What a Country

Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice signs official papers Friday, Jan. 28, 2005, after receiving the oath of office during her ceremonial swearing in at the Department of State. Watching on are, from left, Laura Bush, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, President George W. Bush and an unidentified family member.

A black Secretary of State, sworn in by a Jewish Supreme Court Justice — both women — appointed by former governors of Arkansas and Texas, witnessed by the appointee’s relatives from Alabama, where they had grown up in a segregated society, a few generations removed from slavery.

Condoleezza Rice gave a gracious and eloquent speech after the swearing in:

I want to thank the members of my family and my friends who are here — a number are here from Birmingham, Alabama, and they represent generations of Rices and Rays, who believed that a day like this might somehow be possible. . . .

Standing for the cause of liberty is as old as our country itself. Indeed, it was our very first Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, who said, "The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."

America‘s story is the story of men and women ceaselessly striving to ensure that we as a nation live up to the ideals set forth by our forefathers. Our founders realized that they, like all human beings, were flawed creatures, and that any government created by man would not be perfect. Even the great authors of our liberty sometimes fell short of their ideals — even Thomas Jefferson, himself.

Yet, our forebears established a democratic system of, by and for the people that contained within it the means for citizens and — of conviction and of courage to correct its flaws.

The enduring principles enshrined in our Constitution made it possible for impatient patriots — like Frederick Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King — to move us ever closer to our founding ideals.