Different Kinds of Speech

Submitted by:

Ma. Brigida Arsenia D. Moran

BSE- English

Effective Communication for Teachers

Ma’am Violeta Sarmiento

M/Th 3-4PM

Acceptance Speech

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when 22 million Negroes of the United States of America are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice. I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. And only yesterday more than 40 houses of worship in the State of Mississippi alone were bombed or burned because they offered a sanctuary to those who would not accept segregation. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle; to a movement which has not won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize.

After contemplation, I conclude that this award which I receive on behalf of that movement is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time - the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression. Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

The tortuous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama to Oslo bears witness to this truth. This is a road over which millions of Negroes are travelling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new Civil Rights Bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a super highway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him. I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the

final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant. I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men. I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive good will proclaim the rule of the land. "And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree and none shall be afraid." I still believe that WeShall overcome!

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Today I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally.

Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible - the known pilots and the unknown ground crew.

So you honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people, are still met with the most brutal expression of man's inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew without whose labor and sacrifices the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headline and their names will not appear in Who's Who. Yet when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvellous age in which we live - men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization - because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say that I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners - all those to whom beauty is truth and truth beauty - and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold. (Martin Luther King's Acceptance Speech, on the occasion of the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964)

Commencement Speech

It is my honor and privilege to be invited as your guest speaker in today's commencement exercises.

Allow me first to congratulate this year's graduating class. After years of toil and many sacrifices, now is your day of recognition. Today is essentially a day of acknowledging and savoring the fruits of many years of tireless and disciplined efforts of honing your talents and improving yourselves. I trust that your labor will be for the good not only of your own individual lives but of society as a whole.

To the Institute of Creative Computer Technology Colleges Foundation (ICCT), your drive and commitment to nation-building through knowledge and skills development, specifically in the fields of Information and Communication Technology and Health Sciences, are very commendable. Your pursuit for academic excellence in the Province of Rizal that is responsive to the needs of the times epitomizes the "industry-academe linkage" that is at the forefront of PCCI's advocacy.

I firmly believe that education is a very important ingredient in shaping one's future. However, education does not end after graduation. The search for knowledge is a never-ending quest and continues throughout our lifetime.

At this point, many of you will probably feel you know all the answers. I know I did when I graduated. But let me remind you, life has the habit of changing the questions. You must realize that education alone is not a sure guarantee for success. In school, one acquires basic knowledge about many things and you learned exactly what you need to do to succeed. In the real world, however, there is no core curriculum you have to pass. Everything is an elective and it is up to you to make the choice. The choices are infinite and the results, uncertain. Whatever you want to do with the knowledge you have acquired and the choices you make afterwards, try to make a difference. Search for the change we need - a platform that catapulted "that one" to the presidency of the United States of America. Have an open mind and do not become too wedded to the status quo. Be a game changer.

Your graduation today is just one among many milestones and I assure you, there will be many more milestones to hurdle as you journey through life.

I have been a businessman for over four decades now and in all these years I have come across numerous people with varied levels of experience from many fields of endeavors, different persuasions, beliefs, cultural backgrounds and religious inclinations. Some of them have been very successful in their respective fields of interest, while others fell short of their dreams, and still some just coasted along because they seek the comfortable and accepted. In the pursuit for individual success, many become so engrossed and focused on specific desires like growth, promotions, income, shareholder value, market share, or on a more personal level, wealth accumulation. To the materialistic, it is their belief that the more you have, the more successful you become and you try to gain a higher status thinking it confers nobility. On the contrary, this is too self referential.

By now, all of you are probably familiar with the financial crisis that started in the United States but has affected many economies globally. Numerous articles have already been written about it and I will not bore you with another analysis of the details leading to the crisis. Simply put, the crisis was a catastrophe waiting to happen. After years of a totally unregulated financial market, it became reckless as it was driven by investors' excessive desire for high yielding instruments. But this financial disaster, to me, is a clear example of man's obsession for wealth accumulation at all cost. It is best exemplified in the movie, "Wall Street", where Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, referring to corporate profit, said that greed is good. Yes, it is obscene, yet not entirely wrong!

Wealth accumulation is good for it brings prosperity to many. But the blind pursuit for wealth, driven by insatiable greed and in full disregard of the consequences, can bring havoc and sufferings to many. And we are now witness to its effects. The crisis is turning trouble to trauma in the capital markets on a global scale.

