And Alice Katie.
So all the
Spouses, the grandchildren.
Sister Kathy and brother John.
Thank you for giving.
Hillary and me the chance to say a few words.
Mr President.
President, Mrs Obama Vice President Gore.
All the members of Congress and
The diplomatic corps and cabinets past and present.
And especially to all of you.
Who had the distinct
Honor.
And I hope the joy
Of working with Madeleine Albright.
Our last conversation was
Two weeks before she passed away.
And
We always spent the first few minutes
Telling stories that
we swore were true.
And joking with each other and
And then
I said.
Tell me how you're feeling.
She said. Look, I got a little problem here. But I've got a perfectly
good doctor. I'm doing exactly what he tells me to do.
So I'm getting good care and whatever happens will be the best outcome
I can get. Let's don't waste any time on that.
The only thing that really matters is what kind of world we're going
to leave to our grandchildren.
I will never forget that conversation. As long as I live. It was
so perfectly meddling.
Yeah, I'd like to let the 90 95 100.
But the thing that really matters is
what's going to happen to our grandchildren's generation. Are we
gonna lose our freedom? We're going to lose our democracy.
Have we decided after all, that all that matters or our differences?
In this fleeting life instead of what we have in common.
And so
Madeline.
Made a decision.
That's with our last breath.
She would
Go out with her boots on.
In this case.
Supporting President Biden and all of Americans efforts.
To help you crying.
What kind of world are going to leave to our grandchildren?
Questions kind of up in the air.
But not because of Madeleine Albright.
I was honored to be part of her life for more than 30 years.
I was thrilled.
When of
It's healthy. Got to meet her and
Water influence you had on Chelsea and lots of other
Young women.
I was
Amazed with the friendship she formed with.
Hillary and grateful for that.
But I met her a long time ago. She was
Working in the new caucus campaign and
I am.
I'm a graduate of Georgetown where she taught, so I
Knew about reputation and I knew she'd been voted.
Birth teacher brothers students twice.
But when I finally met her, I realized that
She was even better than advertised.
She was smart, tough minded, talented.
She had a great sense of humor.
And a clear grass of the post Cold War world. We're moving into
And
So when I was elected, I asked Madeline to manage the transition.
For the National Security Council.
Which wound up filled with incredibly gifted.
Balanced people, and we had more problems than we could say grace
over and we needed every one of them.
And
As I watched her more
Ah!
I decided to ask her B
Ambassador to the United Nations.
Because our life story was about to become the story of the last
part of the 20th century and much of the world.
And because she could be the voice.
Of America at its best.
And and after four years.
In which she
Continued to defy expectations and sometimes rises, eyebrows.
Not that I have to say this. She would never forgive me if I didn't
mention this at her funeral.
When Cubans
Shot down the brothers to the rescue planes and violation of international
law.
They had a conversation which Madeline got a copy of on the
On their radios between the planes.
About how they had shown Merica hones by
Shooting down.
Totally defenseless couple of planes that were dropping.
Pro democracy leaflets.
And Cuba.
And parents medically, then almost certainly outside Cuban airspace
when they were shot down, but it was illegal to do it in an airplane.
So, Madeleine says.
That's not cones that's cowardice.
And all of a sudden it was on the lips of everybody in South Florida.
And
And she was being criticized people that's so undiplomatic. It's
unladylike and South Americans all the sun this on that.
And I called and I said
I'm just jealous.
It's the best line developed delivered by anybody in this administration
since I've been here.
And keep on going and it was great.
We spent a happy day together.
Two years ago in Kosovo, 20 years after the conflict there.
Freed them of a genuine threat of genocide.
We walked hand in hand through Pristina.
On a sunny, sunny June day.
Down the street. There were about a quarter of a million people.
There's a lot of people in a small country like that.
And
We came to the subject of our stroll.
Which was a beautiful bust of Madeline.
In a
Shrubs surrounded.
Tall
stand.
That was
Their tribute to her.
For being there for them.
We see that legacy honored
All the things she did with.
Kosovo with Bosnia.
We see it in so many ways. Today we have the president of prime minister
and the former president of Kosovo here.
We have
The foreign minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
It took us until the slaughter of shrivel nature. But finally we
got enough people together to do what's now being done.
In a different way to try to save Ukraine.
From the day she entered the you until the day she left.
She tried to stick up.
For people who were left out and left behind and in spite of all
of its imperfections, and we all know them.
I'm very grateful that the pieces held in Bosnia for now, more than
26 years.
