I was searching for speeches by Colin Powell at one time and I found this.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
Council of the Americas Conference
Monday, May 6, 2002
Washington, D.C.
Thank you very much, David, for that very warm and kind introduction. It's good to be with so many good friends as I scan the audience, and especially with you, David. And I do appreciate that kind introduction.
And I also would like to thank the Council for making allowances for my schedule, allowing me to come down a little earlier. It is one of these particularly busy days in Washington that comes from time to time. I have King Abdullah of Jordan, Prince Saud of Saudi Arabia, the Foreign Minister. Prime Minister Sharon will also be coming today. I'll be meeting with him. And also President Museveni of Uganda.
And then we have a number of meetings having to do with the upcoming U.S.-Moscow summit that we have to attend to. We are looking forward to the summit meeting with Russia in two weeks' time, but the preparations for a summit are always quite demanding. So it is just an average day in the life of a Secretary of State.
And I am also going to have the privilege a little later this morning of speaking to the Anti-Defamation League as well on the subject of tolerance. So no better way to start the day, however, than with the Council of the Americas. I'm very pleased to be with you, and it's a pleasure to welcome you -- David and Bill Rhodes and Alan Stoga and the Council -- to the State Department for your 32nd Washington Conference.
And as you all know, it has become something of a tradition for the Secretary of State to open the Washington Conference, but I'm not here today just out of a reverence for tradition. I'm here because I want to reach out to you once again, the business people who have hands-on experience in the Americas. I see all the old friends in the audience that I've worked with in the past, so many who have been committed to democracy and economic development and reform, and I know that each of you will see many other old friends here at the podium over the next two days, beginning after I leave with my point man for the Americas, Assistant Secretary Otto Reich. He's well known to you. He headed the Council's Washington Office from 1976 to '81, and now he is the Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemispheric Affairs. It wasn't always easy, but Otto is here, he's on board, and I can tell you we're very, very glad to have him on the team.
You'll be hearing from him in a few moments. You'll be hearing from the Vice President and many of my Cabinet colleagues over the next several days, but first I'd like to set the stage for those later presentations, if I may. And let me start, as David noted, with September 11th of last year, the day that changed the world as we knew it. For me, it was a remarkable day. For all of us it was a remarkable day, but for me it was a moving day, a day of many mixed emotions, as it was also for you. But I was in a breakfast meeting with President Toledo in Lima, Peru. We were talking about bilateral issues, we were talking about trade, we were talking about textile imports and exports when two notes came in from my assistant telling me that something terrible had happened in Washington, D.C., and in New York. And I knew that I had to return immediately.
But before returning to Washington, while the plane was being prepared, I did want to participate in the OAS Conference, because we were there to validate our belief in the community of democracy here in the Western Hemisphere -- 34 of 35 nations all committed to democracy, not only as a political system, but as something we believe in as a value system. And we were going to put in place the rules of the road. If you're going to be a member of this democratic club in our hemisphere, there are rules, there are obligations, there are consequences for violating those rules and obligations.
And so I wanted to participate in that meeting and be part of the vote, and I'll never forget moving into the conference room, and my various colleagues from around the hemisphere stood up and expressed their solidarity with the United States in this time of crisis and pledged their support. And then we passed that statement on democracy, that Charter on Democracy, and then in a unanimous vote of acclamation, they made it clear that the OAS would be standing with the United States in this time of trial.
Our hemispheric solidarity and action have continued since then. The OAS has acted further. We are working together as a hemisphere to deny haven to terrorists and their funds. We particularly valued Brazil's leadership in bringing together the signatories of the Rio Treaty to invoke its collective defense provisions. Brazil is the world's fourth-largest democracy and Latin America's largest economy. We share many common goals, such as promoting democracy and economic reform, advancing free trade, and combating terrorism and narcotics trafficking. And we look forward to a continuing partnership with Brazil, both in the hemisphere and increasingly on the global level.
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http://207.21.242.176/coa/events/2002-PowellSpeech.html"For me, it was a remarkable day. For all of us it was a remarkable day, but for me it was a moving day, a day of many mixed emotions, as it was also for you." Is this how you would describe Sept. 11?
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