Listening to Madeliene Albright
I heard a fascinating broadcast on NPR tonight. Recorded on January 25, Madeliene Albright was addressing the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. The title of her speech was "Restoring America's Reputation and Leadership". It was the most concise and enlightening summary of the current state of American foreign policy I've heard.
I try to follow the news, but I have to admit that I often find it difficult. I'm either daunted by the sheer amount of information available or I'm disgusted by the way that information is disseminated. I'm not a political scientist and foreign policy isn't my hobby, but I want to understand what's going on in the world. I get frustrated sometimes because I feel like I should have a better grasp of world events. I know the raw information is out there, but how do I piece it together into something coherent? I don't want my information filtered through the polemic and agendas of pundits, but I also want a deeper understanding of the bare facts.
Albright's speech did more to school me on several major issues than just about anything I've heard, seen, or read over the past several months. She's recently written a book entitled "Memo to the President-Elect", and I assume her speech was an abstract of that book. She covered the most important and difficult issues that the next POTUS will face, and in doing so shed a lot of light on the failures of the current administration. She discussed globalization and foreign policy in ways that I could easily grasp, but she didn't water or dumb it down in any way.
I think that because she teaches at Georgetown she has an excellent grasp of how to TEACH. It wasn't a lecture so much as an education. I won't try to summarize or even quote from it, because the entire thing is too dense and well-worded to pick apart. The Q&A is amazing.
The speech is here if you'd like to listen to it (fifth from the top). I can't recommend it highly enough for anyone who, like myself, wants to know what's going on with American foreign policy but is a little foggy in some key areas. There isn't a transcript available yet, but I got a lot more out of listening to it than I would have by reading it.
The woman who introduced Albright spoke for me when she said that she'd write in Albright on the ballot. After listening and re-listening to this speech I'm tempted to do so myself.
I try to follow the news, but I have to admit that I often find it difficult. I'm either daunted by the sheer amount of information available or I'm disgusted by the way that information is disseminated. I'm not a political scientist and foreign policy isn't my hobby, but I want to understand what's going on in the world. I get frustrated sometimes because I feel like I should have a better grasp of world events. I know the raw information is out there, but how do I piece it together into something coherent? I don't want my information filtered through the polemic and agendas of pundits, but I also want a deeper understanding of the bare facts.
Albright's speech did more to school me on several major issues than just about anything I've heard, seen, or read over the past several months. She's recently written a book entitled "Memo to the President-Elect", and I assume her speech was an abstract of that book. She covered the most important and difficult issues that the next POTUS will face, and in doing so shed a lot of light on the failures of the current administration. She discussed globalization and foreign policy in ways that I could easily grasp, but she didn't water or dumb it down in any way.
I think that because she teaches at Georgetown she has an excellent grasp of how to TEACH. It wasn't a lecture so much as an education. I won't try to summarize or even quote from it, because the entire thing is too dense and well-worded to pick apart. The Q&A is amazing.
The speech is here if you'd like to listen to it (fifth from the top). I can't recommend it highly enough for anyone who, like myself, wants to know what's going on with American foreign policy but is a little foggy in some key areas. There isn't a transcript available yet, but I got a lot more out of listening to it than I would have by reading it.
The woman who introduced Albright spoke for me when she said that she'd write in Albright on the ballot. After listening and re-listening to this speech I'm tempted to do so myself.