A few months ago, I found myself in a house outside Garfield, Arkansas. It overlooked Beaver Lake from a prominent hilltop, and with me were six other creative people. By the end of our weekend getaway, we formed Bumbershoot Writers Society—a fledgling group with the noble intent of helping each other as well as other creatives find an avenue to present their works to the world.
We have a website https://bumbershootswriterssociety.com/ where you can check out our mission and progress. Remember that I said fledgling. We are just beginning.
We have a weekly blog, and the last entry was written by Marlon S. Hayes, titled “It’s All about the Writers.” He talks about how every time we see a scene on the big or little screen, it comes from the mind and pen of a writer. No matter the overwhelming performance of the actor, the words and the characters come from someone else.
For example, I cannot imagine anyone else playing Doc Holliday. “Maybe poker’s not your game, Ike. I know, let’s have a spelling contest.” Kevin Jarre wrote the screenplay. Without his writing, the film would never have become the cult classic it is today.
Reading Hayes’ blog, I wanted to take it a bit further. Behind every movie, television series, and even greeting card, the mind and pen of a writer furiously scribbles. But what other important things have writers done? I say they have moved nations into motion. They have brought armies to their knees. They have made people quietly stop and ponder their place in the universe.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream.”
Almost a century after the American Civil War ended, the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution meant nothing to various authorities as the rule of law was circumvented in order to prevent equal treatment and protection under the law.
Dr. King did not foment a second rebellion with his words delivered on August 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C. He spoke of hope. He spoke of friendship. He spoke of love. An excerpt:
“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”
Why it speaks to me: Hope can defeat the ugliness of all humanities sins. Hope triumphs over despair. But it is also a call to action. I live my life with the goal of always defending those unable or unwilling to defend themselves. I have never backed away from a fight whenever I saw someone being bullied. But where I believed it was a physical fight during my younger years, Dr. King’s words led me to understand that they can be much more impactful and memorable when they are written and spoken in the quiet moments.
- Winston Churchill, “Their Finest Hour.”
Nineteen months before the United States joined the Allied effort to wage war against the Axis powers, the British prime minister called America to task. But not only did he challenge the Yanks to action, he inspired his own people to give their utmost. He presented this speech on June 18,1940 before the House of Commons in London. From there, the British people suffered years of depravation caused by war. An excerpt:
“Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.
Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”
Why it speaks to me: We are all connected. If evil is allowed to get a foothold, the world will descend into darkness. Mr. Churchill mentions, years before we learned the extent of the Nazi depravity, the “perverted science” that Hitler’s scientists conducted on prisoners at concentration camps. This speech reminds me that one must not be silent when evil is discovered.
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt, “Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation.”
Almost two years after Winston Churchill said the United States needed to prepare to defend against the evils of Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan conducted a sneak attack—one that was actually expected by many but still caught the US military unprepared—on the US forces in Hawaii.
Many in the government may have suspected that an attack was imminent, but the assault caught the American public completely by surprise. It terrified them. President Roosevelt spoke to these people huddled around radios across the country when he stood before Congress on December 8, 1941 and addressed the nation. An excerpt:
“Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces-with the unbounding determination of our people-we will gain the inevitable triumph-so help us God.”
Why it speaks to me: Sacrifice. So many people sacrificed so much during this conflict that brought the entire world to its knees. I exist solely because of one such sacrifice. My maternal grandfather—before he ever met my grandmother—served as a Hospital Corpsman with the 1st Marine Raiders. His best friend Patrick gave his life defending my grandfather while he worked on a wounded Marine. That is what Roosevelt meant to me when spoke of “unbounding determination.”
- Mahatma Gandhi, “Quit India.”
Across history, it is likely impossible to find an example of an empire ruling a conquered people without there being some animosity. India, ruled by the expansionist British Empire, was no exception. Mahatma Gandhi with the National Indian Congress proposed a series of non-violent civil disobedience protests that would lead the British to “quit India.” He gave this speech moments before midnight on August 8, 1942 at the Gowalia Tank Maidan in present-day Mumbai.
He calls for his people to act, which they did in massive numbers, forcing the British colonial government performing major crackdowns on those non-violent protests arrests. An excerpt:
“I believe that in the history of the world, there has not been a more genuinely democratic struggle for freedom than ours. I read Carlyle’s French Revolution while I was in prison, and Pandit Jawaharlal has told me something about the Russian revolution. But it is my conviction that inasmuch as these struggles were fought with the weapon of violence they failed to realize the democratic ideal. In the democracy which I have envisaged, a democracy established by non-violence, there will be equal freedom for all. Everybody will be his own master. It is to join a struggle for such democracy that I invite you today.”
Why it speaks to me: I have always said I am an anarchist. But what I am not is a proponent of chaos or violence. When I say anarchist, I mean that I do not want someone who has not spent a second in my shoes telling me what I should or shouldn’t do. I will not cause harm to any other, and I expect the same treatment. As Gandhi said, I am my “own master.” If I want to play bingo for more than five hours in North Carolina, I will. If I want to live on a boat for 91 days or more in Georgia, I will. And if I want to play dominoes on a Sunday after church in Alabama, I will.
- Abraham Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address.”
