Andrew Young

I was really impressed by Andrew Young’s speech. I know that many people in class had problems with its lack of organization, but I didn’t notice that at all. Personally, I thought that the structure was unimportant in comparison to the content. He talked about a lot of things that I thought were extremely relevant to the theme of the event (Martin Luther King), and really tried to reach out to his audience and make them see his point of view. His ethos was established mostly by his introduction and in the pamphlet we were given on the way into the theatre. It mentioned his dealings with Martin Luther King Jr. and his political involvements with the United Nations and other organizations. He used quite a bit of logos throughout his speech, with references to the effective ways in which Jimmy Carter used the UN as a peacekeeping force instead of sending troops into countries to settle things violently. He tied that in with MLK Jr.’s peaceful approach to achieving his goals. He also referred to the situation that is going on in Belgium, in which there is animosity between tall people and short people, which is in essence just as ludicrous as the struggles between blacks and whites in our own country. I was interested to find out that the reason we went to war without going through the UN first was because the ambassador for that nation was battling prostate cancer. He used a lot of pathos, too, especially playing up the fact that a good part of his audience was African American. He talked about how people have complained that there aren’t any protests anymore. He explained that there are still protests, but that blacks have gained the ability to have civilized conversations with whites, so they are simply not as public, and more silent. He also appealed to the audience’s pathos by using humorous stories, like when he was mayor and people were protesting outside his building. He went outside and said “if you want to talk to me, you don’t have to stand out here and yell… just come on inside and we’ll talk.” All in all, I think that his speech was very deliberative in that he was not only preaching tolerance and acceptance, but also the need for society to become educated in order to make educated decisions.