It is All Saints Day here in the U.S. and across the Catholic world. Tomorrow, November 2 is All Souls Day. It is a day when we remember the dead. We visit the cemeteries and offer prayers for those who have gone before us. Mexico celebrates The Day of the Dead. In Haiti, where so many have passed this year the Catholic Holyday coincides with Guedé, the two-day Voudou feast of the dead. This year, sadly, it follows a horrendous attack on a Catholic Church in Baghdad where 52 are said to have been killed. Hillary Clinton also spent the most solemn and profound part of November 1 reflecting on the dead.
Like her visit yesterday to the Siem Reap shelter, today's visit to the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a converted prison where from 1975-1979 an estimated 17,000 people were imprisoned, tortured and killed by the Khmer Rouge, represents an especially deep and weighty gesture to the people of Cambodia.
Here you see her among pictures of thousands of the dead. There is one image where her beautiful blue eyes reflect the horror within her as she gazes on the skulls of the dead on display.
This tour and the visit to Siem Reap demonstrate better than any speech can the special brand of diplomacy and outreach to people that is Hillary's Clinton's trademark. Today, All Saints Day, here is Hillary Clinton paying tribute and remembrance those who died unjustly simply because of who they were.
In the press, much has been made of the fact that she will be out of the country on the day of these contentious mid-term elections. As she reminds us time and again, she is out of politics as Secretary of State. She has nothing to offer on the campaign trail, and a great deal of work to do on the international stage. She has her own job description and tasks that do not include domestic firestorms. If you think, however, that this particular visit on this particular day was a coincidence, I suggest you think again.
Hillary Clinton is brilliant. An acquaintance once said, "Hillary Clinton knows what she's having for lunch in March." She is well aware of the significance of this visit on this day. It is a global and ecumenical, in the broadest sense of that word, gesture to remind us that all the dead, including millions murdered by brutal regimes, are our dead. If genocide is to stop, it is up to all of us.
This visit on this day was not a coincidence or an accident. If you don't know that, you don't know Hillary Clinton. And that prompts me to share one of my favorite tribute videos from 2008. For the second day in a row, the gravity of her movements in this world has brought me to tears. Thank you, Mme. Secretary for everything you do.
RESIST, INSIST, PERSIST, ENLIST.” - HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
