Some people have a real gift with words. Perhaps the greatest speech, at least in the English language, is Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "Four score and seven years ago". You could never write a speech like that today ... too much time has gone by.
I digress: There may be an argument as to the greatest speech in the English language of course. Julius Caesar is eulogized by Mark Antony in the play "J.C" (not that JC ... Julius Caesar!) with the grandiose "Friends, Romans, countryman, lend me your ears..." ... which of course, Mark Antony never really said ... it is a piece of fiction! Darn good fiction though. So in the running for a real speech of course has to be M.L. King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" ... which is far and away gonna have a better delivery and cadence than either Mark Anthony -- despite the iambic pentameter -- and more engaging and memorable than Lincoln's speech. Which, by the time the reporters present sharpened their pencils was over.
273 words -- by my count (which means give or take a few). If you read it somewhat slowly out loud it will last about 2-3 minutes. Edward Everett preceded Lincoln's speech with one of his own ... it lasted two hours! (That's a couple months of sermons!). Not only is Everett's speech not remembered -- it isn't likely to be read or memorized. Lincoln's on the other hand lives on. As even Everett noted in a letter to Lincoln after the event: "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes." Or in more Lincolnesque language: "you said it better than I did, faster too."
I undigress: Reading HuffingtonPost.com is often entertaining and enlightening at the same time. There's a new web site. Going viral. It is called: http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com and it says in a succinct way what Obama and his Adminstration have been terrible at saying. Simply describing their accomplishments. Of course, this link is the sanitized, PG version... just substitute another four-letter word for 'heck' and you'll get the R rated (maybe PG-13, I don't know anymore what the line is for smut and naughtiness) version.
In either case three bright young people decided to mine the record for a list of some of the accomplishments of the Obama presidency and ... voila! There they are ... page after page of them. With links to the factual details. Not everyone will agree that these are 'accomplishments' but as my friend Barbara Sharry says in response to my disappointment expressed in my last blog entry, also my first blog entry: "I think the President fell on his own sword to get the healthcare bill done, and moved mtns to avoid an out-and-out depressions". I agree. I just wish he could, and those who support him could have, done a better job of reminding people of all that has been done. The change for consumers bludgeoned by the excesses of Wall Street and credit card companies alone is enormous!
So back to my point about the power of a few words. Check out the web site I noted above. Creative, succinct, informative -- please kick everyone off the President's PR team and hire these three young people!! (if you want to see them interviewed check out the link on Huffingtonpost.com -- Lawrence O'Donnell "The Last Word" on MSNBC. They came up with the idea and had it done in THREE HOURS!
Lincoln would be proud.
Epilogue: I am in a "Man in Black" swing these days and among the great songs is one off a very late work: "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone" (album: American III: Solitary Man) "Would you lay with me in a field of stone ... if my lips grow dry would you wet them dear ... would you go away to another land ... walk a thousand miles through the burning sand ... wipe the blood away from my dying hand ... if I give myself to you ... would you bathe with me in the stream of life ... will you still love me when I'm down and out?" Here's a You Tube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1onW7xe4SE
Do you have a favorite JC song? (Not that JC! Johnny Cash!) Share with me what and why.
Whiuch
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