The Battle of Gettysburg was the deadliest and costliest confrontation between Union and Confederate forces in the American Civil War with almost 8,000 estimated killed in action. Lincoln was not the main speaker at the dedication of the cemetery on November 19, 1863 and, according to rumor, scribbled the speech on the back of an envelope during the train ride from Washington, D.C.
During the three-minute-long speech, Lincoln mentioned neither Union nor Confederacy, nothing of the battle, and no names of those buried in the consecrated ground. Instead, the speech was about an experiment of liberty and freedom surviving. An excerpt:
“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Why it speaks to me: Yes. I am an anarchist. But if I should be ruled over by others, then that government must be representative. “By the people” and “for the people” does not mean by special interest groups, it does not mean by political identity, and it does not mean by foreign interests. That should not perish…though I fear it has diminished greatly.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Farewell Address.”
My maternal grandfather served in the military. My father retired after serving in the US Navy for 20 years. Several uncles served. Cousins served. Many members of my wife’s family served. We are a military family. I even served and planned to make it a career until I received a medical discharge. What I do not support is a military power unchecked by civilian oversight.
When “Ike” left the office of president, he warned the American people about the dangers of unchecked influence between the military and the corporate powers that supply it could have. An excerpt:
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Why it speaks to me: I like to consider myself a student of history, and I have not discovered a nation where the people flourished in freedom and liberty when they were ruled by a military junta or tyranny. Since I am not a proponent of blindly answering to others, I doubt I would flourish in a society ruled by the military-industrial complex.
- Admiral William H. McRaven, “Make Your Bed”
When speaking at the University of Texas commencement in 2014, Admiral McRaven gave an encouraging speech about how changing the world starts with the simplest of tasks: making your bed. What a strange thing to hear as a college graduate preparing to go out into the world, taking it by the horns. An excerpt:
“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.
And if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.”
Why it speaks to me: After surviving a motor vehicle accident that led to my discharge from military service, I suffered a deep depression. I had a counselor suggest I acquire a daily planner since I did not want to use medication. When I asked what I put it in it, she answered that my first and only task for the next day would be “make your bed.” The next week, I added brush my teeth—that is not saying I went a week without brushing my teeth. The next week, I added get dressed. This sequence of successes helped my recovery. Admiral McRaven said, “If you want to change the world, make your bed,” and it worked. I changed my world.
- Ronald Reagan, “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate.”
World War II divided not only the world but also a nation. Germany found itself pulled apart between Democratic west and Communist east. Even the capital of Berlin—completely-surrounded by East Germany—found itself split apart. The Cold War was an anxious time. But the might of the Soviet Union started to diminish by the end of the 1980s. On June 12, 1987, Reagan said, famously, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” while he stood at the Brandenburg Gate in East Berlin. On November 9, 1989, that started to happen, An excerpt:
“The advance of human liberty can only strengthen the cause of world peace. There is one sign the Soviets can make that would be unmistakable, that would advance dramatically the cause of freedom and peace. General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization, come here to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Why it speaks to me: I joined the US Navy at the tail end of the Cold War. An anxious time when you thought that at any moment, World War III could begin. When we lived in Iceland, we were taught to hang up the phone when we heard clicking because it meant we were being listened to. When I spent months in Germany with my maternal grandparents, we had to wait before we got in the car as my grandfather checked for bombs. To live during the Cold War was to live in fear.
Relating to this speech and why it means so much to me is a quote from Roy Batty—played by Rutger Hauer—in the movie Bladerunner: “Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave.” The Cold War was not a glorious time in our world. Reagan’s speech meant not only to tear down the wall dividing east from west, but to me, it also means to tear down the wall of fear that surrounds your life.
- John F. Kennedy, “The Decision to Go to the Moon.”
Back on April 12, 1961, President Kennedy challenged the American people. The nation believed it trailed the Soviet Union in technology. It put the US on track to develop technologies that have helped the entire world. These include medical imaging, water filtration systems, solar panels, artificial limbs, air purifiers, home insulation, and infrared thermometers to name a few. But what it also revealed is that we may not be stuck here. There is a whole vast universe to explore. An excerpt:
“There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict in outer space as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation many never come again.
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”
Why it speaks to me: Even though his words were spoken a decade before my birth, his words make me realize that all have potential. That we are not bound by our constraints. We must have vision. We must not be held down. No matter the difficulty, we can reach the stars.
- William Faulkner, “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech.”
Writers see the world differently. Subtle things that often escape daily notice are captured by writers and usually expressed vividly in words that evoke lasting images. Unlike some of his contemporaries, Faulkner did not skimp on the words, often using stream of consciousness narration and complex language. But even though some critics found him convoluted, his body of work still earned him the Nobel Prize in Literature while in his early fifties. An excerpt:
“I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”
Why it speaks to me: Remember? I am an anarchist. I want to use my writing to give voice to the reader that they can throw off the chains of “civilization” binding them to an existence dictated to them by the whim of others. Faulkner speaks of the writer being one of the “pillars” that can help humanity “endure and prevail.” I would that my writing could teach the readers to become their own masters.
Conclusion
These are some of the speeches that have not only moved many people and nations, but they are also the ones that express ideas I find important and valuable. Writing is the record of what life has been. It also describes life as it has the potential to be.
What are some speeches that have moved you?
