This post originally appeared on the ACLU of Northern California's Blog [1].

By Jory Steele

Like many people around the world, Nelson Mandela is one of my greatest heroes.  I was incredibly fortunate to move to South Africa several months before he was elected the first democratic president of South Africa.  I was coming of age, just as South Africa was transforming itself.  It was a magical, hopeful time, and Nelson Mandela was at the center of it.  His smile had the power to light the world, and he used his gentle, yet unbending strength to bring down an unjust regime and build a democratic nation in its place.

I will never forget watching Mandela vote for the first time.  It was such a little thing, seeing him put a piece of paper in a ballot box, wearing a yellow silk shirt.  Such a little thing, and yet it changed everything.  People of all races, lined up together for hours in the cold, waiting to cast their vote, showed the world how profoundly important the right to vote is for human dignity.   

Mandela, or Madiba, as he is known in South Africa, in a sign of love and respect, means so much to so many people.  What I will carry with me most is his decision to use love and forgiveness to fight for equality, rather than anger, bitterness, and hatred.  His ability to see the humanity in everyone, from impoverished people living in squalor, to the very people who created those conditions and imprisoned him, is a reminder to us all to move through the world with a little more kindness.

His wife, Graça Machel, has called him one of the tallest trees in Africa.  I would venture to say that Nelson Mandela was one of the tallest trees in all the world. 

Hamba kahle; go well, Madiba.  We will miss you.

Jory Steele is a staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California. Follow @ACLU_NorCal [2] on Twitter.