AN EVENING WITH MADELEINE ALBRIGHT
When Saddam Hussein called her "an unparalleled serpent," Madeleine Albright--then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations--wore a pin in the form of a snake to the UN General Assembly the next day. She enjoyed the joke so much that she bought lots of costume jewelry and began wearing her signature pins to reflect her mood. Read My Pins is the title of the former Secretary of State's new book. Each person who attended her talk at the McCall Middle School on October 2nd received a copy.
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The Snake Pin |
The McCall auditorium was filled to capacity for this event, made possible by Connect and Commit and The Winchester Community Service Foundation. Secretary Albright was greeted with a standing ovation. She made brief remarks before being joined by moderator Liz Walker. Albright answered questions posed by Walker and then took questions from the audience ranging from global warming to Afghanistan. She answered thoughtfully and sometimes humorously.
Albright, the first woman to be appointed Secretary of State, now lectures at Georgetown University on foreign relations. Her hope is to make foreign policy less foreign. She wants to put policy into language that will make people--especially young people--understand that it has a direct effect on our lives. When asked by one college student what advice she could give to women who want careers in government, Albright responded, "Listen actively and learn to interrupt."
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Michael Litchfield and Brenda Johnson |
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Martha Finger and Ceci Bradlee |
Secretary Albright outlined what she named the five umbrella issues facing the
U. S. today: dealing with terrorists without creating more of them; stopping the spread of nuclear weapons; lessening the gap between the rich and the poor; addressing the environment, energy, food, and disease; and supporting democracy, which she called a process, not an event.
Albright praised both Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and President Barack Obama, saying that they have returned the promise of America abroad. She regrets the current rise of partisanship, reminding us that "nothing is accomplished by people screaming at each other."
Her collection of pins now includes doves, flags, flowers, and a piece made from fragments of the Berlin wall. The pins vary from flea market trinkets to precious jewels; they are gifts from friends and from world leaders, but each one tells a story from Albright's career as a diplomat, a career that has helped pave the way for other women to hold leadership positions on the world stage.
