nbc13.com - News - Rice Remarks On Birmingham Upbringing In Confirmation Hearing
"Although her nomination to the position is practically assured, Rice underwent hours of sometimes fierce questioning from both Republican and Democratic senators regarding the U.S. situation in Iraq.
In her opening statement, Rice remarked on her formative years spent in Birmingham. She grew up in what she called “the old Birmingham of Bull Connor, church bombings and voter intimidation.” But she also spoke proudly of her parents and their efforts to raise her during segregation.
"They refused to allow the limits and injustices of their time to limit our horizons. My friends and I were raised to believe that we could do or become anything, that the only limits to our aspirations came from within. We were taught not to listen to those who said to us, ‘No, you can't,’” said Rice.
"The story of Birmingham parents and teachers and children is a story of the triumph of universal values over adversity, and those values -- a belief in democracy, and liberty, and the dignity of every life, and rights of every individuals -- united Americans of all backgrounds, all faiths and all colors," said Rice.
Rice, who spent her first 11 years in Birmingham, got her start at the Hill Elementary School, and she made quite an impression on her former principal, Parnell Jones Jr.
“I never realized and thought some day I'd be sitting here and remembering her as I'm remembering her,” said Jones, 87.
He recalls her wanting more than just to excel in class, and he gave her a job in the school office as his second secretary.
“All you had to do was tell her what you wanted done,” said Jones. “Sometimes, my secretary would say, ‘Condoleezza, take this up to so and so's room,’ … there she'd go, just like that,” said Jones.
The most heated exchange of the day came with the questioning by Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, who accused Rice and the administration of misleading the American people regarding the rationale for going to war.
Rice responded by saying that she does not take the truth lightly and that she would appreciate it if Boxer refrained from impugning her integrity.
When asked about the situation in Iraq, Rice said she was reluctant to fit a time table on the military situation in that country."
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Aren't Condoleeza Rice and Colin Powell the whitest black folk in the country. "Condi" is so Uncle Tomish...and so much like Aunt Jemima..she should have shown up with a bandana wrapped around her head, protesting she "Don't know nothing about birthin' no babies."
Condi is the lap dog and token "two fer" (i.e. a BAF or "black AND female") of King George the Cowardly.
From her history, she is more adept at speaking Russian than Ebonics...
What a waste this is...sad...just sad!