Allow me at this point to quote Nabi Saleh, the founder and Chairman of Gloria Jeans Coffees International. He said, quoting from Proverbs 11:28, "A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump, while a God-shape life is like a flourishing tree."

Taking religion out of the equation, the just-quoted Proverbs line points us to go "back to basics", of human values of decency and caring for others, of integrity and honesty - these values we all learned in grade school, a long long time ago but which we need to remember during these, as the Chinese would say, "interesting times". Indeed, today, we live in a world of turbulence where dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present.

To the young graduates today, you have the power to actively and directly shape your future and that of society. The choices open to you are many and the permutations to attaining your goals are equally numerous. But there is only one true path, oftentimes the harder path, to the real meaning of success. And taking this road, you will reach life's reward when you have made a positive impact on the lives of your fellowmen.

To this end and in my long years in business, permit me to share with you some of the things that have helped me in my own particular journey, a journey which is still unfolding as I speak before you today because life is not static.

First, try to set a clear vision of what you want to be and work towards that goal constantly, rather than live a life aimlessly wandering from day to day, not knowing where you are headed. Helen Keller was once asked, "Is there anything worse than blindness?" To which she replied, "Yes, an eyesight with no vision."

In seeking your own dream, do not be afraid to set a grand vision for yourself because you become what you believe. But be realistic. Remember, the problem is not aiming too high and missing it. The real problem is aiming too low and grabbing it.

In your journey, you will encounter setbacks and you will make mistakes, as I have several times. Some call these setbacks and mistakes, failures. I call them learning points which collectively form the seeds of what is called experience, and eventually wisdom.

Second, continue to learn. When you are just starting, and even in your later years, you will not have all the answers. Know your limitations. If you do not have the answer, say so and find out. Do not guess nor fake it. Most often than not, people will respect you for your honesty and self assurance. Again, as the Chinese say, "Ask and be embarrassed for a moment or keep your silence and be ignorant for a lifetime."

Third, persevere. Do not give up so easily or you will never accomplish anything. On the other hand, be practical and change gear when the writing on the wall is very clear. Try to adjust to changing times but still hold to unchanging principles.

Fourth, seek a balanced life. This is the essence of the saying, "Work hard, play well and live life fully." Do not be too focused on your career. Build friendships along the way for they, apart from your family, will fill your life. Most importantly, find time to enjoy your family, your friends and colleagues before it is too late to do so.

Finally, help people along the way. Be generous for generosity is its own reward. Generosity is not simply giving money. The virtue of generosity applies primarily to the gift of ourselves, our time and service for others. True generosity is not self- sacrifice where we look at the gain of the other as our expense. Rather, it is the extension of ourselves and delighting in the flourishing of others.

Once more, there is a Chinese proverb that says, roughly translated, "If you want happiness for an hour, take a nap; but if you want happiness for a lifetime, help somebody."

Today, as you end a period in your life of uninterrupted tranquility and bliss in the ICCT campus, you will be entering a new phase and a new arena with many challenges but equally many opportunities. There will be many choices to make but equally, there will be many hands to help you make those choices. Recognizing and overcoming head-on the challenges that come your way will make you grow and enrich your lives further.

As you make your journey, always remember to be grateful for the gifts that have been given to you from Above and refrain from focusing on what you do not have for you will never have enough.

Let me leave you today with a quote from Mary Harder McArthur, mother of General Douglas McArthur, as she was talking to her son on the eve of his entrance exam at Westpoint, "You must believe in yourself, or no one else will believe in you. Be self confident, self reliant and even if you do not make it, you will know you have done your best."

My heartiest congratulations to all the graduates, to your families and to the faculty, trustees and founders of ICCT.

Thank you. (Commencement Speech delivered by Mr. Edgardo G. Lacson for ICCT)

Eulogy

Mark was a man nobody can replace… at least not in my heart. We’ve been married for 20 years. Yes, those 12 years were not all that happy. What we had was not a perfect marriage but as people say… Mark and I were perfect for each other and we were! With our union, we gave life to five beautiful children. Mark was a disciplinarian. He was strict but not stiff and he loved our kids so much. Our kids loved him tremendously because Mark never feared showing his emotions towards them, towards me or to just about anyone he loved. He was indeed affectionate and was not a man of few words at all! Mark had lots to say for just about anything. Anyone who ever had the chance to talk to him would say, he indeed had lots of things in his mind. I guess you can say Mark was “opinionated”.

