POST 14

For this assignment, I picked a reading that I had not read before from our supplemental reading list. I picked the speech from Barbara Jordan, Junior member of the committee for impeachment of President Nixon. It interested me because I was not in the United States when it happened; I was also 12 years old but very much informed politically at my young age. President Nixon had conspired with dictators in South America and my country was the home of one of the bloodiest dictatorships, in great part thanks to Nixon himself. Millions around the world watched these proceedings and I remember my parents glued to the TV during this time.

I think what struck me the most was her attitude on reason. From the beginning of this reading you can see how her mind works in logical, structured ways. She had a point when she said, commenting the proceedings, that it was a waist of everyone’s time to have 15 minutes for each member on TV time. She wanted to have discussions with her fellow members and come to a simple logical decision and not have emotions or political leanings obstruct reason. Of course, they dismissed her comments and the show went on.

The speech itself was amazingly well structured. When I read it, it reminded me of some of the readings from this semester because of the use of plain and simple facts and knowledge as a way to logically connect with your audience. The one that came to mind was Catherine of Siena of course, after my research of her but also even in the letter to her mother that we saw in our textbook. She as many other women rhetoricians, always pointed out facts and deduced simple logic from them that no one can argue with.

This speech made me teary eye, it was so simple yet powerful, and it reminded me of an era that changed my life forever. Maybe if there were more women in her position during that time, many lives would have been saved and the world would be completely different place these days.