Today I was honored to speak directly with Secretary of State John Kerry on Google+ Hangouts with the State Department to discuss critical foreign policy issues facing our country.
As moderator Andrea Mitchell of NBC and MSNBC noted in her introduction, Secretary Kerry recently gave a speech at the University of Virginia in which he outlined the importance of our engagement abroad to the American people.
The State Department invited five people, including me, to ask questions and hear from Secretary Kerry on this important issue. Our group took a deep dive into the impact of foreign policies on all Americans.
(My clip starts at the 18:44 minute mark.)
Beginning the conversation, Secretary Kerry noted that we run risks everywhere in the world, and “America can never cower. America can never hide from our responsibility to advance human rights, build relationships with other countries, and try to provide people the vision of what life can be like in a strong democracy.”
I asked the Secretary the following question:
We all know that people lead incredibly busy lives and have plenty to worry about here at home. What are the three most pressing global issues that impact average American families – and why should moms and families care about them?
The Secretary told us that, “overwhelmingly, there is this profound concern about children – about how those kids are going to be raised, what their opportunities are going to be, and most of all, will they be safe?”
He raised three particular areas of concern:
- Environment and Global Climate Change: “If we don’t respond to the challenge of global climate change, there will be wars over water and agricultural land and other things. That is a major challenge for the future.”
- Health and Education: “We’ve done a great job of trying to export healthcare around the world. The State Department is deeply involved in the PEPFAR program that tries to prevent AIDS from being transmitted from mother to child in other parts of the world. If the United States can continue to be a leader in that, we’ll be exporting our values in the best way possible and helping families to make good choices.”
- Security: “Making sure we don’t fight wars that aren’t necessary … or that we take actions to try to ensure our children grow up in a world that isn’t threatened by violence … I think every family in America cares about our security, and that is a frontline concern of the State Department and Defense Department and the President of the United States.”
Thank you Secretary Kerry and Andrea Mitchell for hosting ‘Hangout at State’, for speaking with me, and for wanting to talk with American moms about why the work of the State Department matters to all of us.
What do you think? Did the Secretary’s top three most-pressing issues for moms and families resonate with you?
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