Monday, June 13, 2005
Condoleezza Rice Helps Out
I just saw this, courtesy of Roger L. Simon:
Rice's rare and unpublicized appearance at the piano marked a striking departure from her routine as America's No. 1 diplomat. A pianist from the age of 3 she played a half-dozen selections to accompany Charity Sunshine, a 21-year-old singer who was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension a little more than a year ago.Dr. Rice was once a concert pianist; here's a photo of her accompanying Yo-Yo Ma in 2002:
(It's a better pic than the one in the article linked to above, anyway.)
I'm not the biggest fan of Dr. Rice, for the record. (No, I have nothing against her. I just don't buy all the hype, billing her as the great hope for the GOP in 2008, and so forth. She's done quite well so far; let's wait and see.) But I must admit, this shows some class.
(It's worth mentioning, too, that the ill woman she accompanied, Ms. Sunshine, is a granddaughter of Rep. Tom Lantos of California. He's a Democrat, not that that matters; had he been a Republican, no doubt people would sneer "but she'd never do a favor like that for a Democrat". Personally, I'd rather see this as a good deed, rather than a deed done to curry political favor. If she gets political points out of this, so what? She earned them.)
By the way, the article also mentions, in passing, the source of the name "Condoleezza". (I'd often wondered about that...)
