It doesn’t mean we should back off in our investment for peace, and I won’t. Even when I stop being Secretary of State, I will continue in this endeavor to try to help countries and individual entities to move in this direction. We still have to lead. Leadership is quintessential ingredient of making peace.
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We’ve heard a lot of talk in recent years about this clash of civilization. I think much of that discussion is completely wrongheaded. There’s a clash of ideas, there’s a clash of modernity with culture and education or lack thereof and history. On the one side, there are those who seek to impose their will forcefully on others in the name of nation or ethnicity or religion or their own insatiable thirst for power. On our side are those who believe that people from vastly different backgrounds absolutely can and must find a way to live together in productivity and in peace.
In his Christmas address two years ago, Pope Francis said, “True peace is not a lovely facade which conceals conflicts and divisions. Peace calls for daily commitment.”
I agree with the Holy Father that peace is not easy. Peace is hard, and however painstaking the process, even if it takes years of patience and perseverance to achieve, years of daily commitment, it is always worth the effort and it is never beyond our reach. And to those who suggest otherwise, I would simply remind them of the words of another recipient of the Tipperary Peace Award, Nelson Mandela, when he said that “it always seems impossible until it is done.”
http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2016/10/263865.htm
Between this and his speech and interview in Chicago, it is good to know he will be an independent voice for the environment and peace after he leaves the State Department.
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