Photo of the Week: In Krakow, Celebrating the Community of Democracies

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Today's "Photo of the Week" honors the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Community of Democracies, an organization initiated by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and her Polish counterpart Bronislaw Geremek in 2000. The photo comes to us courtesy of the U.S. Consulate General in Krakow, Poland, which was one of the stops on Secretary Clinton's July 1-5 trip to Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia.

Speaking before the Communities of Democracy participants, Secretary Clinton said:

"[I]t was only through debate, discussion, and civic activism that the United States of America came into being. We were a people before we were a nation...Civil society has played an essential role in identifying and eradicating the injustices that have, throughout our history, separated our nation from the principles on which it was founded. It was civil society, after all, that gave us the abolitionists who fought the evils of slavery, the suffragettes who campaigned for women's rights, the freedom marchers who demanded racial equality, the unions that championed the rights of labor, the conservationists who worked to protect our planet and climate...Every Fourth of July Americans affirm their belief that all human beings are created equal, that we are endowed by our creator with unalienable rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today, as a community of democracies, let us make it our mission to secure those rights. We owe it to our forebears, and we owe it to future generations to continue the fight for these ideals."

You can read the Secretary's full remarks here.

Previous coverage of the Secretary's trip:

• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Holds Town Hall With Georgian Women Leaders• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Meets With Georgian President Saakashvili• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Meets With President Sargsian of Armenia• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Meets With Azerbaijani Civil Society and Youth Leaders• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Meets With President Aliyev of Azerbaijan• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Announces U.S. Contribution to Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation• Travel Diary: U.S., Poland Sign Ballistic Missile Defense Agreement Amendment• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Honors Community of Democracies 10th Anniversary• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Delivers Remarks at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Meets With Ukrainian Foreign Minister Gryshchenko• Travel Diary: Secretary Clinton Meets With Ukrainian President Yanukovych• A Preview of Secretary Clinton's Upcoming Travel to Central Europe and the Caucasus