We see her legacy honored here by the
Presence of the vice president of Colombia.
We're Madeline believe being a good neighbor was
Dealing with a country that was the oldest democracy in South America,
where a third of the land was then under control of the narco traffickers.
With Plan Colombia
And
Next few years later.
The 50th anniversary of the Inter American Development Bank was held
in Medellin, formerly the drug capital of the world.
She believed in that
So you leave it in the integrity of the all the
Former Republics of the Soviet Union.
And I believe the president of Georgia is here today, and I'm very
grateful.
For that.
I'm grateful that she
Wasn't aggressive voice.
Supporting Vice President Gore and when we were trying to sound the
alarm on
Climate change.
And
We didn't always win in case you didn't notice.
For example, when our flute
Your fan to get the Kyoto accord, the first ever international agreement
on climate change.
The Senate voted against it. 98 11 before he got off the airplane
home.
But Madeline thought it was the right thing to do, and she kept banging
the drum.
And I think time has proved her out.
The secretary of state's job as I
Came to learn firsthand is a traveling job.
I was fortunate to travel many miles with her.
When I first heard that she passed away the very first thing I did.
I was home.
In New York was to go into the kitchen and look at these two beautiful
paintings from Haiti.
Madeline gave Hillary in the because she knew how much we cared about
what happened there.
And
They're just so many things that
Remember?
Remember that? In addition to Colombia, she was always interested
Argentina not only because they were a very strong ally of the United
States.
But because when I went on a state visit there and she went with
me
Ah!
I went into with Hillary. We went into a dance hall in downtown Buenos
Aires. And there was Madeline Dancing a mean tango.
Rest of us were looking for lessons.
Matter. She was looking for the dance floor.
She was always about a health facility ahead and a lot of these things.
Matter a lot.
I'm saying this all because
She was a really fully developed woman.
Her life was sort of a microcosm of the late 20th century in Europe
and the United States or
Family was run out of there.
Home first.
By Hitler and then by Stalin.
She came to America still not knowing.
The true story of her family and what they have done to survive.
She was
After she was secretary of state. She finally learned that
She was actually raised Jewish and had three of the four grand
Children. Grandparents died in the Holocaust.
But somehow, in the middle of all that
We gave him
Distinguished
Czech diplomat and his family.
A chance to come to America.
As refugees.
In their daughter wound up
Becoming
Ambassador to the UN and secretary of state
And doing lots of other good things.
She made us
Laugh. She made us Christ.
Some of us you made man.
But
She had a full hopeful life because she knew what she believed in.
She knew what she was for. She knew what she was against.
And she wanted other people.
To feel the same way and then to talk about it instead of killing
each other over it.
That's basically her simple political philosophy.
Today. We see in Ukraine all too tragically. What medal and always
knew.
That the advance of freedom is neither.
Inevitable or permanent.
And that in politics
Where the lower of power is strong.
And the temptation to abuse it is often irresistible. There are no
permanent victories or defeats.
Her book on Fascism was one of many, she wrote. I personally love
the one, she wrote, comparing the relationship of religion and politics
in different countries.
She just was curious.
I want you to remember that.
She was a great secretary of state as she did 20 other things I could
mention.
But the most important thing is God gave her a fine mind.
A wealth of experience for anybody who was willing to pay attention
to it.
And she made the most of it not just for herself, but for other people.
She loved this country more than you will ever know.
And one of my
Proudest, sad moments was when we went together to Vaclav Havel's
funeral.
And I believe that his
Wife, Dagmar and high officials of the Czech government are here
today to
Madeline spoke for the United States.
And we were in the national cathedral. It was freezing cold.
And Madeline got up.
And started morning and paying tribute to her friend.
In their native tongue.
The impact on the audience was electric.
She spoke about five languages. I think for more than I do, anyway.
Some would say far but anyway, she
The impact was electric.
And I kept thinking.
This is what America is about.
That hard working immigrant family could come here.
And it could come to this.
So I ask you.
Madeline said Once that
We can't just be actors.
We have to be authors of our own history.
She was a great author.
But will people read?
Remember follow.
This is what she would want me to say today.
I had a good life.
I was happy. I was so blessed in my family and my work and France
But freedom
And democracy and the rule of law.
Or not.
Permanently enshrined.
Just because we have survived 200 plus years.
Now.
Think about the world you want for your grandchildren.
And work for it.
We love you, Madeline.
We miss you.
But I pray to God
We never stopped hearing you.
Just sit on our shoulder and Nagas to death. So we do the right thing.