Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [74]
“Instead, I’m going to give you this speech ...” He pulled out a neatly folded packet of accordion-pleated computer printer paper, which he slowly and carefully unfolded, then held it by the top edge, letting the rest of the paper drop several feet to the ground. He paused for a short laugh, looked pointedly at the audience, and tossed that paper behind him. Finally, he said, “Actually, instead of that one, I’m going to read you the last thirty years of baseball scores ... without the team names, so that you can guess them....
“But seriously, I think I will speak to you today about __________. Okay?” At this point he launched into his real speech, which was actually a serious one. But long before he began his real speech, he had the audience attentive, relaxed, and in his pocket, having long since forgotten about the originally scheduled speaker.
A SPEECH TO REMEMBER
I was a young woman during the dark days just before and during World War II. Americans, along with millions of other Allies, huddled close to their radios, listening half with dread and half with hope to the news as the storm clouds gathered in Europe and then broke over the world.
Many famous speeches were given before, during, and immediately after the war, and many famous phrases came out of those speeches.
For example, we remember what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said during his first inaugural address in 1933: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Later this beloved president would become famous for his radio broadcasts that came to be called “fireside chats.”
He used simple, honest sentences in his speeches that everyone could relate to. They were simple, but memorable. Also he delivered his speeches in his own unique way, effectively using a slow pace and pauses.
But another voice from another continent also remains vivid in my memory. It happened in the late 1930s and the early 1940s at a time when Hitler’s power had been growing rapidly and the entire world was watching to see what he would say and do next.
England declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. Winston Churchill was appointed to his old post in charge of the Navy. When the Germans invaded the Low Countries on May 10, 1940, the English prime minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, and Churchill became prime minister.
Churchill knew the magnitude of what he was facing as a leader of a fearful yet brave people. And his speeches in those early days in office were eagerly listened to not only by the English, but by millions living in many countries. He spoke before the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister on May 13, 1940. Afterward, his words were rebroadcast again and again around the world. Why? Because it was in that speech that he said, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat”—words that rang out proudly and to many became a symbol of hope.
It was through such words as these that Churchill helped to rally the British people, to help them resist giving up hope despite the bad years that were to follow. The positive effect on the Allies from that single, seemingly simple speech was incalculable. Englishmen claim that that speech helped to stiffen the backbone of a threatened nation.
You may never know what effect something that you say in public will have on your listeners. Probably Churchill himself, at the time that he uttered those words, did not know the effect that they would have on the Allies.
But when you write and then give your speeches, you should strive to have an effect on your listeners. Some of them may just remember your speech long after you have forgotten it.
FOUR
HANDLING THE MEDIA
Ever since the first newspaper sent out its first reporter to get a story, members of the press have followed and observed and tried to get news from public figures. And since that time, public figures have had to learn to deal with the media one way or another—by learning to hide well, run fast, evade questions, lie convincingly, tell too much, or, if they’re real pros, tell just enough to