"Well, the bee I wore when I was in a nasty
mood, stinging, so it's there with Yasser Arafat"
This collection - none of
this would have happened if it hadn't been
for Saddam Hussein. I was ambassador to
the United Nations and my instructions were
to say terrible things about Saddam Hussein
all the time, which he deserved because he'd
invaded another country. So there was a
poem that came out in the newspapers in Baghdad
that compared me to many things, but among
them, an "unparalleled serpent." And I happened
to have a snake pin, so I wore it when we
talked about Iraq, so I went out after to
do a press briefing, and one of the cameras
zoomed in and said, "So why are you wearing
that snake pin?" and I said, "because Saddam
Hussein called me an 'unparalleled serpent!'"
And then I thought, this is fun, so I went
out and I bought a bunch of pins that actually
were designed to reflect what we were going
to do on any given day, so on good days I
wore flowers and butterflies and balloons
and on bad days all kinds of insects and carnivorous
animals and when people said, on the security
council, "what are we going to do today?"
I said, "Read my pins," and I picked that
up from the first President Bush who said,
"Read My Lips, No New Taxes."
"This one was so terrific that in the end, we bought it and
it was fun because the eyes are clocks and are turned around
"so I would know what time it was..." "Oh they're working clocks?"
"Mmh hmm"
I'm delighted it's in the country's
museum and it makes a big difference to me
because I loved representing the United States
and I'm very proud to be an American, but
I want people to have fun with this because
I did it all for fun. It was a way for me
"There I am voting on something"
to talk about foreign policy in a way that
people will see it as less foreign.
I love foreign policy and most of the pins have
some foreign policy story.
Well, Atlas I bought in France and it
is really Atlas holding up the globe,
which is something one tries to do when you represent
the United States and when you are trying
to solve some of the problems of the world.
So when we were in really difficult meetings
and felt that we had the responsibility to
work with our partners, I would wear the Atlas,
making it very clear that we had a large responsibility.
I truly did not believe I'd be Secretary of State
- there hadn't been a woman before. I happened to
be in one of my favorite jewelry stores and
they showed me this amazing eagle, but I thought,
"Hmmm, a little pricey..."
and I said, on the off chance that I become Secretary
of State, I actually will go and buy the pin,
so I did. The problem was, it has a really
complicated clasp on it, so through this whole
ceremony, it's waving, and I thought,
I'm swearing allegiance to the constitution
and then I think it's going to fall on the
bible and screw the whole thing up (laughs)!
"...I took them out of the plastic bags in my closet
then they were all on my bed--organized by species..."
My heart pin I have worn every Valentine's Day
for the last 35 years except this one because it's been in the exhibit.
People ask me about my heart pin and they
say, "Where'd you get this?" and I say that
my daughter made it. And then they say,
well, how old is your daughter, and she's
been 20, 25, 30, 35 and she says, "Mom, you've
got to tell them I made this when I was five."
But it is Katie's heart, my youngest daughter,
and it's a very special pin because it kind
of signals what you can do with memories and
emotions and links.
I went down to New Orleans
about three years after the Katrina hurricane
and I was speaking at the D-Day museum
at that time and there was a dinner afterwards
and this young man came over to me and said,
"My father is sitting over there, he's a veteran
and he received two purple hearts," and he
had this box and I opened the box and it has
two amethysts in it (I don't know whether
he intended it to represent the two purple
hearts), but basically he said, "my father
gave this to my mother for their 50th
wedding anniversary and she died as a result
of Katrina and we want you to have this pin
because we know she loved you and wanted you
to have it." And I said I can't possibly
accept it. And he said, no, it's very important
to us that you do accept it, and I was just
totally undone and I did
and I call it The Katrina Pin.
"All of these--11? I somehow got them all on up here"
I've created a bit of a monster because
now whenever I go anywhere and I don't have
on a pin
people say, "Where's your pin?"
But it's an icebreaker and it's
great and I'm glad it's been such a happy
experience.