Annunciations

Today was like a series of days packed into one…. It began by realizing I’d set my alarm for when I needed to leave and not when I needed to get there. That made the morning slightly more stressful. But since I worked ‘til 7:30pm, just got home, and am exausted I can already tell today’s entry is going to just hit highlights which will probably be a relief to you…

Secretary Rice held a townhall mtg today for State Dept employees. It was an interesting effort to make herself accessible to all levels of the Dept by giving a speech about the importance of State’s work and then opening it up to questions. I didn’t have any good questions to ask but it was interesting to watch. I was curious as to how it would go…given that a lot of State is pretty hostile toward her. Actually, I think a lot of Americans are hostile toward anyone who achieves success and a higher pay grade than they do… and this directly contradicts the traditional American work ethic I’m reading about in this book I’m working on … Who are We? By Sam Huntington…it’s about America’s identity…. But anyways, I’m trying to figure out what’s changing...that the idea of taking pride in a small job that’s part of an important system is scoffed at ….and I’ll probably figure it out more later in the book. But anyways, I figured after Boxer (resisted alliteration urge) was so hostile to Dr Rice, she could handle the worst employees could throw at her! It also helps that people are more rude under their breaths than outloud since she is their boss technically. The lady behind cracked “why do we have to pay for water?” and it’s true, there is a system where you pay for a water cooler if you want one in your office. On the other hand, if you didn’t pay for it you wouldn’t conserve it so… it makes sense to me. But anyways, ppl were making fun of the fact she was trying to emphasis the importance of everyone’s jobs and the truth is they don’t think their jobs are important and that’s why they laugh at that idea. Others were pretty impressed the Secretary opened herself up like that. The highlight to me was when some old guy goes up and starts announcing he wants the Secretary to be informed about this nuclear power plant science development and the debate on where to locate it in China or wherever the EU picks… rambling on and on… until she sweetly interrupted him and proceeded to explain the details of the decision and how the Bush admin had favored Japan (not China) over the EU’s location and why and blah blah blah, while the guy stood there with his mouth hanging open at her knowledge of what he had considered his little “project” for 17 yrs. He said, “Well, I am impressed and please you know so much about this project!” It was funny how she put him in his place. Lots of the employees tend to assume she knows nothing about foreign policy since she’s the “outsider” but of course its insane to assume she’s in the dark since she’s been directing policy every bit as much as the Sec of State for the past 4 yrs… funny anyways…
This afternoon started really slow… like 2-4pm is SO slow…I have research to do but nothing pending or urgent so it’s hard to stay awake. Then right before I was going to leave, we have sudden major policy change which we need to do a ton of research to back up… it’s a good thing…looks like we’re going to get to sanction for religious persecution Saudi Arabia afterall despite their assistance in counterterrorism… but the last minute work kept me late and means I need to be working from home right now, but can’t cause the internet connection is down as usual…frustrating.
Ok, that’s all for tonight cause I can’t put thoughts together.
-marc/#2/marco/Martha/me

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