A Serious Woman of Substance

This is the lady to take seriously. When she speaks, you know she means what she says. There is no falseness, no hype, no guile, no game-playing, no coyness.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Iran and Syria, both at loggerheads with the West, of inciting violence over the cartoons for their own purposes.
[…]
Speaking at a Washington news conference with Israel’s Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Rice said: “Iran and Syria have gone out of their way to inflame sentiments and to use this to their own purposes and the world ought to call them on it.”

She said nothing justified the violence that had resulted from the cartoons and appealed to governments to urge calm.

“There are governments that have used this opportunity to incite violence,” she added, referring to Syria and Iran.

Serious. Succinct. Direct. Lucid. There is no doubletalk, no shading. There are no codes, no winks and nods. No vague, empty sentences that leave room for “re-interpretation” and spin.

And yet, still graceful, even feminine. Still self-possessed and self-assured. Clearly intelligent. Clearly in command, clearly respected, and yet cool and detached. There is nothing harsh, nothing shrill. Nothing preening. Nothing to disrupt or distract from the matter at hand.

This is quiet courage and reassuring strength. Dignity, actually.

This is a woman in full. She is, in fact, everything the feminists used to say a woman should be, and more.

They’d never give Dr. Rice her props, of course. She’s the wrong sort of feminist woman, after all. The conservative kind. Off “the plantation,” if that sort of imagery appeals to you.

She appears to be the sort of woman who can, as the Irish like to say, “tell you to go to hell in such a way that you are looking forward to the trip.” And her words hold weight and credibility, except to the adolescent and feckless. I think when she quietly narrows her eyes, it speaks volumes, and it is understood.

The more I see of Condi Rice, the more I like her. She represents American and women in an excellent way.