Last week Thursday, the editors of Next Ten Words attended a gala held in advance of the new Holocaust Museum and Educational Center in Skokie. Over 2,500 people were there, including several notable VIP’s. Besides the men and women who have worked so hard to get the museum up and running, Governor Pat Quinn and Former Secretary of State General Colin Powell (retired) served as keynote speakers, with long-time news anchor and Chicago media presence Bill Kurtis MC’ing the evening.
Pat Quinn spoke first. His remarks were generally unmemorable, pretty much exactly what one would expect for such an occasion. Much more significant, however, was what happened when we went up to shake the Governor’s hand after the event.
Ahead of us in the line to meet the governor was a young businessman bending the Governor’s ear about a new start-up he had that dealt with fuel efficiency for cars. The Governor didn’t seem particularly eager to talk shop, so he gave the man his card, and asked the eager businessman to contact his office. When he pulled out the card, I noticed it read, “Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn” Without any comment or joke, Governor Quinn pulled a pen from his other pocket and scratched out the “Lieutenant.” Our reaction went something like this:
How awesome is this?
How thrifty is Pat Quinn? He’s governor of the 5th largest state in the Union, and he hasn’t ordered new business cards. Seeing as our state has a massive budget deficit, I approve.
Also speaking that night was Former Secretary of State General Colin Powell (Next Ten Words spent probably an unnecessary amount of time trying to decide whether he would prefer the title “Secretary” or “General.” He chose to be introduced as “General”). Before addressing the weightier sections of his speech, I’d like to briefly note that General Powell showed some skills he has rarely displayed in public. Namely, that man can bring the Yiddish. Apparently, he spent several summers working for a Jewish toy-store owner in Brooklyn who taught him Yiddish so the young Mr Powell could listen in on customers’ conversations to determine how much money could be gotten off each patron. If ever there was a man comfortable with anybody, of any race or ethnicity, it was Colin Powell.
The meat of his speech, though, centered on the story of his endorsement of Barack Obama, both what led him to that moment and the conditions under which he gave that fateful interview. Instead of picking a specific quote, here’s the video of the endorsement:
In his speech, General Powell said that he only came on Meet The Press when Tom Brokaw agreed to one condition: there be no interruptions. This request is monumentally important, particularly given the nature of this blog. Rarely do we hear our national leaders speak, on broadcast television, in sentences longer than 10 seconds. Colin Powell spoke for over 7 minutes that day. He said things that needed to be said, but hadn’t yet, not by men of his stature. The message of Powell’s speech last week was simple, and this blog wholly endorses it: a nation cannot be governed by sound bytes, whether 10 seconds or 10 words.
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