How I became an inadvertent global ambassador for impeachment.

The head of the ad agency asked if I wanted to broaden my experience.

Originally from the south side of Chicago, I was then living in New York. I was working on Tiffany and Steuben and American Express and some faux champagnes from Spain. From my perspective, my experience was pretty broad already.

I’m not sure why I said yes but I did.

So, over the next few years, I began working on campaigns to help raise awareness and money for some of the world’s most desperate populations.

I’ve worked with leper colonies in Thailand, nomadic tribes in Africa, street children in Albania, inhabitants of garbage dumps in both Brazil and Guatemala, victims of genocide in remote jungles, and many other drastic and tragic situations. I could recognize the stages and symptoms of malnutrition visually. I witnessed the human toll from both drought and monsoons.

My job in these places was to interview the people, and then tell their stories in a way that people in wealthier countries could understand.

I usually worked with a translator and, upon arriving in a new area, we often held a local meeting. As outsiders, we invited tribal elders and families and teachers and local leaders to meet us, to know why we were there. We offered to answer any and all questions.

The questions ran a full gamut: How was life in America different? Did we have river blindness in America? How much did a water buffalo cost in New York? How far did we need to walk for drinking water in New York?

Throughout, there was one recurring question. Everyone, everywhere, seemed to ask about the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Although Watergate had happened over a decade earlier, it was still big to them and they wanted every detail.

For my part, I tried to avoid the topic. I was embarrassed that we’d impeached a president. I was ashamed of the scandal in our country. I answered contritely and moved on.

The translator admonished me:

“Please! Tell them about the impeachment.”

Why? I feared that by telling this scandalous story, it would create mistrust.

“Because it gives them hope.”

Maybe it’s the Chicago gal in me, but I have never seen impeachment as a particularly uplifting, hopeful story.

He explained that corruption was rampant in poor countries. Corruption often kept people in poverty. Impoverished people accepted corruption as a fact of life. They never imagined fighting back and winning. And so they loved hearing about how an American president – the biggest fish in the polluted pond – could be taken down cold.

After that, whenever asked, I would tell the story of Nixon’s impeachment in great detail.

Consistently, people clapped, cheered and smiled. Nobody ever once told me that it was shameful.

I’ve told the Watergate story of presidential impeachment to ramshackle groups of farmers, villagers, garbage dump dwellers, nomadic tribesmen. I told everyone who asked about that sad, shameful chapter of American history.

It was their happiest story.