Keynote by the Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton - 2014 New America Conference

Transcript

MRS. CLINTON: (Applause.) Well, I’m delighted to be here, and I want to thank Eric for the very kind words, but also for his generous contributions to this institution as well as everything that he does to support innovation and growth in our country. And I want to thank my friend and former colleague, Anne-Marie Slaughter. I am deeply grateful for all of her contributions, her intellectual fire power at the State Department. She helped us put smart power into practice, including through her leadership of the first-ever comprehensive review of the State Department (inaudible) called the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, which provided a blueprint for 21st century statecraft. She’s now bringing that same imaginative, disciplined leadership to the New America Foundation. And a focus on big ideas, on the intersection of policy and technology, is exactly where she has been and where this extraordinary foundation is headed.

I think New America is becoming an even more exciting and indispensable fixture in the policy landscape, so I’m delighted to be here in the midst of a conference whose program I read and admired, and I think it’s a great way to bring together people who are also thinking big, but doing so with their feet firmly planted in the reality of the times in which we are living.

Speaking of times, this is a particularly special one for me and my husband. We are still reveling in the fact that we’re going to become grandparents, and I’ve already learned that when you’re about to become a parent for the first time, you can be a little terrified at the prospect and the responsibility. But becoming a grandparent for the first time? Nothing buy joy and excitement. (Laughter.) Very little responsibility, so I’m especially looking forward to that. My only regret is that my late mother won’t be here to meet her great-grandchild. She would have been over the moon and filled with good advice, not only for the parents but for the grandparents.

I’ve been thinking a lot about her lately because Mother’s Day always prompts those memories. They bring a fresh reminder of how much she gave to me and my brothers and so many others, and her commitment to social justice, which helped to mold and inspire me when I was growing up. I think about the obstacles she overcame in what was a very difficult life. By the age of 14, she was off on her own, working as a housekeeper and nanny. Thankfully, the woman who hired her allowed her to take time during the middle of the day to try to complete high school. And she always talked about the kindness that certain people showed to her during the course of what was a very difficult childhood that gave her the confidence to keep going forward, that really derived from a community that was caring and willing to support the weakest and the most marginalized among them.



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