On Ambassador Andrew Young

I wasn’t quite sure what I was getting myself into when I went to hear Ambassador Andrew Young last night. Overall, I enjoyed the ceremony that was held in remembrance of Martin Luther King, Jr. However, I wasn’t as impressed with Ambassador Young’s speech. Though throughout his speech he did utilize the rhetoric devices of pathos, ethos, and logos, his speech was far too irregular to follow. We learned in class that the reason why rhetoric is so important is because it decides things or communicates things that cannot be decided upon definitively by any other means. I had a hard time understanding what it was, exactly, that Ambassador Young was trying to have his audience "decide" upon. There is no doubt that he establishes and maintains credibility throughout his speech. From the beginning, he tells the audience that he has had 40 years of experience with public speaking and years of involvement with domestic and international civil rights. He went on to describe Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of the founding fathers of the constitution, committed to trying to realize a great nation without resorting to violence. He focused extensively on poverty and President Jimmy Carter and his policies of non-violence during his presidency. He acknowledged a "man-made" struggle in Rwanda, the natural struggle with the tsunami, and the struggles of race-relations here at Clemson. He talked about segregation and the importance of teamwork. He created a sense of pathos as he described poor children watching an American family on TV as they gathered around the table to eat. These unfortunate children, he said, were left to question why they "couldn’t have that" and would some day see their family members die without clothing. He rambled of Magic Johnson, oil, President Bush, the spirit of freedom among the Iraqi citizens, and how he, personally, was elected Mayor in Georgia. Then the kicker: He ended in saying, "We have lived through many impossible dreams…we still live by our dreams, so lets dream on because our dreams have a strange way of making themselves a reality." The end. A nice thought and statement, but somehow it seemed the only phrase he had really rehearsed and planned on saying, making it very out of place. Had I not taken notes, all leading up to his closing remarks would have been left grey and without remembrance. Sadly, the unity he advocates among people wasn't even achieved in his speech.

Melody Fowler