I still remember one conversation I had with him. We were talking about our kids. About how we wanted to see all of them grow up. He had lots of dreams for them. Back then, we only had two children, Sarah and Paul. Mark was a proud father. He was the type of father who would flaunt his kids to his friends and his friends loved our kids too of course. Mark dreamt big. He wanted our kids to grow up wise, God fearing, respectful and successful people. I am proud to say, Mark achieved that. We brought up five wonderful children. We now have doctors, engineers and a lawyer in the family. How lucky are we? I know Mark will flaunt about our children with everyone in heaven. In fact, I am sure of

that.

Mark lived his life the best way he could. He never had enemies nor did he step on anyone. Mark was well loved and I guess seeing everyone here right now, having this big a crowd on his funeral only proves that indeed Mark was and is well loved. How could he not be? He was such a kind soul. The type of person you can’t get enough of. Well, at least I think of him that way. I married him, didn’t I? If I could live all over again and would go back to the time when Mark asked me to marry him, even for a million times all over I would still say yes! Marrying him was the best decision I ever made in my life and I would not change that even if I have the chance to do so… not even for a handsome prince charming. That’s how much I love my husband… That’s how much I will keep on loving him.

Mark is in heaven now. He’s with his parents, brothers and other friends now. I’m sure he is happy there because in heaven there is peace. Mark had no unfinished business here and he was ready when God took him to be with Him in His kingdom. We were all prepared when that day came. We all were able to say our goodbyes and somehow, letting him go was not so painful knowing that he was at peace and he was happy on the day he died.

Mark, I know we will see each other again. I would feel your warm embrace again and our souls will unite for an eternity together in heaven. In the meantime, please do guide us as we live our life here on earth. Do watch over our kids and do protect them from harm. Mark, you will always be remembered and you will always live in our hearts for as long as we live. I love you so much.

Goodwill Speech

I'm often told by Americans how much they love my accent, to which my honest response is "what accent? I don't have an accent - you do."

As it is hard for us to see ourselves as individuals, so it is hard for us to see our national idiosyncrasies. What is cultural to a foreigner is completely normal to us.

One newspaper in the UK ran a competition to ask the public what it meant to be British. I loved the response:

Being British is about driving a German car to an Irish Pub to have a Belgian Beer, then traveling home, grabbing an Indian curry or Turkish Kebab on the way, to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign.

Yet there is something sinister going on in the world when we are not only unable to see our cultural strengths; things that have fortified our communities, but equally unable to see our cultural weaknesses. And the two are often linked to trafficking and slavery.

In Ghana, for example, what has supported the culture is a time-honoured tradition of apprenticeship for their youth: poor kids being sent away and given skills training by family or people living in the city.

That is now sometimes abused by opportunistic traffickers who take advantage of abandoned mothers who never see their children again.

This has enormous impact on our perspective of slavery or even our denial of slavery. Denial not because it is politically expedient, not because we don't want to end up poorly positioned on a list, but because we are unable to see it - it is part of our culture i.e. normal and so outside critique of it makes us defensive. We have to accept that we are all part of this problem, and that this is everywhere.

People often ask me: Where is it worst in the world? Well you can talk about the massive numbers of women fleeing the Eastern Block, duped into forced prostitution, but where are they going to? They're coming to us, we're creating demand. So where is the problem worst? Is it here or there? We have to find a way to be rigorously self-reflective and compassionate to each other's weaknesses. This is transnational crime and we can only fix it working transnationally.

This is clearly the dark side of globalization; the movement of people in modern times has thrown us all a new problem by exacerbating one of the oldest in the world.

Trafficking is the means by which somebody is put into slavery. When we talk about drugs we talk about the drug problem - the problem is not in the movement. So it is with the trafficking in human beings; and the issue of slavery. I define that as the violent control of one person over another that keeps them in an exploitative circumstance against their will while given a basic subsistence. I firmly believe that one of the solutions lies in us updating the protocol to give slavery the legal teeth that the UNODC worked so hard to bring to trafficking victims. There are 17 million victims of slavery who need the UN's recognition, and some academics believe that figure to be 27 million.

I'd like to talk of some examples of slavery. And I want to start close to home, actually the country where I live.

In the United States I spoke to Ernie Allen from the Centre of Missing and Exploited Children. He told me that I between 100,000 to 300,000 children are potentially trafficked internally in the US every year; a large percentage -- he believes -- into child prostitution.

