THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2025 7 As long as there are dedicated Americans willing to submit themselves and their families to the challenges of serving our country overseas, AFSA will continue to fight for them. door” over the past months, to those “left behind” to clean up the mess, to the younger, fresher talent on whom we rely for long-term institutional continuity who have one eye on the door—I feel it safe to say that while we are certainly not all in the same boat, we all remain in the same storm. The gale warnings persist. Both from Washington, D.C., where Foreign Service careers are placed on the chopping block in the name of partisan budgetary battles, and from overseas, where, among the myriad challenges, FS employees and their families serve as 21st-century “guinea pigs” for what appears to be some tyrant’s newest weapon as AHI (anomalous health incident) attacks ravage their cranial nervous systems. They all deserve someone in their corner. For the day-to-day challenges— vouchers are still not processed in a timely manner, education allowances continue to be improperly denied, and household effects inexplicably find their way to the bottom of the Indian Ocean—AFSA will remain dedicated to ensuring that the interests of the Foreign Service, its members, and their families remain at the center of all we do. We’re still here, and we’re not going anywhere, folks! I’d note that this edition of the Journal is being published on November 1— my first day of retirement. Hopefully at that time I will have reason to thank the very overworked Office of Retirement for seeing to my smooth transition to retiree status. If not, I can be grateful for my colleagues on the member services team at AFSA, who never cease to amaze me in their understanding of the intricacies of processes—even in the present “dynamic” environment. In a sign of the times, I will be the first retiree serving as AFSA president that the organization has seen in its 101year history, one of the effects of the president’s executive order discontinuing AFSA’s collective bargaining status. While AFSA will continue to fight this in court, the reconfiguration of the AFSA presidency opens up a new realm of possibilities for me, since I am no longer bound by the limitations that come with federal employment. I intend to take full advantage of this unexpected change and will be able to “speak truth to power”—something that an increasing number of AFSA members are no longer able to do. Change and Challenges So here I sit at a table across from University of Ljubljana’s math and physics campus on a brisk September morning listening jealously as energetic students decline the vocative, locative, and genitive cases with ease. I am heartened that, since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, many in their region’s successor nations have made progress in moving past ethnocentric xenophobia and resolving difficult problems. But I realize that while different from the existential challenges faced by their parents and grandparents, these students are in just as great need of advocates and defenders against the challenges that confront their own generation. So it is for AFSA and the Foreign Service. So it will always be. Human history is characterized by constant changes in social organization, technology, and culture that bring ups and downs, crises and challenges, as well as the potential for happiness and well-being. I’m reminded of a quote from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring sent to me recently by a sanguine Foreign Service friend who has weathered more than his share of storms. It serves as a good reminder of the role we all play. “I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” n
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODIyMDU=