In looking for inspiration, does one need to look any further than Condoleezza Rice? I had read a tidbit recently in an unrelated article that Laura Bush had beseeched Rice to run for president in 2008. She could not be persuaded.
Who is Condi Rice exactly? I was aware that she was Secretary of State during very difficult times…war declaration times. She always struck me as an exotic bird. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Obama is the exotic bird; she’s as homegrown as it gets. She is the Real Deal.
Her story is spellbinding. She rose from the battlefield of segregated Birmingham, Alabama during the violent chaos of the 1960s Civil Rights protests to one of the highest offices in the land. And she could have made a hell of a run for the highest and in my opinion, won it.
She comes from a family of sharecroppers. She lost a childhood friend in a church bombing a few blocks from her own church. The only child of a school teacher and a reverend, she began playing piano at 3. She is firmly against gun control, explaining that her father would not have been able to defend her and her mother, inside the house, from the Ku Klux Klan nightriders, as he stood on the porch with his gun.
According to my son’s history textbook, she entered college at 15, eyes set on becoming a concert pianist. She became fascinated with the Soviet Union, and earned her first degree in political science at 19. She earned admission in Phi Beta Kappa, went on to earn a Master’s and PhD. Another side note: she was an Alpha Chi Omega…a “white” sorority. This woman SMASHED through social barriers. One very small, determined girl.
The list of professional accomplishments is long and impressive. One private project caught my eye – she founded a youth program to increase graduation rates.
Many presidents have relied on her advice in foreign policy. She restructured the entire state department to reflect her goal of “Transformational Diplomacy.” If we’re going to argue over who gets credit for the recent democratic uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt (and now Libya, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Iran…), I say throw her name in the ring, too! We are witnessing transformation, people.
Dr. Rice, as National Security Advisor, was nicknamed the “Warrior Princess” long before she was appointed Secretary of State.
Soooo, wouldn’t a black community be extremely proud of this American? Not so much. The black press has skewered her, calling her offensive, useless, cold, distant, black-by-accident, a black tyrant. So stoopid. How can you claim someone, who lost a friend as a child when her church was bombed by hate-filled white racists, as only black “by accident”?
How does a Warrior Princess respond to this? She said, “The fact of the matter is I’ve been black all my life. Nobody needs to tell me how to be black.”
I believe Dr. Rice was uniquely prepared by her life for the job she held.
A young Condi and her mother.
This woman should have her own Action Hero doll. Wait, she already does! Look at her fight stereotyping with one hand behind her back! Now she’s throwing the old villain Affirmative Action out on its ear! There she is staring racism down from both whites and blacks! This is a person boys and girls of all ages can admire.
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