Creighton welcomed former Secretaries of State, Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell on Tuesday. The highly anticipated event nearly filled DJ Sokol Arena, as CNN anchor Suzanne Malveaux questioned the former secretaries.
Before diving into the fields of international relations and domestic politics, Albright and Powell both commented on the recent tragedies in Pittsburgh, Kentucky and the pipe bombs sent to numerous high level politicians.
Powell condemned President’s trump’s response, saying. “It greatly troubles me that we have statements like ‘a free press are the enemy of the people.’
Albright and Powell both commented on the current state of American politics, through the lens of their own experience.
Albright, who served as Secretary of State and U.N. Ambassador in the Clinton administration, spoke candidly about the dangers of “turning inward.”
She joked, “Americans don’t like the word multilateralism because it has too many syllables and ends in an ‘ism’.”
Albright more seriously noted, “People look to us for leadership, and we are going backward.”
Powell also warned of the dangers of a world without American leadership, and did not censure his discomfort with the current administration, saying, “we do not have a functioning Congress.”
Powell has a distinguished military career and served as secretary of state, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and national security advisor.
Emily McGuire, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said, “I think hearing personal stories and experiences from leaders in specific fields helps students understand complex topics as well as expands their world view.”
Both speakers discussed their unique positions: Albright as a woman and a refugee, and Powell as an Afro-Caribbean son of immigrants.
Telling a story of giving naturalization certificates during her service to the Department of State, Albright recalled overhearing a refugee saying that he couldn’t believe, that he, a refugee, received his naturalization from the Secretary of State. She said to him, “Can you believe a refugee is Secretary of State?”
Caleb Sebora, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences noted this theme of respect, saying, “The most interesting part of both Albright’s and Powell’s remarks was their emphasis on respect that seem to run throughout the entire program. How important it is to respect any person based on who they are as a person, not any externalities of a person like skin color or religion.”
Albright and Powell both concluded with hope that their legacies spread peace and democracy, and that they have hope in the youngest generation, in students, to handle any problems the world may face.
This lecture is the last in the Creighton 140 series; past speakers included Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and Dominican poet Julia Alvarez.