Richmond, VA -- American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia Executive Director Claire G. Gastañaga had this response to the death of Nelson Mandela:
“Nelson Mandela’s life and legacy provide a powerful testament to the triumph of love over hate, generosity over malevolence and courage over fear. As he said, 'courage [is] not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.' Let us all commit in President Mandela’s memory to wage our own fight to triumph over the fear that keeps us from confronting prejudice and indifference wherever either threatens our basic rights, our liberty or the fundamental dignity we owe each other regardless of who we are or where we come from.”