Weekend Assignment#210: Speechifying

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which differences disappear and obstacles vanish."

-John Quincy Adams

Weekend Assignment #210: It's been 40 years since the Mountaintop speech, and even longer since the great speeches of John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and others. Are the days of great oratory behind us, or have you drawn inspiration from some recent public speaker? If so, what was the speech? Do you remember any actual quotes from it?

Extra Credit: Have you ever given a speech, other than in a classroom?

-Karen Funk Blocher, of the blog, Outpost Mavarin


Chelsea Clinton was campaigning for her mother Sen. Hillary Clinton on a college campus, just one of many she has spoken at, when a student journalist asked her opinion about how and if her mother's credibility had been damaged by her father's affair with Monica Lewinsky. I didn't hear all of her speech that day, indeed the only thing the media seemed to play was the response she gave to that insulting question. A simple. "None of your business." I admire her strength and ability to keep herself in check.

I don't know if someone had asked me an equally insulting question, if I could contain myself. I can spit fire at times, with the proper provocation. This question came at the end of a long Q&A session, and was the last question asked. She could have left the stage at this point, but she stayed, and took one additional question. This girl has grown into a wonderful young woman, and true testament to what the Clinton's have done right as parents. That says volumes to me. They have my respect for many reasons. Chelsea has my respect for her grace in such difficult situations as this moment was. Sometimes little moments stay longer with me, then long speeches do.

Extra Credit: Nope, I am not much of a public speaker, but I might give it a try under the right circumstances, such as the entire audience clothed only in their underwear. LOL.

-OndineMonet