By Samantha Power
Samantha Power, Obama's ambassador to the UN in his 2nd term, brought crucial skills and relevant experience to her position. Born in Ireland, Sam was brought to the US by her mother at age 8, settling initially in Pittsburgh, then Atlanta for her high school years, along with Sam's brother and stepfather Eddie. Both parents are physicians and both supportive of Sam throughout her education and career. A basketball player and star student, Sam attended Yale, then took a few years to work as a journalist, especially in the war torn Balkans, an experience that would shape her career. She went on to Harvard Law School and accepted a teaching position at Harvard's Kennedy School, taking a year off to write a book on genocide in the 20th century, a thick tome that won a Pulitzer prize.
Power is never afraid to be honest, exposing her faults as well as her successes, whether her grief and disappointment over her beloved alcoholic father, her unintentional disparaging of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign, or a painful car accident by her motorcade driver that killed an African child during her campaign to fight Ebola. Working moms will be inspired by Sam's efforts to raise two young children while holding demanding positions, and while her husband was commuting to his teaching post at Harvard Law School - where Ani was among Dr Sunstein's students! There were big challenges at the UN, with consequences on the home front: the killings of an American ambassador and his staff in Bengazi, the Iran nuclear agreement, the Paris climate accord, the eradication of Ebola (thanks to a US led effort to bring funding and personnel to the most affected areas). Power notes that, while several Americans contracted Ebola while volunteering in Africa, there were only 2 transmissions within the US, and all persons recovered, despite dozens of tweets by citizen Trump to scare Americans to the contrary.
On one occasion, Power was invited to an embassy of a small African nation and learned she was the first ever American guest to set foot inside the 2-room mission. She then set out to invite every ambassador to her NY resident over the course of her term, becoming an especially close colleague of the Russian ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, with whom she frequently conferred on behalf of their two nations. She especially worked with her female ambassador colleagues to improve women's rights. How helpful to have an American ambassador who was selected not because she gave $2M to an election fund but because she had the skills and experience.
I listened to this story as an audiobook read by the author - she is dynamic and engaging in her narration.
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