John And Angelena Rice example essay topic

Condoleezza Rice At this point in time the name and image of Condoleezza Rice is commonplace among the majority of informed Americans. As the first female to serve as the National Security Advisor to the President of the United States, Dr. Rice was propelled even further into the spotlight following the attacks on America on September 11th 2001. I too, like most Americans, saw a lot more of Condi, as she is known by her many friends and colleagues, after September 11. Clearly she was intelligent and always remained calm and poised in the face of adversity and standing before the cameras.

I also noticed and appreciated her articulation and was even moved by what seemed like her stoic yet compassionate presentation. It was not until I read Dr. Rice's biography, Condi, by Antonia Felix, however that she gained my utmost respect. By the 21st century a black successful black female is not as uncommon as it was fifty years ago. Black women had fought their way to the top in many arenas, including political such as the U.S. Senate. What is truly amazing about Condi's story is speed and finesse with which she ascended to the top of everything she took on. An endearing friendship and mutual loyalty with both of the George Bushes surely did not hurt her.

Condi's success was hardly limited to the world of politics. She approached music, fitness, academics, sports, religion, and family with the same decisiveness, consistency, and determination that she brought to the public sector. Condi is also no stranger to controversy. Now more than ever she faces a host of critics, especially regarding her supposed knowledge of possible terrorist threats before they came to pass on September 11. Her Republican politics made her less than popular among African Americans although she maintains a more liberal perspective on social issues and remains pro-choice.

In spite of her ups and downs it is ultimately her unfaltering character to which she can attribute her success as well as her status as what many call the most powerful woman in politics. The high academic pursuits of the Rice family did not exactly begin with Condoleezza and her generation. The foundation of this idea can be seen in chapter 2 of her autobiography in which the author begins the chronological record with a look at Julia Head Rice. Julia was born into slavery, albeit house slavery which was held in higher regards than field slavery. House slaves worked directly side by side with their master's families and were generally more informed and privileged than field slaves.

Julia's ability to read and desire to better herself and her children served as a hallmark for the Rice family legacy. It was Julia's son John who became the first Rice to leave the farm and head and pursue a college career. Condi even discussed her "Granddaddy Rice" and his journey in 1918 to Stillman College in Alabama in her speech at the Republican National Convention. Upon the completion of his program at Stillman, John was ordained as a Presbyterian minister and according to Condi, the Rice's have been "Presbyterian and educated ever since".

John eventually reared his son John Wesley Rice, Condi's father, in the same manner. He too was educated and became an ordained minister like his father before him. Her mother Angelena Ray was raised in a similar fashion and excelled at playing the piano from an early age. Both Condi's maternal and paternal lineages found education to be the ultimate redemption in segregated Alabama in which the Jim Crowe laws sought to make all black citizens less than equal with their white counterparts. By the age of twenty-four John W. Rice had earned his master of divinity and was working as a minister as well as a teacher and coach in a local high school. His soon to be wife, Angelena, was also working, as a high school music teacher in a middle class suburb or Birmingham, Alabama.

John and Angelena were not the only members of their families to engulf themselves in academia as John's sister, Condi's Aunt, received a PhD in English literature and wrote a book on Charles Dickens in 1989. Condi has been known to boast, and deservedly so, that she does not know many people who can claim that their parents, grandparents, aunts, and unless were all college educated. One of the most profound quotes I found in the biography opened chapter 3. The quote, in which Condi claims, "My parents had me absolutely convinced that you may not be able to have a hamburger at Woolworth's but you could be president of the United States" perfectly represents the faith that the Rice's had in their daughter as well as the eventually progression of a divided nation. When Condi was born on November 14, 1954 her father was preaching the 11: 00 sermon and the congregation knew how badly he wanted a son to train as an athletic star. Although he did not get that son that day he never the less called his daughter his "little star" and continued to do so until his last days.

The family eventually moved to decent sized home, financed by the church, in Titusville. According to many sources, including several Rice relatives, the entire neighborhood had a certain way of ignoring the larger culture around them and thus refusing to believe that they were second class citizens. This was apparently most evident in the Rice household. Her now famous discipline began at an early age, even before attending school.

Angelena Rice sought to cultivate her daughter's involvement in the arts and humanities early on with lessons in piano, ballet, French, and her church youth group. Condi learned to read music before she read words, which was accomplished through the use of a speed reading machine. Her first piano lessons came at the incredibly tender age of three. She was even home schooled by her mother when the principal of the local elementary school told her that she was too young to begin classes at the age of 5.

Her mental capacity and aptitude soon became evident to the outside world as she skipped the first and seventh grades. Her love for music only grew from that point and by age 10 she was the first black student ever to enroll in the Birmingham Southern Conservatory of Music. One of the few and interesting complains Condi ever made about her upbringing was that with her enrollment in every possible book club as a child she never really developed the "fine art of recreational reading". The title of chapter 3 of the autobiography is "twice as good" and represents the unwritten law of black families, particularly the Rice's, in Titusville which insisted one be twice as good as white children to gain an equal footing and three times as good to surpass them. This ideology carried and continues to carry Condoleezza Rice through all that she does as she seeks to surpass every expectation she meets. She's even described her parents as being "strategic, in that they sought for her to be so good at things that were revered in white society that she would somehow be armored against racism".