Also in the US a couple was arrested in Texas for running a child Internet porn site that was making 2 million dollars a month, $20.95 paid by credit card by 70,000 global customers - isolated incident? Not really, one of 100,000 global sites. And what are these customers looking at? Amongst other things they're looking at children being raped, I know that it's hard to hear but we're talking penile penetration of children, 3 year olds, 4 year olds, 8 year olds… guns and fingers don't qualify as rape in this context. So should the Internet be banned? Is the Internet to blame?

Is the UN the best vehicle to address it? Can the UNODC take this on on its own?

I have deliberately set out to gauge the level of violence in the context of slavery. I've come to the conclusion that violence or threat of violence is a defining factor in Slavery. I fear that one of the things that dilute our zeal to take on this issue is that by necessity the legal terminology of the definition is the lowest common denominator, the least requirement. So we refer to it in the UN definition of trafficking as force, not violence but force. Here are some examples of force.

You are forced when you are a camel jockey who is beaten and starved in order to keep your weight down, knowing that the older and bigger you get the more likely you are to be disposed of.

You are forced if you're trapped in a brothel to be raped sometimes 40 times a night having watched someone be thrown from a fourth floor window, or beaten to death,

You are forced if you're a mother put to work on a coca plot in Columbia supporting the 50 billion dollar cocaine industry for terrorists who shoot one of your kids in front of you and take the rest as child soldiers.

You are forced if you are a young boy in the carpet industry whose injured fingers are plunged into boiling water to sterilize and distract you from the pain, or you are tied and whipped when you try to escape.

You are forced if you're a 4 year old made to dive in the dark in Lake Volta in Ghana, battered over the head with an oar when you surface for breath and made to dive so deep that your nose bleeds constantly. There are young children who in some cases rather than be taken to a hospital when they become ill, have a weight tied to them and are tossed into the nets to be used as live bait.

And so often I hear of the guns, people held at gunpoint, shot at, have seen someone else shot at or killed - doesn't matter if it's India and you're 9 months pregnant and quarrying in 115 degree heat, or a citrus picker in Florida, USA, you are held by a level of violence that to me if I hadn't heard it directly and consistently I don't know that I'd believe.

Threat of violence is also key. Children and adults are told that even if their trafficker/slave owner goes to prison they will have you and your family killed from their jail cell. These are usually well-connected people, often to the mafia. And how many of us in our heart of hearts would advise our own children to take them on?

I want to come back to cultural specificity. I went to Cambodia and there I found violence that was unimaginable to me. Culturally, they're struggling away from a very recent violent past. And we need to give them credit for that struggle: 40 years of bombing, the obliteration of 600,000 people by the US -- that's never even been acknowledged --, a despicable dictator put in place in Pol Pot who enacted atrocities and genocide on his people.

We know that an abuse victim is at risk of becoming the abuser, abuse becomes their coping mechanism for want of other means. I'm not saying everyone in Cambodia is an abuser, I'm saying that the face of slavery there is distinguished by the level of torture, especially obvious when compared to neighboring Thailand. We shouldn't be shaming Cambodia: we need to embrace her as an abuse victim.

So in that context there is a current phenomenon in Cambodia of the rape of ever younger girls, HIV/AIDS-free virgins, in the sex slave trade. They used to be 16. Some still are, but now 16 isn't assurance enough, so the girls in the shelters have been getting progressively younger, and now there are more and more, as young as 4 or 5 years old. They are sold for between 300 and a thousand dollars, they are raped over the course of a week, then returned to the pimp, who then takes them to a clinic who re-sews their hymen and sells them again while the wound is still fresh. This cycle is repeated time and time again.

One girl talked of being chained, a baton forced down her throat. Many are electrocuted, others caged naked with insects that are put in their mouths and private parts. They don't all survive. Many victims don't survive. They don't survive because as the population has exploded in direct correlation so the price of a human life has plummeted.

In the days of the transatlantic slave trade a young adult male agricultural worker would have cost you an equivalent of $40,000. You can buy that young adult male today in the United States of America for $300. These people, these slaves, are primarily invisible because of the illegal nature of their circumstance, and incredibly disposable should they get ill or become difficult. Or even, to be honest, just not very productive.

So as depressing and awful as all of that sounds, are there solutions?

I am really happy to be able to say yes.

Remember the camel jockeys? There is now a robot that has replaced them.

Those kids fishing in Ghana? Close to 600 have been rescued and reintegrated to sustainable freedom.

