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I learned that former Secretary of State Warren Christopher died yesterday. I did not know him, but I did meet him once.

When I was in High School, my government class participated in We The People: The Citizen and the Constitution which is a nation-wide competition for students to learn about the U.S. Constitution. When I participated, one of the subjects was the debate between the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists. My team had to take the Anti-Federalist line, which was interesting because their arguments are usually dismissed nowadays. There were not many teams participating in North Dakota, so advancing to nationals was rather easy (we never met the other team in person, as we competed via conference call).

The national competition in Washington D.C. was much stiffer, and our little group from North Dakota quickly found itself outmatched. However, the trip itself was quite interesting. Our government teacher Ms. Watkins had strangely compelling connections in the city. I have no idea how, but she got us a private lecture by Anthony Scalia in the Supreme Court chambers.

We were also invited to the State Department to meet Warren Christopher. He was born in a small town in North Dakota which I think contributed to our getting to meet him. Our class took a photo with him, but that was before the Internet so I have no idea where it is now. I had it displayed proudly in my room for a long time afterwards.