Condi describes witnessing her mother blatantly rebel against the Jim Crowe statutes including one incident in which she refused to let a sales associate deny her daughter the use of an all white dressing room in a department store. She maintains however that her mother always did this in the most polite and dignified manner she could. Condi also recalls her father's active role in the volatile and slow process of segregation on Jim Crowe Alabama. Although he fought for the rights of his fellow black contemporaries, he never saw the necessity in directly exposing himself or his family to the violent clashes that occurred between protestors and Bull Conner and his racist forces. Even more frightening than the rampant Ku Klux Klan violence of Alabama from which her father would guard the rice family with guns was the Cuban Missile Crises which transcended even John Rice's ability to provide security. Alabama's location in the Deep South made its citizens as vulnerable as anyone to Fidel Castro.

Dr. Rice's current opposition to gun control was rooted in her early image of her father and his friends guarding their neighborhood from the notorious fire bombings of the civil rights era. She even mentioned at the Republican National Convention that her father was the first Republican she knew and the one she most admired. She described his having been denied the right to vote by Jim Crowe democrats and how that weighed heavily on the political conscience of both he and his daughter. As John and Angelena Rice sought to provide all the educational opportunities possible for their daughter they also proceeded with their own personal academic careers. These endeavors eventually led the Rice family to Denver where John accepted a position as assistant admissions director at the University of Denver. He also taught courses and was credited with the early foundations of one of the first African American oriented curriculum's in the nation.

Denver was a whole new ball game for Condoleezza from its climate to its progressive views on race. She finished her high school career at the highly revered St. Mary's Academy and continued to excel as she had always previously done. Of the seventy students in her class Condi was one of the three black students. She continued her work with the piano and even took on tennis and figure skating competitively waking at 4: 30 in the morning to practice before school. Her parents love and support for her goals was exemplified in their taking out a loan to buy her a used Steinway Grand piano so that she could develop her passion for the instrument at all hours. In 1971 at the age of sixteen, Condi graduated from St. Mary's and enrolled in the University of Denver as piano performance major.

After intense years of unwavering dedication to the piano and attending various musical workshops and competitions including the exclusive Aspen Musical Festival, Condi eventually came to the realization that a future as a concert pianist looked grim in the face of the competition. While she was certainly good and continues to play with the best to this day some people, in her words, are simply brilliant. In searching for a new major she enrolled in a course that would dramatically change her future beyond what she ever considered. The course was "International Politics" and the lesson that day was on Stalin and taught by Josef Korbel, former Central European diplomat and father of Madeleine Albright. According to Condi, "everything just clicked" after hearing Korbel's lecture. The mystique of Soviet studies was typical of the challenge Condi was looking for and she soon developed an unprecedented passion for Russia.

She and Dr. Korbel established an extremely strong bond and he adopted her in an intellectual sense yielding a relationship similar to Condi's with her father and Korbel's with his only daughter Madeleine. Condi's parents fully supported her decision but even her father appeared shocked when he claimed that "blacks just didn't do political science". True to her style, Condi took on Russian with a vengeance, learning it in half the time it takes most people. In order to understand Rice's complexity one must note that this was all while she continued her involvement with the church, the piano, and her sports. She was even able to maintain a social life throughout.

Upon graduating from the University of Denver she went on to receive her Masters in government at the University of Notre Dame within a year. Wasting no time she returned to Denver and began working on her PhD. Korbel encouraged her to pursue a career as a professor but she was initially skeptical and was not sure what exactly she wanted to do. Rice also picked up all the former aspects of her life in Denver upon her return. At this point in her life Condi continued to feel passionate about NFL football.

Her father instilled this love in his daughter and this was clear in the Rice family football games and the associations she commonly made between football and war, which she studied so precariously. Her studies of Soviet culture, politics, and economics could not have come at a more interesting time as the Cold War was winding to a close. Interestingly enough in 1976 Condi registered to vote as a Democrat and helped elect Jimmy Carter as president that same year. It was his handling of the USSR invasion of Afghanistan that changed her mind about his abilities and the Democratic party.

She claimed in 2000 that she was so passionate in her criticism of Carters handling of the Cold War that it overpowered her regard for the Democratic support of the Civil Rights movement. After her 1980 registration as a Republican and vote for Ronald Regan, she never looked back. Condi's post graduate studies eventually led her to her first trip to Russia when she later described as necessary for her as breathing. She received an up close and personal view of Moscow and St. Petersburg which she so dearly loved. She even described some Russians as coming up and touching her to confirm the reality of the first black person they had ever witnessed. Condoleezza Rice ended her stint in Denver upon the completion of her PhD and relocated to California where she pursued post-doctorate studies at Stanford University and eventually became part of the staff in the political science department.

