A Few Good Speeches

I have been listening to a couple of speeches lately. And yes, they are speeches by some of the great leaders both from the present and the past. Hearing these speeches, one is swept away by the depth of conviction in these people’s messages and the substance of their speeches' content. Let me start by saying something about Martin Luther King’s speech, ‘I have a dream’.

Considered by many to be the greatest speech of all time, the speech tells you exactly why King was one of the greatest Americans and social rights activists who ever lived. The speech is as old as 51 years but when you play it even now, it echoes around you. King spoke in this speech like a lion. A lion hungry for making change happen. And boy, did he roar!

When you listen to speeches nowadays, there are only very few people that you can say are entirely genuine in their delivery. You can’t trust if most of them really mean what they say. And you would take a while to trust them. And to follow them in what they ask you to do. But if you have heard King speak, you would know that his tone of voice is so sincere, so deeply out of the centre of his conviction that you can’t but believe what he is saying is the truth. You can’t but feel that following him in what he is saying is the right thing to do. And I think that this is also proof of what a great leader he was.

King, they say, used to practice his speeches for hours to get every bit of it perfectly. So his wife could see him speaking aloud his immortal lines in the kitchen. Lines that would later be read out to the rest of the world.

And this is a quality that King shares with the current American President, Barack Obama. Obama is his own worst critic and he would listen to the recordings of his speeches and say, ‘You know what, this is worse than I thought’. He too practiced for hours before giving his speeches in the election rallies of 2008 and 2012.

A speech by Obama that I enjoyed listening to was his commencement address to students at Knox college. This is when he was yet not the President. He was speaking as a newly elected Senator. But when I heard him, I could see why he went on to become the President. Even at his most spontaneous self, he was a world of charm, humor and hard-hitting messages.

There were some parts of that speech that made a deep impression. 

For example, Obama recalled a press conference he had right before he became the senator. He said, “I remember the day before I was sworn in, myself and my staff, we decided to hold a press conference in our office. Now, keep in mind that I am ranked 99th in seniority. I was proud that I wasn’t ranked dead last until I found out that it’s just because Illinois is bigger than Colorado. So I’m 99th in seniority, and all the reporters are crammed into the tiny transition office that I have, which is right next to the janitor’s closet in the basement of the Dirksen Office Building. It’s my first day in the building, I have not taken a single vote, I have not introduced one bill, had not even sat down in my desk, and this very earnest reporter raises his hand and says:

“Senator Obama, what is your place in history?”

I did what you just did, which is laugh out loud. I said, "place in history?" I thought he was kidding. At that point, I wasn’t even sure the other Senators would save a place for me at the cool kids’ table.

But as I was thinking about the words to share with this class, about what’s next, about what’s possible, and what opportunities lay ahead, I actually think it’s not a bad question for you, the class of 2005, to ask yourselves: What will be your place in history?”

And a good question that is. One that many of us forget to ask ourselves or simply ignore to answer, “What will be our place in history?”

I remember one of Stephen Covey’s activities in the workshops that he conducted. He made everyone imagine a funeral. Where everyone beloved to the dead have gathered to say their last few words about who they thought the person who has departed really was. And it was all okay, until Covey says, “Now imagine that you are the dead person. What would you like them to say about you. Your friends, family and community. How would you want them to remember you?”

That is some deep stuff. But one that is important for us to think over as we chart our course through life.

I also liked the part in Obama’s speech where he admonished the idea of Social Darwinism. Which means every man is for himself. And which shirks from taking up social responsibilities.

“In Washington, they call this the Ownership Society. But in our past there has been another term for it -- Social Darwinism -- every man or woman for him or herself. It’s a tempting idea, because it doesn’t require much thought or ingenuity. It allows us to say that those whose health care or tuition may rise faster than they can afford -- tough luck. It allows us to say to the Maytag workers who have lost their job -- life isn’t fair. It lets us say to the child who was born into poverty -- pull yourself up by your bootstraps. And it is especially tempting because each of us believes we will always be the winner in life’s lottery, that we’re the one who will be the next Donald Trump, or at least we won’t be the chump who Donald Trump says: “You’re fired!”

Obama appeals to the students not to ignore the obligations they have towards their society.

He says, “We need each of you.

Now, no one can force you to meet these challenges. If you want, it will be pretty easy for you to leave here today and not give another thought to towns like Galesburg and the challenges they face. There is no community service requirement in the real world; no one is forcing you to care. You can take your diploma, walk off this stage, and go chasing after the big house, and the nice suits, and all the other things that our money culture says that you should want, that you should aspire to, that you can buy.

But I hope you don’t walk away from the challenge. Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. You need to take up the challenges that we face as a nation and make them your own. Not because you have a debt to those who helped you get here, although you do have that debt. Not because you have an obligation to those who are less fortunate than you, although I do think you do have that obligation. It’s primarily because you have an obligation to yourself. Because individual salvation has always depended on collective salvation. Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.

And I know that all of you are wondering how you’ll do this, the challenges seem so big. They seem so difficult for one person to make a difference.

But we know it can be done. Because where you’re sitting, in this very place, in this town, it’s happened before.”

I think that it’s a message that the youth around the world needs to listen to. Thankfully, we are living in a generation where we see cries for change growing louder by the day. And that is good. We, therefore, see new leaders emerging and being given a chance by the people to run things. We see the people too coming forward to take part in the system and not just rant and rebel from the corner of the street.

This is what King would have wanted to build on and I am sure Obama would want the same. After all, he is a product of that very generation that wanted CHANGE.