Indian villagers making hand-made sand were approached by a little NGO called Sankalp who released one villager who went to legitimate work, used her pay to buy out another villager: the two went to work and saved to buy out a third. Then the whole village walked out. These are people whose entire villages have been enslaved for generations without even realizing it. That village is shown to another village and they too walk out, and so on and so forth until they have released, in less than 5 years, 10,000 villagers, 90 of whom have run for local election and 70 of whom have gotten in!

The Internet porn - Microsoft, AOL, and other Internet companies have come together and are pitching their expertise and insider knowledge at one of the trickiest forms of trafficking known: child Internet porn. They have pledged to eradicate it by 2008 and they are on target.

So back to my question: Should the Internet be banned? No. Is the UN the best vehicle to the solution? Not necessarily. All of us have to get involved and look to our own area of expertise and try and see if we can meet this heinous abuse of humanity with our strength - what we know well.

Another example I love: The International Cocoa Initiative.

In the cocoa industry, Mr. Hershey had no children, so he left the entire Hershey's company to an orphanage. It was only recently that they were approached by Kevin Bales, from Free the Slaves who told them that the profit that supported the orphans was coming from child slavery in Ghana and the Ivory Coast on the cocoa plantations. The cocoa industry, wanting nothing to do with this, has united against this system and committed to eradicate it through educational programs on the ground and local culturally sensitive initiatives. We should thank them because without them our untarnished-by-child-slavery chocolate allowance for the year would be one Hershey's kiss.

And last but not least the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Mr. Costa, and all the Member States have done phenomenal work with the Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, and coming up with a definition of Trafficking in persons that has provided the international community with a phenomenal framework and reference. You are advocating for the holistic approach of the "three Ps": prevention, prosecution, and protection… and have allowed me to add my own "P": prioritize. I commend you in your work, it is such an honour to have been chosen to work with you and I am deeply proud to be your Goodwill Ambassador. (I hope you will put up with me a little longer.)

(We all have a role to play in this, we all have to work on putting in place checks and balances within global industry. We have to take responsibility all the way down the supply chain. We have to think of free people every time we think of free trade. And we all have to bring to this a sense of urgency.)

I am always inspired and moved by the extraordinary resilience of victims, and their ability to transcend their circumstance. I watch these young girls in the safety of the shelters sing and dance, I'm on a learning curve, but I know that many of you who've worked on this for years have had this experience and it's heart-breaking, because it is still unimaginable that after what they've been through they can find the resource to do it so playfully, lightly and joyfully.

I promise those young girls from those brothels that we don't just arm them with sewing skills and send them on home to the parents who sold them in the first place or beat them, caged them, chained them and rammed batons down their throats. I promise them that there are people around the world taking this very seriously and working very hard on stopping it.

I tell them that as they sing of dancing into the light, we dance with them. And that as they sing of and celebrate the flowering of womanhood, we sing with them and take solace from their song.

Please help me keep that promise. (Global Partnership Forum "Sharing responsibility to make the world safer" Statement by UNODC Goodwill Ambassador and actress Julia Ormond Vienna, 4 October 2006)

Farewell Speech

I can’t tell you how difficult it is to describe how sad I am to be leaving. When I got here so many years ago I would never have realized how connected I would be to such a warm community of people.

Many times I have been humbled by the kindness of your hearts. When I look at this gift/ my photos/ this scar/[other personal item], I will remember…[memories].

Tomorrow I will wake up in my new life, full of yet- to- be realized opportunities, and empty of your company… I will be in a strange limbo.

You’ve helped me through some difficult times, and shared the joyous times in yours. Some people judge their lives on what they do, others on who they are. I want my life judged on the friends, I keep and how enriched I am from just knowing you.

To quote Shakespeare, who is a better word-smith than I am: “And whether we shall meet again I know not. Therefore our everlasting farewell take; Forever, and forever, farewell friends! If we do not meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why, then this parting was well made.”

To see you here in front of me, the last time all together, is a picture I will treasure for a very long time. So… Until the next time we gather, my very dear friends farewell for now. (http://www.fond-farewell.com/farewell-speech-heartfelt.html#ixzz1G4UaXOXa)

Informative Speech

Ever See A Liger?

An episode of the edgy, humorous, and often line-crossing show South Park had the four young main animated characters singing the song "Pig and elephant DNA just won't splice" after a visit to the South Park Genetic Engineering Ranch. Unfortunately, this is how much of the country thinks about hybrid animals.

