{"id":47381,"date":"2022-04-02T08:14:55","date_gmt":"2022-04-02T15:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=47381"},"modified":"2022-04-02T08:14:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-02T15:14:55","slug":"read-my-pins-stories-from-a-diplomats-jewel-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2022\/04\/02\/read-my-pins-stories-from-a-diplomats-jewel-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The passing of Madame Secretary Madeleine Albright<\/em><\/strong> on March 23, 2022, at the age of 84 prompted me to wonder how best to pay tribute to her many history-making accomplishments.<\/p>\n

President Bill Clinton first selected her as our U.S Ambassador to the United Nations and then in 1997 elevated her to Secretary of State, thus becoming the highest-ranking woman in the history of U.S. government.<\/p>\n

While some people are said to wear their heart on their sleeve, Madame Secretary wore it on her chest as a brooch from her astonishing collection of pins.<\/p>\n

Sec. Albright explains: “I clearly have always liked jewelry, but it had not occurred to me that they could, in fact, become part of diplomacy. \u00a0It all began with Saddam Hussein.”<\/p>\n

As ambassador to the United Nations in 1994, she criticized and pressured Mr. Hussein to allow ongoing weapon inspections.\u00a0 This prompted the state-controlled media in Baghdad to call her \u201can unparalleled serpent.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The next time she met with Iraqi diplomats she bravely wore her magnificent gold serpent brooch.\u00a0 (Although she admits she does not like snakes at all.)\u00a0 She thereby transformed her brooch collection into her own personal semaphore which she expertly used to convey a message or a mood.<\/p>\n

The media constantly asked her how high-level talks were going, so she decided to transform \u201cRead my lips\u201d<\/em> to \u201cRead My Pins\u201d<\/a><\/em><\/strong> \u2013 which became the title of one of her best-selling books.<\/p>\n

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Originally, I had hoped to provide a detailed translation of her collection.\u00a0 But since it numbers well over 200 brooches (most of them simple, inexpensive costume jewelry), it was clearly too much.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say that when she\u2019s in a good mood or conveying high hopes, Albright would wear ladybugs, flowers, suns and hot-air balloons.\u00a0 On bad days she\u2019d sport spiders and carnivorous animals. \u00a0If she felt progress was slower than she wanted she\u2019d wear a snail or maybe a turtle pin. \u00a0And if she was dealing with crabby people, she\u2019d don a crab.<\/p>\n

Albright had toyed with the idea of an exhibit of her pins, but several galleries in Washington, DC turned the idea down cold.\u00a0 But the Museum of Arts and Design in NYC thought it had possibilities and curated a show that has since travelled to her alma mater (Wellesley), virtually every presidential library from FDR on and highlighted at the Smithsonian.<\/p>\n

This is how a typical exhibit is showcased:<\/p>\n

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To view a wider variety of her pins I\u2019ve divided them into categories \u2013 but with no further details, as it was just too overwhelming.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll easily pick out the gold serpent brooch that set her on this path.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll note two unique ones: One of her favorites is the clay heart made by her five-year-old daughter that she wears every Valentine’s Day.\u00a0 And the other is the \u201cShattered Glass Ceiling\u201d that she wore when Hillary Clinton gave her acceptance speech at the 2016 DNC.<\/p>\n

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After tonight, this pin will be the only piece of glass ceiling left at #DNCinPHL<\/a>! #tweetmypins<\/a> #ImWithHer<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/sm5UUQiVw4<\/a><\/p>\n

— Madeleine Albright (@madeleine) July 28, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n