Condi's Childhood

I am a big admirer of Condi Rice, not just for her success as Secretary of State, but because she made it despite the obstacles of growing up as an African American in the South. But rather than wasting their time whining and despairing over their victimhood as minorities, Condi’s parents took action to ensure that their child would succeed. In Dick Morris’s book, a href=”http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?link_code=as2path=ASIN/0060839139tag=wwwviolentkicomcamp=1789creative=9325″emCondi vs. Hillary : The Next Great Presidential Race/em,/aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=0060839139″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” /Morris decribes Condi’s childhood and shows us why she could be a great president. br /br /Not long after Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat but prior to President Johnson signing the 1964 Civil Rights Act into law, Condi’s mother showed her daughter how to stand up to racism. While shopping as a young girl with her mother at a local department store, an employee told them that they could not use the “whites only” dressing room and would have to try on their clothes in the back storage closet. Condi’s mother refused and the employee relented and let them use the dressing room, all the while worrying that she would lose her job for doing so. On another trip, a white saleswomen told seven-year-old Condi to get her hands off a hat–her mother encouraged her to touch every hat in the store. Condi’s lesson–people can tell you what to do but you don’t have to listen. br /br /After the a href=”http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/randall/birmingham.htm”1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing /awhich took the lives of four little girls–two of whom Condi knew personally–Condi learned that Birmingham was not a safe place. She also learned how brave her father was when he armed himself with a shotgun and joined other men in the black community in night patrols to keep the Ku Klux Klan out of their neighborhood. But rather than let fear overtake her and make her feel like a victim, she instead learned an important lesson–the value of the Second Amendment guarantee of the “right to bear arms”. br /br /Morris’s book points out that Condi was “entirely focused on individual self-improvement. She never ran for any office in school and remained separate and apart, a prodigy who mastered every manner of musical instrument. …The Rice family did not need a hand out or a hand up. Condi would move ahead on her own.”br /br /I think this independence is what liberals hate about Condi Rice. She represents a woman who does not need them or their slogan of victimhood. This drives them crazy–so much so that they even look past her fairly moderate stance on abortion and the fact that she is an African American female who would make an amazing president.