On December 6, 2013, the day after Nelson Mandela’s death at 95 years of age, Tracy Conner, Staff Writer for NBC News.com website wrote an article for WORLD NEWS entitled ‘He is now at peace’: Nelson Mandela dead at 95.  

Conner mentioned “Nelson Mandela, the revered South African anti-apartheid icon who spent 27 years in prison, led his country to democracy and became its first black president, died Thursday at home.”

Connor also reported that the then South African president Jacob Zuma, said, “Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father.”

Not only has South Africa lost its “greatest son,” and its people “have lost a father,” but the world has yet “lost” another of our “greatest” sons but has also “lost” another “father.”

Like Mandela, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, two of our country’s greatest presidents, believed in the importance of leading by example. As any adult understands, a parent’s actions speak much louder than his or her words. All three of these men, who were national icons in their own right, represented what the United States or South Africa should represent to the rest of the world.

Unlike our current nationally elected officials, these three presidents were responsible and principled by nature. They governed their nations with love in their heart. They cared for the welfare of their nations first and foremost, rather than caring for their own well being or political advantage; for they all refused to compromise their integrities for short-term benefit or gain. They used their moral compasses to do what they thought was right, rather than caving into an external criterion like a political party or some other outside pressure, which, if taken, would have clearly been done at the expense of what would be best for their nation.

Of the 27 years Mandela was in prison, he would spend 18 of his 27 years on Robben Island where he was allowed one visitor a year for 30 minutes and was permitted to write and receive one letter every six months. Despite those extreme hardships, Mandela never wavered keeping in touch with the outside world and his family.

Clearly, all three men, each, in their own way, loved their countries dearly. Unlike today’s politicians who fail to appear to serve their country for the right reasons, and who allow party politics and personal gain to be considered first and foremost before making political decisions, Washington, Lincoln and Mandela let their extensive understanding of their country’s heritage be the parameter they used to correct the wrong, that, at the time, they believed their country was experiencing.

They all had qualities necessary and, in many ways, sufficient, for greatness to prevail. They were intelligent and all profoundly good human beings. They also put a high value in being men of integrity and showed empathy and compassion for everyone whose lives they crossed. They did that by being loving and appreciative of who their friend or stranger were as individuals, and, by doing that, affirmed their unconscious or conscious belief in believing that being loving and caring of others is one of life’s great elixirs.

An example of Mandela’s impeccable integrity and courageous stand against apartheid was demonstrated when Connor reported that “In 1985, he (Mandela) turned down the government’s offer to free him if he renounced armed struggle against apartheid. It wasn’t until South African President P.W. Botha had a stroke and was replaced by F.W. de Klerk in 1989 that the stage was set for his release.”

Connor reports: “After a ban on the ANC was repealed, a whiter-haired Mandela walked out of prison before a jubilant crowd and told a rally in Cape Town that the fight was far from over.” At that point Mandela said, “Our struggle has reached a decisive moment…We have waited too long for our freedom. We can no longer wait.”

According to Connor, for the next two years Mandela’s negotiations with South African President F.W. de Klerk, prior to his becoming President of South Africa (1994 -1999), laid the ground work for “South Africa to have its first multiracial elections amid tension and violence. He and de Klerk were honored with the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts.”