People Whom I Have Known Part III: Foreign Policy

I'm old. I don't consider myself old. I think to myself: I'm young. I'm hip. I know who Taylor Momsen is. But I'm actually old enough to remember when Slash and Axl were on speaking terms.

One of the few good parts of getting older is that, possibly, if one is lucky, a few of one's acquaintances or former acquaintances may acquire enough power or prestige (or perhaps infamy) to become useful topics in casual conversation. This happened to me twice last year, with the cases of Paul DePodesta and Rey Deceraga. And now it happens again with Samantha Power.

Samantha Power was last seen in 2008, when she resigned from Barack Obama's presidential campaign after calling Hillary Clinton a "monster". But now Power has reemerged as a senior aide at the National Security Council, and one of the primary architects of our military intervention in Libya. As such, she is the subject of conjecture and analysis all the way from The Nation to National Review. There is even speculation that she might be our next Secretary of State.

Before all this, though, she was one of the freshman counselors in my dorm during my first year of college. I didn't have much contact with her, because I didn't cause much trouble, and the freshman counselors were mostly concerned with the troublemakers. When I think back on our limited interactions, what stands out most in my mind is that she did not approve of my handling of the Squirrel Situation. But I don't feel like relating the Squirrel Situation right now.

At that time, I had no idea that she would rise to such heights in our government, nor how fake her name would sound if she were to be in a position of . . . well . . . power.