The university was seeking minority candidates as part of an affirmative action initiative but that only gained her access to the department and did not guarantee her stay. Condi's lasting opinion on affirmative reaction was based on such a tactic as she still maintains that affirmative action is necessary for the introduction of minorities into certain institutions, by trial only, since only merit can lead to a permanent position. Her football analogies were ever present in teaching courses on the military. She eventually climbed the ranks as Stanford as well, moving on to become an academic advisor and eventually full professor. With the Reagan administration came further opportunity for Condi in the form of a fellowship in the public sector.

In 1986 she moved to Washington D.C. to assume the role of special assistant to the director-Joint Chief of Staff position at the Pentagon. There she studied nuclear planning and reveled in the military culture. After a two year stint in this position she returned to Stanford and over the next few years published two major books on The Soviet Union and one on the reunification of Germany. She also gained entry to a number of prestigious boards in the San Francisco area, including that of the local public broadcasting network and the San Francisco symphony orchestra.

Condi, however, was not able to attend even the first meeting because in January of 1989 she accepted the position of Director of Soviet and East European affairs at the National Security Council. Her return to Washington was soon followed by a promotion to special assistant to President George H.W. Bush for national security affairs. This position brought about the most important contacts for Condi to date. Bush Sr. even introduced her to Gorbachev as "the one who tells him everything he needs to know about the USSR". One of the first and rare occasions on which Condi faced problems as a minority came when she was leading a Russian delegation in San Francisco and a secret-service agent denied her entrance to a classified area. The incident was highly reported in the media and was a grave embarrassment for the Secret Service.

When she left Washington two years later Condi felt privileged to have served during such an exciting period in history and surely did not anticipate returning to the White House anytime soon. Back at Stanford Condi resumed her duties as normal and typical to her character went beyond the call of duty. With the political connections and powerful associations she had made working in Washington she was soon invited to join the boards of several international corporations including Chevron, Trans-America, and Hewlett-Packard. She also continued the Rice family tradition of giving back to the community through education when she helped co found an organization designed to offer greater opportunity to underprivileged children in the San Francisco area.

By September 1993 she was named the youngest Provost of Stanford University. There was much controversy surrounding this appointment as many felt Condi lacked the experience as well as the Democratic politics of many previous Provosts. Naturally she disproved most speculation when she successfully balanced the school's massive $1.5 billion budget and brought them out of the red. Dr. Rice took a one year leave of absence in 1999 to join the Hoover Institute, a policy research organization seeking to improve the world as a whole. This position was also short lived as George H.W. Bush soon came calling for her expertise again.

This time, however it was not for him but for his soon George W. Bush who was seeking the office of President and wanted the assistance of his family's good friend Condi. Joining the Bushes on the campaign trail, Condi headed up an initiative called "W is for Women", in which she and Laura and Barbara Bush toured the nation soliciting votes from the female population. Condi's strand of appearances culminated in her speech at the 2000 Republican National Convention. After winning office Bush rewarded Condi's loyalty by appointing her the first female National Security Advisor.

This was not just a form of payment but an extension of the profound friendship the two had developed through the campaign. He often described her as the only person who could translate the complicated terms of foreign policy to his liking and they even shared an affinity for sports and exercise together. In many ways this new position put Condi in closest proximity to the new President as her office was just around the corner from the oval office. Dr. Rice initially avoided the spotlight and served simply as a behind the scenes advisor as her predecessor Brent Scow croft had encouraged her to do.

All this changed on the morning of September 11, 2001 when the largest attack ever on American soil took place. Condi's role as mediator between the members of the National Security Council, which included Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Colin Powell, became more demanding than ever. While the former two were relentlessly militaristic in their approach to the crisis, Powell was cautious and thoughtful. Rice began to address the public via television on a regular basis and the urgency of our National Security reach unprecedented heights.

Dr. Rice was as commonplace at Camp David and the Presidents Texas ranch on the weekends as any of the Bush family members. Her responsibilities were never ending and she approached them with the same grace and drive as she does everything in her life. Although the book end its documentation in 2002, shortly after 9/11, Condi's duties have become no less urgent. Since that time she has had to defend her Administration against suggestions that the attacks could have been prevented and has done so quite well. The 2004 elections have just been completed and George W. Bush is returning to the White House for another term. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has submitted his resignation and Condoleezza Rice has been nominated as a predictable replacement.

If she survives the Senate approval hearings she will become the first black female and second female to fill the role. While I have full faith in her abilities I am concerned with the fact that without Powell in the National Security Council there will be no dissenting opinions. The proposed administration is politically homogenous. Surely Dr. Rice would understand this concern as she herself is quoted in the opening lines of chapter 8 of her biography as saying "If you find yourself in the company of people who agree with you, you " re in the wrong company.".