Bob Lorinser, candidate for Congress and former diplomat with the US State Dept, remembers the former Secretary upon the announcement of her passing.
Sec. Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright, 1937 - 2022
Dr. Bob Lorinser is a retired member of the US State Department's Foreign Services. The use of his diplomatic rank, job titles, and photographs depicting government entities does not imply endorsement by the Department of the State or the Foreign Services.
WASHINGTON D.C. — Dr. Madeleine K. Albright was a trailblazing stateswoman. Her service and career had a lasting impact on the US and worldwide.
Shortly after my diplomatic service began in 2011, I listened to her, Sec. James Baker and Sec. Colin Powell at the Washington National Cathedral as the former Secretaries of State presented "Values & Diplomacy: A Conversation with Former Secretaries of State."
I admired how they agreed and disagreed, discussed their decisions, and what they believed we could accomplish. It was inspiring. Did Sec. Albright always get it right? Probably not, but what an effort and career.
The Nation will remember her humor, kindness, wit, and intelligence. She was never afraid to speak her mind. I appreciated her advocacy on human rights issues, international diplomacy, and democracy.
My favorite quote from Sec. Albright was from her book, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948.
"It is not what we find, but the reason we cannot stop looking and striving, that tells us why we are here."
"I have spent a lifetime looking for remedies to all manner of life's problems — personal, social, political, global," she wrote. "I am deeply suspicious of those who offer simple solutions and statements of absolute certainty or who claim full possession of the truth. Yet I have grown equally skeptical of those who suggest that all is too nuanced and complex for us to learn any lessons, that there are so many sides to everything that we can pursue knowledge every day of our lives and still know nothing for sure.
"I believe we can recognize truth when we see it, just not at first and not without ever relenting in our efforts to learn more. This is because the goal we seek, and the good we hope for, comes not as some final reward but as the hidden companion to our quest. It is not what we find, but the reason we cannot stop looking and striving, that tells us why we are here."
Sec. Madeleine Albright will be considered one of the most influential women in American politics for a long time to come.
— Dr. Bob
About Dr. Lorinser
For his entire career, Dr. Bob Lorinser (D-MI1) has dedicated his life to the service of his community and country.
After receiving three advanced degrees (Medical Doctor, Masters of Social Work, and Masters in Public Health), Dr. Lorinser worked as a social worker in a Veterans Affairs Hospital and as a physician with the Indian Health Service, serving the Navajo Nation. In 1989, he found his home in Michigan's First District, where he practiced family medicine for three decades.
Dr. Bob joined the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Services in 2011 to serve as a diplomat and Regional Medical Officer. The Lorinsers served the United States for ten years, with tours in Pakistan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Morocco, and Iraq.
When he returned to the states in 2020, Dr. Bob offered his services as Medical Director of Marquette County Health Department. He and his wife of 40 years, Peggy, live in Gwinn and have three children and four granddaughters.
Dr. Bob Lorinser hopes to serve and represent constituents in Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. He is unopposed in the Democrat primary and poised to face Rep. Jack Bergman (R, Acme) in the general mid-term election this November. For more information, visit VoteDrBob.com.