SHRM Keynote Condoleezza Rice: United By A Creed
By: Timothy Sutton, Communications Editor
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was a keynote speaker at the 2012 Society for Human Resource Management Strategy Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Rice addressed the conference on the issue of immigration reform and the future of our nation. In her speech, Rice endorsed economically unbiased immigration reform: “It doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where you’re going. And that belief has led people to come here for generations from across the world, just to be a part of that. And frankly, it hasn’t mattered whether it was Sergei Brin whose parents brought him here at 7 years old from Russia and he founds Google, or the guy who came to make five dollars and fifty cents.
They are the same ambitious, risk taking people and America has been able to gather them and I do not know when immigrants became the enemy…But of course it is not just those who come here, but those who are here who happen to believe also that it doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters where you are going.”
Although she has stepped out of politics to teach at Stanford, Rice has been widely rumored as a front-runner for Mitt Romney’s presidential running mate. Her life story embodies the American Dream: “Americans are not united by blood or ethnicity or religion or nationality. We are united by a creed. You can come from humble circumstances and you can do great things. And if that’s ever not true, then this society will rip itself apart. And then, a little girl grows up in Birmingham, Alabama, where her parents can’t take her to the movie theater or restaurant or the hospital, where she won’t have a white classmate until her parents take her to Denver.
And yet even though she couldn’t have a hamburger at the Woolworth’s lunch counter, her parents had her convinced she could be the president of the United States if she wanted to be and she became the Secretary of State.
Sometimes, oftentimes, what seems impossible seems inevitable in retrospect. And on that basis, we will continue to repair and to lead, and the world will move more and more towards prosperity and dignity and freedom.”
Wrapping up her keynote to hundreds of HR professionals from around the nation, Rice reiterated her unwavering faith in America as a global leader saying, “So I remain optimistic about our future, and I believe that it will be led by the most generous and most compassionate nation on earth, and that country is called the United States of America.”
Recognizing the tremendous potential and opportunity of America is the first step to reinvigorating our economy and future. Despite the persistence of mass media’s doom-and-gloom economic outlook, there is unwavering hope within US immigrant populations. If your company employs or plans to employ, immigrant or foreign workers, contact us for more information on how to successfully build upon your workforce prosperity.
Tags: America's Promise, Comprehensive Immigration Reform, Condoleezza Rice, Congress, Immigration News, Immigration Reform, SHRM Keynote Speaker, Stanford University