Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spoke of much Saturday night in Hall High School, where she gave a lecture before more than 300 people, but she focused on what she calls a disturbing rise of fascism in America.
Albright, who became the first female secretary of state in 1997 under President Bill Clinton, was the first to speak in Bridge Builders, the Clinton Foundation's new lecture series.
The rise of authoritarian nationalism is the subject of Albright's 2018 book, Fascism: A Warning, and is one of the prevalent issues facing the nation today, she told the crowd gathered in the auditorium of the Little Rock high school.
Albright defined fascism early on as "ardent nationalists" who spread an "us versus them" mentality and seek to benefit by dividing people by their nationality, race, gender or other differences.
In describing the growth of fascism in the United States, Albright used a metaphor attributed to Benito Mussolini, leader of the first major fascist movement and a Nazi-allied Italian dictator: Pluck a chicken one feather at a time, and people won't notice.
"There has been a lot of feather-plucking going on," Albright said gravely before breaking out into a smile. "By the way, you can't say those words together too quickly."
The lecture went on in the same fashion, one moment highlighting weighty political and social issues and the next causing the crowd to laugh and cheer.
Outside of her new book and its contents, Albright spoke of her time as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and as secretary of state, her love of the TV series Gilmore Girls, and how she got the nickname "Madame Cojones." She answered crowd questions on the best cure for jet lag and told anecdotes about her life in the public eye.
But after each digression, she returned to her worry for the country.
"There are some people who find my book alarming, and it is alarming," she said. "I am concerned about the things I see."
Albright came to the United States from Czechoslovakia at age 11 after fleeing World War II with her family, and she said she dislikes seeing the country turn against other people fleeing violence. The number of refugees the United States has harbored declined in recent years from 85,000 in 2016 to 54,000 in 2017 and 45,000 in 2018, according to the Department of Homeland Security's annual immigration statistics reports.
"I was 2 when the Nazis marched in. We escaped," she said. "One of the reasons I wanted to write this book was because I could see what happened when fascism came to Czechoslovakia and everything changed. ... I could see the number of people who died and the divisions and the need for a scapegoat."
When asked what citizens should do to stop fascism, Albright said everyone should question those who lead them and referred to a list published in her book.
"Of course, everyone knows 'see something, say something,'" she said. "But, as I like to add, 'do something.'"
Metro on 04/07/2019