Letters to the Editor
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Another personal note
Ah, Dr. Condoleezza Rice. I remember her well from my Stanford undergraduate days. Dr. Rice was Stanford’s Provost and dealt with the aftermath of Former University President Donald Kennedy’s indirect cost controversy. To put it succinctly, Dr. Rice was charged with eliminating $18 million dollars from the university budget over a 3-year period. She accomplished this feat by cutting funding to many minority programs which coupled with her political leanings earned her the distrust and disgust of the undergraduate community especially the black community.
During this time, I was taking a leadership course at Stanford and one of our assignments was to interview a community leader. I, in my naivete, announced that I was going to interview Dr. Rice. Yes, I was really that arrogant back then to think that I could just command an audience with the likes of Dr. Rice. Well, to everyone else’s surprise I did get my interview albeit under false pretenses but we won’t go into that in this forum. Anyway, Dr. Rice was pleasantly professional in her handling of my softball interview questions. She talked about her love of ice-skating (who knew) which she reluctantly gave up when it became clear to her that she would not be a top tier professional ice skater. She talked about her love of music just like the article mentioned. And it was all so pleasant and yet calculating in a creepy sort of way. I felt like she was sizing me up but for what exactly I did not know.
Years later, I literally ran into Condi at the Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park. She was on the board and I was the Grants and IT Administrator at the time. I didn’t know that she was on the board when I applied for the job nor did I dare list her as a reference. But now that I think about it I always wondered how I got that job right out of school.
Dr. Rice has an intense personal drive that transcends her gender and race. As someone with a similar background (poor black kid from racist Louisiana) and a similar drive to succeed, I can’t say that I am surprised at what has transpired within the Bush administration. Just like her earlier days at Stanford, if you have a “dirty” job that needs to get done, Condi is definitely your go to person in that respect.
P.S.
Condi, if you get wind of this letter from one of your underlings, please don’t take it the wrong way. I don’t want to end up in Gitmo! j/k :)