Understanding

Years hence, wise and knowledgeable persons will reflect upon the oratorical history of the year 1984. They will thumb through the recorded locutions of dozens of prominent and well-spoken Americans. Will they find a single speech that really changed things? Will they discover any one act of persuasion that started a trend or stopped a movement? Of course, we cannot tell with confidence. But it is interesting to guess. If we were taking nominations for the speech most likely to go down in history as a milestone I would not offer any of those delivered in the course of the political campaigns, nor anything said in our legislative debates. There is, however, one speech that I would nominate as a potential earth-shaker: the speech delivered by Governor Mario Cuomo of New York on Thursday, September 13, at Notre Dame University.

Why? The speech was delivered to a relatively small audience. It was broadcast nationwide but was probably not seen by many people. It was excerpted here and there, but without any great likely impact. Indeed, the speech could hardly have had any immediate or dramatic consequences.

JT

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John Tagg

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Years hence, wise and knowledgeable persons will reflect upon the oratorical history of the year 1984. They will thumb through the recorded locutions of dozens of prominent and well-spoken Americans. Will they find a single speech that really changed things? Will they discover any one act of persuasion that started a trend or stopped a movement? Of course, we cannot tell with confidence. But it is interesting to guess. If we were taking nominations for the speech most likely to go down in history as a milestone I would not offer any of those delivered in the course of the political campaigns, nor anything said in our legislative debates. There is, however, one speech that I would nominate as a potential earth-shaker: the speech delivered by Governor Mario Cuomo of New York on Thursday, September 13, at Notre Dame University.

Why? The speech was delivered to a relatively small audience. It was broadcast nationwide but was probably not seen by many people. It was excerpted here and there, but without any great likely impact. Indeed, the speech could hardly have had any immediate or dramatic consequences.