Secretary of State John Kerry and five former Secretaries of State - Henry Kissinger, James Baker, Madeline Albright, Colin Powell, and Hilary Clinton - spoke at the U.S. Diplomacy Center groundbreaking ceremony this afternoon. Our FSO orientation class was invited to attend, and comprised 85 of the 250 attendees present. We were delighted to be included.
Each Secretary spoke for a few minutes, and I was particularly struck by Secretary Powell's comments. Basically, he said that while Washington, DC boasts many monuments dedicated to military services (the Viet Nam War Memorial, the Korean Memorial, World War II, etc.), there is not a monument to those Foreign Service Officers who gave their lives while serving America abroad (there are over 200), nor is there a place dedicated to telling the story of the Diplomatic Corps. The U.S. Diplomacy Center will serve this purpose.
My classmates and I were a little starstruck, given the status of the speakers. We're all a little geeky and the Secretaries of State are the equivalent of rock stars in our world. Of course we shamelessly snapped photos with our phones.
And here's a little random addition to this post that has nothing to do with the Diplomacy Center:
Last week while searching for a place to sit at lunch, a classmate and I walked outside to the courtyard at the Main State building. All the tables were occupied, unfortunately, but we spied a table that only had one person sitting at it. We approached the man sitting there and asked if he'd mind if we joined him. He said no, and we sat down. Small talk ensued.
"Do you work here?" we asked. We ask this question of everyone, assuming that they're an FSO who might have interesting stories from the field, or insightful advice that we couldn't get anywhere else.
Last week while searching for a place to sit at lunch, a classmate and I walked outside to the courtyard at the Main State building. All the tables were occupied, unfortunately, but we spied a table that only had one person sitting at it. We approached the man sitting there and asked if he'd mind if we joined him. He said no, and we sat down. Small talk ensued.
"Do you work here?" we asked. We ask this question of everyone, assuming that they're an FSO who might have interesting stories from the field, or insightful advice that we couldn't get anywhere else.
"No," the man replied. "I'm a reporter."
We hesitated, not knowing exactly what to talk with him about.
"Which paper do you work for?" I asked.
"Not a paper. I work for Fox News."
Aha. A television reporter.
Turns out, we had lunch with James Rosen, who was quite a hot topic a few years ago. Rosen was the subject of an investigation, a pretty aggressive one in fact, conducted by the Department of Justice. Some believe the DOJ went too far, using intimidation tactics to squelch Rosen's free speech. The reason that some were on Rosen's side is that if investigative reporters are prevented from digging too deep (the DOJ was trying to intimidate Rosen by conducting their own investigation), it limits the media's role as a "watchdog."
It just goes to show, you never know who you're going to see from one day to the next in this job!
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