Throughout history, there have been many different movements, revolutions and organizations that strive for a more fair world. All the successful ones have been filled with strong public advocacy. To get the public behind something, and involved, is difficult, but worth it. An important example of public advocacy, and the appeal to it, happened at the 2011 World Special Olympics Games.
The Special Olympics is an organization, which is leading the movement to form a society that embraces our more special members. Every year, there is a finale to the games that the participants enjoy all year long. This past year, the chairman and CEO Tim Shriver, delivered a speech to define the meaning of this amazing society. The target audience was directly the athletes and coaches, but indirectly, the world. He called on Special Olympics athletes in the crowd and asked them to lead a dignity revolution. This medium of this speech was simple, only using his verbal skills and broadcasting onto larger screens.
The five canons of rhetoric apply directly to his moving speech. He found a way to grip the audience that consisted of coaches and athletes, and persuaded them to listen to him and to take him up on his challenge to start a dignity revolution. He arranged his points in a clear and concise way, but he cut to the chase. His style was pure heart, he truly believed in his message and what he wanted to convey. He also knew his speech very well, he may have looked once or twice at his papers, but the meat of it was coming from deep inside of him. The delivery is so effective, because his voice has such passion behind it. You can tell he actually cares about what he is saying through the use of his eyes, voice and and his hand movements.
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