When most people hear the term "hybrid animal," they often think of odd, mutant creatures - hippopotamuses mixed with lions, dogs mixed with cats, or squirrels mixed with porcupines. Indeed, the word hybrid invokes the imagination and encourages one to entertain these improbable combinations as miracles of science.

However, the phrase "hybrid animal" merely means a crossbreeding of two animals - a process which has occurred for centuries, both artificially and naturally.

The idea of hybrids dates back to the mythology of ancient times. Folk tales were full of animal-human hybrid stories like mermaids and minotaurs. The word hybrid comes from the Ancient Greek, meaning "son of outrageous conduct." But understanding hybrid animals lies both in nature and science.

Hybridization has been occurring in nature for thousands of years. Diaries of early hunters in the northwestern territories tell of shooting bears that were large and off-white with hairy paws, suggesting hybrids of kodiak and polar bears. Recent DNA studies confirmed this is possible.

The mixing of animals that are closely related happens naturally more than you might think. In fact, scientists have recently identified a number of hybrid zones, or places where animal hybridization is most likely to occur based on a number of different factors. These hybrid animals are far more important to nature than you might think. Evolutionary biology studies show that the fittest animals survive, no matter whether they are hybrids or not, and while some are simply not genetically compatible in terms of survival, many others are.

A few examples of naturally occurring hybrid animals include the white tail/mule deer, some Galapagos Finches, and the European Red Deer and Chinese Sika Deer. Noted evolutionary expert Charles Darwin even commented on animal hybridization. "Many species have bred in various menageries . . . Strange as the fact may appear, many animals . . . unite with distinct species and produce hybrids quite as freely as, or even more freely than, with their own species."

Science, as well as nature though, has created some of its own hybrids for various purposes. Take, for instance, the mule - a cross between a female horse and a male donkey, which has existed since Ancient Roman times. For centuries, mules have been used as a means of transportation and labor. Even today, their sure-footedness makes them one of the best animals to have in rough terrain or narrow passages. In countries such as Chile and China, mules are valued for their navigability. In fact, mules are still used to tour the Grand Canyon's steep and narrow trails!

Hybrid animals are closer to home than even the mule, though. Common pets like cats and dogs are often hybrid animals, having been crossbred with another breed. Thoroughbred cats and dogs are valued for the purity of their blood, but because of the cost involved with thoroughbreds, most people find themselves with crossbred dogs or cats for pets.

The value of hybrid dogs and cats is changing, though. Crossbred dogs and cats were once considered mutts or mongrels, but today, with the ever-increasing crossbreeding and technology, some find that hybrid dogs and cats are "more valuable" because of their temperate personality, the shininess of their hair, or other desirable characteristics. Perhaps you want the security a Doberman Pinscher can provide, but you do not want its aggressiveness. Breeding with a more amiable dog could provide you with the best combination of characteristics.

Crossbreeding is a process that has occurred for centuries. There are many hybrid animals in the world, whether produced artificially, by scientists or naturally in a common habitat or because of familiar characteristics.

Though many believe the unlikeliest hybrid animals, such as the liger, can occur only in a laboratory, the hybrid polar/grizzly bear found in the wild repudiates this belief. In this way, hybrid animals provide us with fascinating questions on fertility as well as the limits, or rather non-limits, of nature, while challenging our imaginations, and our animated television shows like South Park to envision the possibilities.

Dedication Speech

Mr. Clemens wore his gown as Doctor of Laws, Oxford University. Ambassador Bryce and Mr. Choate had made the formal addresses.

How difficult, indeed, is the higher education. Mr. Choate needs a little of it. He is not only short as a statistician of New York, but he is off, far off, in his mathematics. The four thousand citizens of Greater New York, indeed!

But I don't think it was wise or judicious on the part of Mr. Choate to show this higher education he has obtained. He sat in the lap of that great education (I was there at the time), and see the result--the lamentable result. Maybe if he had had a sandwich here to sustain him the result would not have been so serious.

For seventy-two years I have been striving to acquire that higher education which stands for modesty and diffidence, and it doesn't work.

And then look at Ambassador Bryce, who referred to his alma mater, Oxford. He might just as well have included me. Well, I am a later production.

If I am the latest graduate, I really and sincerely hope I am not the final flower of its seven centuries; I hope it may go on for seven ages longer. ((At the Dedication of the College of the City of New York, May 16, 1908 by Mark Twain)

Toast (Speech of Honor)

Good Evening.

I am both honored and flattered to have been asked to speak for this wonderful occasion.

