Susan Rice addresses real world issues with Mount Vernon youngsters
“I”™ve been really lucky,” Susan Rice, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a former White House National Security adviser said about the presidents she had worked for when members of the Boys & Girls Club of Mount Vernon and others gathered for a virtual event Nov.16.
“They have all different styles of leadership but they”™re all smart and they all had good intentions. And, they”™re all trying to serve the country for the right reasons. Not because they”™re trying to get rich for themselves or set up their families or because they want power for themselves personally. They came to do things that they believed would be helpful to the American people,” Rice said about Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and President-Elect Joe Biden with whom she worked while he served as vice president.
“I never had to deal with somebody who was a bully in the role of the president, or somebody who was dishonest, or somebody whose motives were questionable,” Rice said during the online event without mentioning President Trump by name.
“I would not want to serve, quite honestly, under a president whose integrity I doubted or whose mind I thought was not strong enough to do the job and who wasn”™t there for the right reasons.”
Mel Campos, chief professional officer of the Boys & Girls Club of Mount Vernon explained that some youngsters were watching the event at the club and other guests were viewing at their own locations. He said that the club has been serving Mount Vernon for 108 years and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic has been providing virtual programming and limited in-person activities for the city”™s youth.
Rice answered questions prepared by students who are members of the club that covered her government service and referenced her recently published memoir “Tough Love: My Story of The Things Worth Fighting For.” The book includes her experiences as a youth that started her on the road to becoming a diplomat and White House official. Rice made autographed copies of the book available as a fundraiser for the club.
When asked about the major global issues she faced while in government service, Rice mentioned terrorist attacks, the rise of ISIS, aggressive action from Russia and China, the Ebola epidemic in West Africa that threatened to become a global pandemic and brokering peace agreements in various world hotspots. She said that she wrote in her book in 2019 that one of the issues short of nuclear war that gave her concern was the threat of a global pandemic.
Rice urged the youngsters to learn about current events and become involved in the local community.
“Education is everything. It”™s not the only thing but it really is important,” Rice said. “There are so many aspects to it. It”™s what you get in your early childhood, it”™s what you get in high school, what hopefully many of you will get in college.”
Rice herself had a stellar education, attending the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., a prep academy, followed by Stanford University. She was a Rhodes Scholar and did advanced studies at the University of Oxford in England.
“From my earliest entry into this business I was often one of the only women and almost always the only woman of color in any given meeting,” Rice said. “I had to draw on a lot of what I learned from my parents. The first thing was to always be as well prepared as I possibly could; do my homework and make sure I”™d done it very thoroughly so that when I was in a discussion or meeting or making a presentation I knew what I was going to say and I knew that I could say it persuasively and effectively.”
Rice told the youngsters that she learned from an early age that to succeed you needed to learn the skills to communicate effectively and write clearly and be a person who works well in teams.
“I faced obstacles. I faced people who wanted to keep me out or keep me down because I was a woman or because I was black, or both, sometimes because I was very young,” Rice said. “Sometimes they would just sort of be dismissive. Sometimes they would be outwardly hostile and condescending. What I had to learn was that I wasn”™t there to seek their permission or their approval. I was there to bring my best game every time I stepped into the room and I had to do that with competence.”
Rice urged the youngsters not to be deterred by people who will try to keep them down or be prejudiced against them because of who they are or what they look like or who they love or any number of other factors.
“You can”™t let other peoples”™ definition of you become your own,” Rice said. “Bigotry, prejudice, is most often a function of the bigot”™s own insecurity. They don”™t feel good about themselves and so in order for them to feel better about themselves they”™ve got to make somebody else feel badly. They”™ve got to feel better than the other person.”
Again, without using the name Trump, Rice directed her attention to the current administration.
“We”™ve had four years of the leadership of our country that has tried to put people down who look like us; who make us not just feel bad but face real-world obstacles that are more than we would otherwise have to face,” Rice said.
“He”™s tried to pit Americans against each other based on how they look and who they worship and where they came from and whether they”™re immigrants or recent immigrants or long-ago immigrants or never immigrants, came here on slave ships, and that is deeply wrong and we have just said ”˜no”™ to that. We have said ”˜no.”™ We”™re not going to continue to have leadership in the White House that is sowing hate and sowing division and propagating racism.”
Rice told the youngsters she knows President-elect Joe Biden very well and he is a good and decent man.
“He”™s not going to be able to wave a magic wand and make it perfect. He can”™t guarantee that Congress, particularly because we didn”™t have enough change in Congress, is going to implement all of the programs and changes that I know he wants to make, but it will be better,” Rice said.
“With time and progress and people like you becoming actively engaged and voting and running for office and demanding leadership that reflects your interests and your values it”™s going to get better and better over time.”