21 January 2009

A Good Week for Speeches

Not only did we commemorate the perhaps the greatest speech ever (the good Reverend's "I Have A Dream"), but we also had a chance to look back at these inaugural gems. See if you can finish them.

"Ask not..." JFK

"The only thing we have to fear..." FDR

"With malice towards none..." Honest Abe **At least the 2nd best speech in America's history.**

"Government is not the solution to the problem..." The Great Orator

And Obama's inaugural address yesterday was pretty darn good too. I almost feel the need to qualify that statement (and have started to several times), but let's just leave it at that. As Ol' Mr. Lincoln said, with the country much more divided than today,

"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."

Ahh... there's nothing like a good speech.

3 comments:

*star said...

The better angels of our natures... I've heard you use that before.

Russ said...

Oh yeah. I also gave a talk in church, which was probably the 3rd best speech in American history, right ahead of Malcolm X's "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock; Plymouth Rock landed on us" and Jack Nicholson's "You can't handle the truth."

Stefani said...

Ronnie got a book for Christmas called "Most Influential Speeches in History" or something like that. It even came with a cd with recordings of some of them. You should check it out.