Rest assured, there's a special place in heaven for anyone who speaks truth to power. — Madeleine Al
I would like some day to meet Madeleine. the beginning of the article is good also. Some members of the college wrote a protest letter --they did not want her to speak. But it is interesting to know that some of the protesting faculty attended the speech even though they did not march in the procession. They behaved like adults--not yelling, interrupting, calling her a B**h or whatever.
Facing a tough crowd, Madeleine Albright urges Scripps graduates 'to start discussions, not to end them'
Madeleine Albright
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright drew harsh criticism from some at Scripps College when her selection as commencement speaker was first announced. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
Louis Sahagun Contact Reporter
Madeleine Albright is used to tough crowds. As the first woman to serve as U.S. secretary of State, she traveled almost 1 million miles to contain the world's dictators, hammer out nuclear proliferation agreements and mediate peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
On Saturday, Albright had this to say to the 2016 graduating class of Scripps College in Claremont, where students and professors had called her a "war criminal" and took umbrage at her suggestion that "there's a special place in hell" for women who don't support Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign:
"We should use our opinions to start discussions, not to end them."
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"We are not going to have the kind of cooperation we need if anyone insists on their own version of reality," she said. "To me, this is the great divide in the world today — not between liberal and conservative, rich and poor, or between any one race or creed and all the others. It is between people who have the courage to listen and those who are convinced that they already know it all."
Rest assured, there's a special place in heaven for anyone who speaks truth to power. — Madeleine Albright
In an allusion to her comments about the Clinton campaign, she smiled and said, "Rest assured, there's a special place in heaven for anyone who speaks truth to power."
Albright's 20-minute speech received boisterous applause, whistles and a standing ovation.
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Twenty-eight Scripps professors joined their protest, pledging not to participate in the official commencement procession. In an open letter, they cited Albright's role during the Clinton administration at a time when U.S.-led sanctions were blamed for the deaths of Iraqi children and the United Nations failed to stop the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people in Rwanda in 1994.
Albright had been invited to speak at the graduation by leaders of the Scripps senior class. Jennie Xu, a co-president, said she felt it was quite an achievement to book Albright, who some regard as the epitome of a feminist role model.
Albright and her family fled Adolph Hitler as he pushed into Czechoslovakia during World War II. Like the Scripps students, she attended an all-women college.
Years later, as secretary of State and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, she made women's issues central to foreign policy.
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Speaking from the dais, Albright said she had met "with members of the Scripps community who were concerned their views were not being represented at this ceremony."
She said she told them that the purpose of her speech was not to "defend a particular policy, but to talk about the importance of hearing from — and actually listening to — all perspectives."
"This afternoon," she said, "I am not suggesting that any of you — graduates, students, alumnae or friends — cast aside your own opinions or downgrade the value of your perspectives on life.
"I ask only that you make a real effort to keep learning more. And learning, by definition, means exploring areas of existence and opinion with which you are not already familiar."
About a dozen professors who had skipped the procession sat together in a back row, their regalia left at home. When Albright was finished speaking, they clapped politely.
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