John Kerry’s Senate Confirmation Hearing Today
By: Every Mother Counts
Tags: Hillary Clinton, John Kerry

Senator Kerry has been great on so many of our issues, perhaps that’s because he is also the proud father of two remarkable daughters.

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass) had the tables turned on him today. After 29 years as part of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today he sat facing the dais (instead of behind it) at his confirmation hearing as Obama’s nominee for Secretary of State. It’s his long history and expertise in foreign policy and national security and his deep understanding that those issues mean more than military presence that makes us confident he will be confirmed, will carry the torch so elegantly carried by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and will be the leader we need in the world today.

Senator Kerry has been great on so many of our issues, perhaps that’s because he is also the proud father of two remarkable daughters. Alexandra Forbes Kerry is a film producer/director and partner at Locomotive Films and the other is Vanessa Bradford Kerry, a doctor at Mass General and founder of Global Service Corps. We talked to Vanessa about her launch of the global health services partnership which creates opportunities for healthcare professionals to work in developing countries (and pay off their loans) to provide sustainable ways to expand healthcare services. Like Dr. Kerry, Senator Kerry understands that when countries are empowered to take care of their citizens’ human needs and promote their human rights and when they’re supported to create sustainable models for education, healthcare and economic growth, there’s less violence, oppression, poverty and desperation.

We were reassured that these thoughts are integral to Kerry’s political philosophy and diplomacy when he stated today, “Today’s world is more complicated than anything we have experienced — from the emergence of China to the Arab Awakening: inextricably linked economic, health, environmental and demographic issues.” He also said, “U.S. foreign policy is defined by much more than military intervention abroad and the fight against terrorism,” and he called for consensus on promoting American leadership on matters ranging from food security to climate change.

Our favorite quote of the day? This one proves John Kerry “gets it.”

We cannot allow the extraordinary good we do to save and change lives to be eclipsed entirely by the role we have had to play since September 11th, a role that was thrust upon us… American foreign policy is also defined by food security and energy security, humanitarian assistance, the fight against disease and the push for development, as much as it is by any single counterterrorism initiative. It is defined by leadership on life-threatening issues like climate change, or fighting to lift up millions of lives by promoting freedom and democracy from Africa to the Americas or speaking out for the prisoners of gulags in North Korea or millions of refugees and displaced persons and victims of human trafficking. It is defined by keeping faith with all that our troops have sacrificed to secure for Afghanistan. America lives up to her values when we give voice to the voiceless.”