I congratulate each of you and your parents.

Your achievements in the realms of Scholarship, Leadership, Community Service, and Character are being honored here tonight by your induction into this prestigious society.

An honor such as this is a wonderful way for the school and community to recognize and celebrate the choices, and sometimes the sacrifices, you have made.

But I believe that what should make you and your parents the most proud is not the actual honor itself, but what you had to do to get it. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "The reward of a thing well done is to have done it." Any recognition is just the icing on the cake, not to be expected but definitely to be enjoyed.

However, I challenge you not to rest on your laurels but to continue to strive towards even loftier goals.

The four requirements for membership in which you have excelled: scholarship, leadership, community service, and character were not chosen at random. They are the core of a fulfilled and fulfilling life.

The most important thing to remember is that each of these characteristics are the sum of many individual decisions. They embody a positive attitude backed by purpose. The only way to achieve your purpose is to take small actions everyday. In the end, they all add up. My hope for you is that you will cultivate this attitude backed by purpose in your own life.

Scholarship is much more than just getting straight A's. It is a life-long love of learning. In the end it is a sum of small choices. Each time you decide you WANT to learn something, the experience will be so rewarding that the next time becomes easier.

Soon learning becomes a habit. At that point, your desire to learn makes getting A's easier while taking the focus off of grades. The knowledge can still be hard to gain, but knowing you've mastered a difficult subject is an awesome reward. Suddenly the world around you becomes richer, full of learning opportunities.

Leadership is not about being elected or appointed to an office. The office does not teach someone how to be a leader. Leadership is an attitude cultivated over time.

Are you one to stand up for what you believe in and 'face the music' even when that music happens to be unpleasant? Do you have a purpose and follow that purpose to get the ends you desire? Do you have

a vision? These are all questions that true leaders answer in the affirmative.But how do you become a leader?

Each small decision you make takes you one step closer. Remember the goal is not to get power, but to get your vision and your purpose across. Leaders without visions can be likened to driving in a strange town without a road map: you are going to wind up somewhere, it just might not be in the best part of town.

Many see community service as a means to an end. Some might see it as a way to get service points while socializing, while others may view it as an unfortunate (and often inconvenient) necessity of high school life. But is that true community service?

Once again true community service is an attitude. Are you doing it for the right reasons? I'm not saying there won't be Saturday mornings when you would rather sleep your heart out than paint your heart out.

What I'm talking about is that in the end, when it is all done, and you are once again well-rested, you can look back and realize that you did something worthwhile. That you helped your fellow man in some way. Remember as John Donne said, "No man is an island entire of himself."

Finally, character.

If there is any one thing that is evidenced by your daily choices it is your character.

I truly believe what Thomas Macaulay said, "The measure of a man's real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out."

What do you do when no one's around? The teacher steps out of the room for a moment while you are taking a test after school. You know exactly where in your notes the answer to question 23 is. Do you look? Minimal chance of being caught!

The answer to this question is the key to your true character.

For while being honest and honorable when others are watching is important, being true to yourself is tantamount.

And in the end, these private day-to-day decisions will eventually reveal your true character to the world.

All in all, are making the tough choices worth it?

Yes.

While it would be easier to slide through life without a purpose, without a code, it would not be fulfilling. Only by setting difficult goals and achieving them can we find true self-worth.

One final thing, each person's goals are different, and what comes easy to one may be difficult for another. Therefore, do not squash others' dreams. This is a surefire way to know that you aren't working towards fulfilling your own.

In conclusion, I congratulate you for this honor. You are truly the best of the best. Enjoy yourself, and remember as Mother Teresa said, "Life is a promise; fulfill it."

Presentation Speech

The words of the ancient Psalm, rise from our hearts: "I have become like a broken vessel. I hear the whispering of many - terror on every side - as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life. But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘you are my God.”

In this place of memories, the mind and heart and soul feel an extreme need for silence. Silence in which to remember. Silence in which to try to make some sense of the memories which come flooding back. Silence because there are no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Shoah.

My own personal memories are of all that happened when the Nazis occupied Poland during the war. I remember my Jewish friends and neighbours, some of whom perished, while others survived. I have come to Yad Vashem to pay homage to the millions of Jewish people who, stripped of everything, especially of human dignity, were murdered in the Holocaust. More than half a century has passed, but the memories remain.

