble Hill ICE shooting AI center: U.S. News/Reuters — Officials to move to White House | Crypto Briefing — CAISI under White House oversight Good news: Billboard — Musgraves fires back at Noem | Hollywood Reporter — Dig about killing her dog | TheWrap — Snarky clapback
Misspoke: There is a podcast episode this week, not next week. Sources: On This Day: History.com — Chilean miners rescued after 69 days | TechCrunch — Most-watched Ustream event ever
The word “gossip” started out as something sacred. In Old English it was godsibb, literally “God-sibling,” the name for a godparent or anyone who stood with you at a baptism and became spiritual kin. By the Middle Ages the meaning had loosened to cover any close friend or companion, and in particular the circle of women who gathered in the birthing room to help a mother through labor. Those long hours of waiting were filled with talk, and the “gossips” became known as much for their conversation as for their support. Men, fearful and suspicious of women in community without men supervising began to demonize women gathering publicly or speaking to each other. Male writers of the 1500s and 1600s sneered at “gossips” as idle, chattering women, and by the 1800s the verb “to gossip” meant exactly what it does today. It was uniquely WOMAN sin and was built to isolate a woman from network. Then... they added it to the Bible.