All of us are products of our times. And all of us have the power to shape our times for the better.
Which is why …
All of us are products of our times. And all of us have the power to shape our times for the better. Which is why in the four weeks since I received a call I had been dreading, telling me that my one-time boss, longtime colleague, wise teacher and beloved friend Madeleine Albright had died of cancer at 84 – four weeks that have seen Vladimir Putin continue to pummel democratic Ukraine with bombs and missiles, four weeks that have seen the Ukrainian people continuing their brave resistance and the United States and our allies and partners continuing to rally behind Ukraine – one thought has looped over and over in my mind. Madeleine Korbel Albright epitomized the transatlantic alliance. Her personal life echoed the alliance’s painful history and many of its earliest growing pains. Her professional life was dedicated to the alliance’s highest ideals – including democracy, freedom of expression and human rights. And now that she is gone (her funeral is Wednesday), it is up to all of us to carry forward her legacy and continue strengthening the alliance so it can stand up to new challenges and threats, including the resurgence of autocrats, dictators and repressive strongmen. Secretary Albright’s biography is well-known, but it bears repeating. Born in Prague, her family fled the Nazis to shelter in London, riding out the Blitz in basement shelters and Tube stations. They returned home after the war, only to be forced to flee again when the communists came to power. The Korbels became refugees, boarding the S.S. America, landing at Ellis Island. She became an American citizen in 1957, an event she described as the most important of her life. Decades later, on the eve of her confirmation as the first woman to serve as secretary of State, she learned another facet of her family’s history that her parents had kept secret all their lives. Even though she was raised Catholic, her entire family was of Jewish heritage. Three of her grandparents and many other relatives were murdered in the Holocaust. This, too, was part of her transatlantic story. Secretary Albright often called the United States the “indispensable nation” in world affairs.
