Terry, your words to your mother bring a lump to my throat. Beautifully written and a great testament to that role of mother. Amazing how poignant those memories are and fantastic that you have documented them.
Sam I read your words with great interest. I was not in the country after 1970 and the decision to leave then was a combination of despair at the realities of apartheid and the naive belief that Israel was the place that I could live without that guilt. Israel in the ?70s still had the moral upper hand ? idealism post ?67 but that did not last long. Making a decision as to how one makes a difference wherever one lives is really difficult. On returning from Israel when we got married we also decided no servants as we could not afford to pay them decent wages and did not want those relationships. Always believed that the relationships were artificial and immoral and we never employed someone in that role until our son was born and we could do it differently. And the decision to stay or go has plagued us always. Mark always believed that he could make a difference in his work and has truly had amazing relationships with students over the years. It has been interesting to track the changes at Wits and of course the media is an unreliable chronicle of real events. And I say this with an insider?s view of how they do this. However Wits graduations today are uplifting in ways you will not believe. The ratio of students has changed incredibly in both Humanities and the Sciences and whereas graduations were once these staid boring affairs full of decorum, today whole families attend and ululate when their kids get the nod. It is wonderful. I have been at prize-giving dinners with Mark where parents of outstanding black students have attended, and they are people who did not have the privilege of an education and seeing the pride and joy is moving beyond belief. I imagine it is not unlike our grandparents or great grandparents, all victims of pogroms etc seeing our parents make good. And of course SA is full of problems that are unique probably. And often the explanation is that they are a legacy of the previous regime. That is beginning to wear thin. So the alternative explanations are even more depressing. But I have always tried to make personal choices based on what is right and the relationships I have and work that I do have been informed by that.
Will continue this later as Mark now wants to read today?s papers online and we share this computer.