George Schultz, who turned 38 the day I was born, turned 100 today and wrote a beautiful essay for the Washington Post.
He writes of attending a wreath-laying ceremony in Leningrad years ago, where his Russian counterpart and the interpreter found themselves in tears.
He answered their unexpected vulnerability with, “I, too, fought in WWII, and had friends killed beside me,” expressing his gratitude for all those who’d fought in this battle for having defeated Hitler–and with that he turned to the graves before them and gave them a crisp soldier’s salute. Their sacrifices and their loss mattered to him.
And with that he won the Soviets’ trust and by that trust the treaty to reduce nuclear warheads later got signed.
One man, in the right place, doing the right thing because it was the right thing to do and it changed the world.
Offering hope that in our own politics we can do a bit better than the possum and the skunk.