Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.
Condoleezza RiceRead
It has been hard to muster the resources to support fledgling democracies and to intervene on behalf of the most desperate. The AIDS orphans in Uganda, the refugee fleeing Zimbabwe, the young woman who has been trafficked into the sex trade in Southeast Asia. It has been hard, yet this assistance together with the compassionate work of private charities, people of conscience and people of faith, has shown the soul of our country.
Interpretation
Despite challenges, assisting those in need reflects the true values of a nation.
In this quote, Condoleezza Rice highlights the difficulties faced in providing support to emerging democracies and vulnerable populations around the world. She acknowledges the struggles, yet emphasizes that the efforts to assist the oppressed, such as AIDS orphans and victims of trafficking, alongside the humanitarian work of private charities, demonstrate the moral integrity and compassion inherent in society, showcasing the essence of what it means to be a caring nation.
In practice
In a speech to encourage volunteer work, one can quote this to stress the importance of helping others.
Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same.
I think my father thought I might be president of the United States. I think he would've been satisfied with secretary of state. I'm a foreign policy person and to have a chance to serve my country as the nation's chief diplomat at a time of peril and consequence, that was enough.
What the United States has done is to be open to people who are fleeing tyranny, who are fleeing danger, but we have done it in a very careful way that has worked for us.
For the United States, supporting international development is more than just an expression of our compassion. It is a vital investment in the free, prosperous, and peaceful international order that fundamentally serves our national interest.
Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter.
Does anybody think these people were just sitting around drinking tea?
Good technique includes quick changes, great variety and speed. It may be a system of reversals much like a concept of God and the Devil. In the speed of events, which one is really in charge? Do they change places with lightning speed? The Chinese believe so. To put the heart of the martial arts in your own heart and have it be a part of you means total comprehension.
The volatile truth of our words should continually betray the inadequacy of the residual statement.
We live in a world that treats the dead better than the living. We, the living are askers of questions and givers of answers, and we have other grave defects unpardonable by a system that believes death, like money, improves people.
If you give your soul up to anything earthly, whether it be the wealth, or the honours, or the pleasures of this world, you might as well hunt after the mirage of the desert or try to collect the mists of the morning, or to store up for yourself the clouds of the sky, for all these things are passing away.
You have freedom when you're easy in your harness.
The present urgency is to begin thinking within the context of the whole planet, the integral earth community with all its human and other-than-human components.
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