Consul General Speeches

Remarks at the Rotary Club International of Amsterdam, Hilton Hotel, Amsterdam, January 29, 2007, 7:00 p.m.

When John Cowie asked me to give my personal statement a couple of months ago, I wondered what in my background or life experience might be interesting to the members of this Club.  And then I started to reflect on what my life has been like since I arrived in Amsterdam, and the path that led me to the Rotary Club International of Amsterdam. 
There are some strong connections between these two lines of thought. 
In order to illustrate them, I’d like to tell you about a story about a woman named Shirley Mosher. 
Born in 1916 in a small town in Maine – in the far north of the United States – she was the last of five children born to a city official in Boston and his wife.  The family’s life was solidly middle class, punctuated by times of great hardship.  For example, in her young teenage years – during the devastating Depression in the U.S., Shirley helped support her family by making and selling brown bread and baked beans with her sister out of the basement of the family home. 
She attended a rigorous, all-girls school in Boston and made the unusual decision to pursue a college degree, which her parents could not afford to finance.  Persevering, she was accepted as a scholarship student to a well-respected college called Wheaton.  She was determined to educate herself and defied the prevailing convention of the time that told young women that college was where you met your husband and refined yourself into a suitable wife and hostess. 
She studied chemistry, worked in the university’s dining hall to finance her education and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1938.  Soon afterwards, she married a doctor, and took care of her young daughter alone while her husband served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.   A second child followed after the war ended. 
The family moved to New York, where they would make their home for several succeeding decades.


When I came to really know Shirley, she was in her mid-fifties, and quite an imposing woman.  She was an excellent cook and masterful host – entertaining frequently – as her husband held public office and they had a wide circle of friends. 
I know she was quite satisfied to describe herself as “the wife of.”  And yet her life betrayed wider interests, and a stronger inner commitment to exploration and her own fulfillment than she would publicly admit.  She had a forceful intellect.  She was an active member of an important women’s organization called the League of Women Voters.  She volunteered tirelessly for the Salvation Army.  And she was very active in the World Affairs Council in her community, leading adult education classes on foreign affairs topics.   
A frequent visitor to her home, I was often present during these classes, and I remember listening to heated discussions in the 1970s about the Middle East conflict, or the developments on the road to independence in then-Rhodesia. 
Not only was I encouraged to listen in on these discussions, but I was taught to take an interest in current affairs.  At what were usually epic holiday meals, we would remain at table to discuss the public policy and health issues of the day.  I learned how to express my opinion and join the debates at an early age.  And for as long as I can remember, Shirley told me – through both word and deed – that I was capable of doing anything I wanted to, as long as I was willing to work for it.  She also impressed upon me the imperative to “give back” – that no matter how humble our situation, or difficult or fortunate our personal circumstances, we had a responsibility to serve others.  Over the years, her unfailing belief in me and her boundless encouragement were to shape my life.
Why this story?  Because it was almost eighty years ago when Shirley worked to support her family during the Depression, nearly seventy years ago when she put herself through school, and pursued a career in chemistry when all of her peers were married off.  And in the decades before it was either common or widely accepted for a woman to exhibit independence from her domestic circumstances, Shirley led a life devoted to public service and to active inquiry. 
She inspired me.  Thousands of pioneering women like Shirley Mosher laid the groundwork for women like me to pursue their dreams.  They are not as well known as the historical figures of the early international feminist movement, or the icons of American feminism, but brick by brick, they built the foundation for gender equality that few women in my generation take for granted.  Although I can honestly say that I have not experienced blatant discrimination during my career in the U.S. State Department, it was through the risks that previous generations of women took that the fundamental patriarchal social design of the United States was altered irrevocably.
Shirley Mosher was my grandmother, and as recently as a few weeks ago she was keeping up with my activities here in The Netherlands with keen interest.  She died on January 12.
 
Although I knew she would play a central role in my personal statement when John asked me, it is my presence here tonight that is my tribute to her.  Certainly, one of the main reasons I chose to join the Foreign Service of the United States was out of the sense of obligation she instilled in me to be of service.  And to approach life with an inquiring and adventurous spirit. 
 
Here, as elsewhere in my career, I have an opportunity to meet people from all walks of life.  My approach to each overseas assignment has been the same:  that each person can make a difference.  This may sound a little cliché or naïve, but I have seen it time and again.  A man with a commitment to wildlife preservation sets up a program to protect endangered sea turtles along the coast of Suriname, and convinces the communities on that coast that having a sustainable turtle population is in their interest more than eating the eggs.  A junior level police officer in Russia decides to fight in earnest against corruption, at great personal risk.  A young leader in the field of integration and social justice takes time out from his busy life in The Netherlands to attend a leadership program in the U.S. and returns with new enthusiasm and energy and an expansive new network – to help him in his daunting work.
Here, as the representative of the United States in Amsterdam and as a U.S. diplomat serving in The Netherlands, I have an opportunity to reach out to young people and try to share with them the value of seeking a broad range of experiences – and to perhaps make them aware of some opportunities that they might not have thought of.  Naturally, I will focus on exposing them to information about the United States, and encouraging them to consider studying or visiting my country.  But I will also be working to fashion a U.S. Consulate General that is more closely connected with its community – with the Americans we are here to serve, and with our hosts.  And to look for other ways to give back – to be an active participant in this organization, and to seek other opportunities to honor, through both word and deed, the memory of a very special woman.