Here, as at Auschwitz and many other places in Europe, we are overcome by the echo of the heart-rending laments of so many. Men, women and children, cry out to us from the depths of the horror that they knew. How can we fail to heed their cry? No one can forget or ignore what happened. No one can diminish its scale.

We wish to remember. But we wish to remember for a purpose, namely to ensure that never again will evil prevail, as it did for the millions of innocent victims of Nazism.

How could man have such utter contempt for man? Because he had reached the point of contempt for God. Only a godless ideology could plan and carry out the extermination of a whole people.

The honour given to the 'Just Gentiles' by the state of Israel at Yad Vashem for having acted heroically to save Jews, sometimes to the point of giving their own lives, is a recognition that not even in the darkest hour is every light extinguished. That is why the Psalms and the entire Bible, though well aware of the human capacity for evil, also proclaims that evil will not have the last word.

Out of the depths of pain and sorrow, the believer's heart cries out: "I trust in you, O Lord: 'I say, you are my God."'

Jews and Christians share an immense spiritual patrimony, flowing from God's self-revelation. Our religious teachings and our spiritual experience demand that we overcome evil with good. We

remember, but not with any desire for vengeance or as an incentive to hatred. For us, to remember is to pray for peace and justice, and to commit ourselves to their cause. Only a world at peace, with justice for all, can avoid repeating the mistakes and terrible crimes of the past.

As bishop of Rome and successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love, and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place.

The church rejects racism in any form as a denial of the image of the Creator inherent in every human being.

In this place of solemn remembrance, I fervently pray that our sorrow for the tragedy which the Jewish people suffered in the 20th century will lead to a new relationship between Christians and Jews. Let us build a new future in which there will be no more anti-Jewish feeling among Christians or anti-Christian feeling among Jews, but rather the mutual respect required of those who adore the one Creator and Lord, and look to Abraham as our common father in faith.

The world must heed the warning that comes to us from the victims of the Holocaust, and from the testimony of the survivors. Here at Yad Vashem the memory lives on, and burns itself onto our souls. It makes us cry out: "I hear the whispering of many - terror on every side - but I trust in you, O Lord: I say, 'You are my God." (The Holocaust speech by Pope John Paul II)

Extemporaneous Speech

Ladies and Gentlemen - It is a small help that I can afford, but it is just such help that one can give as coming from the heart through the mouth. The report of Mr. Meyer was admirable, and I was as interested in it as you have been. Why, I'm twice as old as he, and I've had so much experience that I would say to him, when he makes his appeal for help: "Don't make it for today or tomorrow, but collect the money on the spot."

We are all creatures of sudden impulse. We must be worked up by steam, as it were. Get them to write their wills now, or it may be too late by-and-by. Fifteen or twenty years ago I had an experience I shall never forget. I got into a church which was crowded by a sweltering and panting multitude. The city missionary of our town - Hartford - made a telling appeal for help. He told of personal experiences among the poor in cellars and top lofts requiring instances of devotion and help. The poor are always good to the poor. When a person with his millions gives a hundred thousand dollars it makes a great noise in the world, but he does not miss it; it's the widow's mite that makes no noise but does the best work.

I remember on that occasion in the Hartford church the collection was being taken up. The appeal had so stirred me that I could hardly wait for the hat or plate to come my way. I had four hundred dollars in my pocket, and I was anxious to drop it in the plate and wanted to borrow more. But the plate was so long in coming my way that the fever-heat of beneficence was going down lower and lower - going down at the rate of a hundred dollars a minute. The plate was passed too late. When it finally came to me, my enthusiasm had gone down so much that I kept my four hundred dollars - and stole a dime from the plate. So, you see, time sometimes leads to crime. Oh, many a time have I thought of that and

regretted it, and I adjure you all to give while the fever is on you.

Referring to woman's sphere in life, I'll say that woman is always right. For twenty-five years I've been a woman's rights man. I have always believed, long before my mother died, that, with her gray hairs and admirable intellect, perhaps she knew as much as I did. Perhaps she knew as much about voting as I.

I should like to see the time come when women shall help to make the laws. I should like to see that whiplash, the ballot, in the hands of women. As for this city's government, I don't want to say much, except that it is a shame - a shame; but if I should live twenty-five years longer - and there is no reason why I shouldn't - I think I'll see women handle the ballot. If women had the ballot to-day, the state of things in this town would not exist.

If all the women in this town had a vote today they would elect a mayor at the next election, and they would rise in their might and change the awful state of things now existing here. (Votes for Women Speech by Mark Twain)