Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Meet Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao
I take this as a reminder that we really do live in the "land of opportunity".
Sometimes, I think that too many natural born Americans have forgotten that...
Sometimes, I think that too many natural born Americans have forgotten that...
Brendan Miniter writes about her in the Wall Street Journal:
"'Seventeen hundred nautical miles, there were no doctors on board and my mother sat up for three nights and three days, just continuously soaking my sister's body, little body, with cold water' to break her fever.
'So I see opportunities in this country, perhaps, in a slightly different way. . . . America really is unique,' she says. 'It's really a land of meritocracy, where it doesn't matter where you were born, who you know. If a person works hard, most of the time . . .'
On this last point, Ms. Chao's words trail off, as the current state of the economy seems to be weighing on her mind. There is widespread speculation that the economy could soon slip into recession as the country sheds jobs and faces a slumping housing market. Still, Ms. Chao points out that the national unemployment rate remains below where it averaged in the 1990s (5.5% today versus 5.7% last decade). 'people forget that,' she says."
