Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley learned one of the most important lessons of her life as a 5-year-old on the playground.
Growing up in rural South Carolina, Haley – born Nimrata Randhawa – was the daughter of Indian immigrants. Her father wore a turban; her mother, a sari. To say the family stood out among the town’s residents would be an understatement.
“They didn’t know who we were or what we were about,” Haley told attendees at the Oct. 28 Florida Forum lecture to benefit The Women’s Board of Wolfson Children’s Hospital. “But my mother told me, ‘Your job is not to show them how we are different. Your job is to show them how we are similar.’”
The second great lesson she learned from her parents was to “push through the fear.”
“If you push through the fear,” she said, “you find you’re so much stronger when you come out on the other side.”
Those two lessons have stood Haley in good stead throughout her political career, from her early days as a South Carolina legislator to her tenure as the state’s first female governor. In particular, Haley recalled pushing through the fear when a lingering debate over whether the Confederate flag should fly at South Carolina public buildings was reignited by a mass shooting at church Bible study session. Calling the incident one of the most painful moments in her public life, Haley said the turning point came when the families of the victims went to court just days after the shooting and publicly forgave the perpetrator.
“What we tried to do was focus on that forgiveness and that love and grace,” Haley said. “We had no riots in South Carolina, we had vigils. And afterward, the flags came down and South Carolina came out of it stronger.”
Haley was called on to “push through the fear” again when President-elect Trump asked her to become America’s ambassador to the United Nations. “I told my husband, ‘I don’t even know what the UN does – I just know everybody hates it.’”
Haley agreed to accept the position on the condition that it would be elevated to a cabinet-level position so she could report directly to the president and be made part of the National Security Council. She also warned the president-elect that she intended to speak her mind.
“That’s exactly what I want you to do,” Haley said the president told her.
“We were really focused on giving the U.S. a strong voice,” she said. “We were not going to be pushed around. We were going to be respected.”
In her Florida Forum presentation, Haley similarly pulled no punches in her assessment of her tenure as ambassador as well as the current geopolitical climate. Pointing to the Trump administration’s efforts to curtail North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and its successful exit from the Iran deal as major accomplishments achieved during her time as ambassador, Haley identified China as America’s greatest long-term political threat.
“China has been investing in infrastructure all over the world,” she said. “They get countries to run up debt. At the UN, we saw them bullying countries to vote (the way they wanted them to) or they would call in the debt. And when you see the places they’re investing, it sends a chill up your spine.”
Any company doing business in China, Haley noted, must cooperate with the Chinese military.
“Think of your tech companies, and all of the data and information they have on you,” she said. “We can’t be naïve anymore. We can’t trust China.”
And America “can never trust Russia,” Haley said.
“At the Security Council, there wasn’t one bad actor in the world where Russia wasn’t holding their hand,” she said. “They find their strength in causing chaos. Look how they meddled in our elections…all they were trying to do was cause a divide in our country. And they did a good job.”
Since leaving public office, Haley has written a new book – With All Due Respect: Defending America with Grace and Grit – and started the nonprofit Stand for America (standforamericanow.com) to provide unbiased policy information. It’s her way, she said, of living out that early lesson from the playground: unite people through what they have in common instead of what divides them.
“The political climate is as toxic as I’ve ever seen it,” she said. “You have the parties calling one another evil. That hits a nerve with me, because I’ve seen evil – in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where rape is used as a weapon of war. In Sudan, where babies were thrown into fires and their mothers forced to eat the flesh. In Venezuela, where parents were holding their starving children.
“On our worst day,” Haley said, “we are blessed to be an American.”
Sidebar/Callout Shaded Box (IF SPACE CAN RUN THIS)
The Florida Forum
Former Ambassador Nikki Haley’s talk was presented as part of The Florida Forum lecture series to benefit The Women’s Fund of Wolfson Children’s Hospital. Event organizers said this year’s lecture series will support a five-year, $4 million campaign to raise funds for the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
It was a mission that resonated with event moderator Rick Mullaney. The director of Jacksonville University’s Public Policy Institute, Mullaney recalled how his youngest daughter was born prematurely, weighing under 2 pounds, and received treatment at Wolfson’s neonatal unit.
“We like to say there are no atheists in foxholes or the neonatal unit,” Mullaney said, noting his daughter is now a 20-year-old college sophomore. “We are eternally grateful.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Haley, who had an opportunity to tour Wolfson Children’s Hospital prior to the lecture.
“Any time you go into a hospital, you’re in awe of the love and the caring,” she said. “We saw children ranging in age from 18 months to 16 years old. But I kept looking at the parents. Because it’s not something you ever plan on, your child getting sick. But when it happens, you want there to be a place like Wolfson Children’s Hospital.
“Those parents were just so thankful,” Haley continued. “It truly is God’s work.”
Since its inception, The Women’s Board has raised $32 million to support the work of Wolfson Children’s Hospital through events like The Florida Forum lecture series and the annual Art & Antiques Show, to be held Dec. 6-8 at the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center in Jacksonville. For more information, visit womensboardwolfsonchildrenshospital.com.
