Freedom Day

I've just realised that this is an auspicious day to have created this blog. It's Freedom Day - South Africa's national holiday, recognising our first National Democratic Elections on the 27th of April, 1994. This was the day that Nelson Mandela was elected president, the National Party was removed from power and the final nail was put in the coffin of the Afrikaner State.

This was the day that millions of people stood for more than eight hours in a queue to vote for the first time. When many - both black and white - wept for the hitherto-unknown privilege of voting in a truly democratic election where all groups were represented and allowed to contribute.

This day marked the end of one of the most ambitious social experiments ever devised - easily comparable to the Holocaust or slavery in the States.

What better day to create a blog about race relations in South Africa and the United States?

Welcome

Welcome to the Journeys of Reconciliation blog. Kelly asked me to create this to formalise the debate and conversation around the Journeys of Reconciliation project, and to provide a forum for it.

I've sent invitations to each of the people involved in the project, to become an author of the blog. Hopefully this will allow us to throw ourselves into this blog the way many of us have thrown ourselve into Facebook.*

The only request I have is that everyone uses the "labels" field when posting. That will allow us to sort the posts by content and easily find posts on a specific topic or issue.

Happy Blogging!

*I will be maintaining admin privileges only so as to censor Jasmine when she attempts to suggest that Myspace is superior to Facebook.