The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir

by Samantha Power

“Go where they ain’t.” By “they,” he meant senior US officials. Legions of government aides flocked to consequential issues that drew presidential attention. But all around the world, immense suffering was occurring in forgotten places. With even a modest time investment, one could support positive change in ways that would not make the evening news. Lower down in the bureaucracy, he and Mort both stessed, one could also find enthusiastic partners brimming with ideas about how to help. If ever I sounded self-conscious that I was not working on “big-ticket” foreign policy challenges, Holbrooke would snap me out of this myopia. “Stop it, Sam,” he would say. “Do good where you can do good. The people in those countries don’t give a damn how high a priority what you do is to anybody else. They don’t have another hope besides America.”