4.04.2008

The View from the Mountain

So it's been a while since I've written anything. I'll go ahead an apologize now for this not being "typical" Carrie. It's the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's death. I thought I'd post links to the transcript of the "I've been to the mountain top" speech that he gave the night before he was killed as well as a video clip of it.

Transcript with brief clip: www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkivebeentothemountaintop.htm

I just stumbled upon this website when I was trying to find a transcript of the "I have a dream" speech for my mom. It's pretty cool. All these rhetoricians have gotten together and picked the top 100 American speeches. The site has full transcripts of all of them as well as audio and video clips of the speeches that were given at times when that technology was available. I recommend checking it out. http://www.americanrhetoric.com

As for the speech at hand, and for Dr. King's speeches in general, they were the best. Period. He was the best. Period. I'm not saying that Senator Obama's speech on race wasn't a good speech. I am saying that it wasn't soul stirring. I've heard the "I have a dream" speech 50 times and I tear up every single time. When I watched Senator Obama's speech, I just saw an eloquent man trying to keep his poll numbers from sliding, which is, let's don't forget, exactly what he was doing.

3 comments:

Angel Surdin said...

I checked out the link. Awesome! I'm a big rhet/comp fan. Now I have something else to occupy my sleepless nights. Thanks:)

And, I will admit right here and now, I am one of those sad, sad people who can recall the date of Dr. King's death best by replaying Pride (In the Name of Love).

Angel Surdin said...

Mentally replaying the song, that is. I have not gotten to the point where I have to literally replay the song.

(Don't laugh. It could happen.)
(Quite soon, actually.)

Sleepy Scott said...

Wow, that's a great resource. Thanks for providing the link.