Morally Good?

I cannot honestly say that I believe an orator must be morally good to be a public speaker.  When looking at the Greek's history I honestly do not think you can classify very many Greek men (women were not allowed to be orator's, so from hence forth, I will be picking on the men!) as being morally good.  They had little to no respect for women, women were expected to stay inside their home, unless they had to go to the market, but that was it, women had no place in the Greek society, other than to hopefully give their husband's sons.  Greek men were engaged in relations with young boys, referred to as "beautiful boys".  In today's time, we refer to it as pedophilia.  Almost all Greek men were expected to engage in relations with these young boys.  Granted, they were also expected to be their teacher's and to support these young boys, but it still begs the question of was this behavior in any way, shape or form moral?  Greek men worshipped their bodies and spent many hours at the gym.  For most Greek men, this is where they courted their beautiful boys.  So, it leads me to the conclusion that the Greek men were definitely not morally good, in most ways, they seemed to be more corrupt than good.  This also leads to our public speakers today, such as politicians.  So many stand behind their podiums speaking to our communities, but most have skeletons in their closets as well.  Even when we look at the preacher's, ministers, pastors and priests, are all these men morally good?  I would like to say they are all public speakers.  They speak to crowds who come to listen to what they have to say.  Many times in the news, I hear stories of these "chosen" men of God being corrupt and committing horrendous acts that most of us would never imagine fathomable.  Of course, we want to believe these public orators are good, that they are speaking nothing but the truth, but as humans, we MUST be skeptical.  Does this person have ulterior motives?  Does this person live the life he/she is emitting to us truly in the sense of being morally good.   Now, I am not saying that all people and public speakers are corrupt, there are many out there that are morally good, they lead wholesome lives and they speak the truth, but it reminds me of my years in elementary school, when one child acted out, the whole classroom was punished.  It seems that this happens today.  Because a few are corrupt, most are branded as being that way as well.  I wish I could say there was a definitive connection between goodness, truth and public communication, but I do not believe there completely is.  This is definitely not a black and white type scenario.  I wish I was not so skeptical, but alas, I am.  I will end with this, the Greek's had many amazing philosopher's who looked outside the box, who questioned authority, and who sought for answers that at the time had not been answered, but in the end, they too were humans and flawed like the rest of us, so I cannot say the Greeks were correct when they stated that one must be morally good to be an orator.  In the end, I believe it's the person's charisma and or personality that makes him or her a great orator, not his or her goodness.

Kate

"I Have a Dream"

So, the first great speaker that came to mind for me was definitely Martin Luther King Jr. I hope that it does not have to be someone that is presently alive.  The first time I heard his, "I have a Dream" speech I believe I was in third or fourth grade and I was moved!  I had goose bumps the entire time and I became incredibly emotionally involve in his speech.  I believe that King was able to sway his audiences by using all three methods.  Through ethos, King was genuinely a humble and good man.  He was well educated and had an upstanding personal character.  He used words rather than violence to attack the oppressors.  Through pathos, he was able to become emotionally involved with his audience as they were all seeking the same thing he was, civil rights and through logos, King was a brilliantly educated man and knew that his actions would have outcomes.  He was not willing to sit back and hope change would be made, he realized he needed to be in the fore front, seeking change himself.  He relied on many of Ghandi's teachings through his speeches and his demeanor.  He knew violence bestowed violence, so he was trying to persuade his audience and people to use logic and skill to seek and make changes.  He also realized that being televised when violence was bestowed onto his peaceful protesters would be one of the best forces for his community.  When people viewed the televised events of these peaceful demonstrators being victimized it enraged them and they found themselves becoming more and more involved with the fight for civil rights.

People have always told me that I am a great person to speak to.  I listen to what people have to say before I reply or comment back.  I cannot stand it when you are talking to someone and you can tell they truly are not paying attention to what you are saying but are trying to think of a reply or something else to say.  I believe that when it comes down to it, if the situation requires, I possess all three character traits Aristotle was speaking of.  My personal character is one of my greatest gifts.  I am not quick to judge and I have compassion (probably too much and probably a little underserving at times, but I just cannot help myself).  I am definitely a logical thinker.  There is no gray for me, everything I believe for the most part is black or white.  That is why I didn't fare so well growing up in a strict Christian upbringing.  There was just too much gray for me.  When the time is right, I feel that I definitely rely on the pathos approach.  When giving a speech or just talking to someone, you can become emotionally involved and you would want the other person or people to become emotionally involved in what you are saying (depending on the circumstances of course!).

A Little Bit of Me :)

Wow!  Now this has been somewhat confusing and I am crossing my fingers that I have done this all correctly!  This will be my third semester at Sierra College.  I typically do not like taking online courses, I prefer the in class environment, but this semester I had to take a Science with a lab and the lab blocked out such a huge portion of my day, I found that there was no other choice but to take a few online courses.  I am taking this class because I found out that if I did, I would receive an AA in Social Sciences.  I am currently attending school to get two AA's, one in History and one in Humanities, so, the Social Science AA was kind of like the icing on the cake! :)  My husband and I have been together now for 12.5 years, we met my junior year of high school.  We have two daughters, our oldest just started fifth grade and our youngest starts kindergarten tomorrow.  I took an extended break from school because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do-career wise.  A little over a year ago, I was laid off of work, so I decided it was FINALLY time to return to school.  My husband is an amazing man and he works full-time and he also is in college full-time.  He takes all of his courses online (we are opposites! He likes taking online courses!), but he works so hard so I can solely focus on school, he's pretty much amazing!  With our schedules, we do not really have a lot of free time, but I always try to find something fun and preferably free to take our girls to.  We live in Auburn so there is always fun free things to do around here!  I took 12 units this summer, so we didn't really get to have any fun summer vacations and I can honestly say I will not do that again!  It was stressful, but now that it is over with, I am thankful I did it!  So, that is a little bit about me!  I look forward to getting to know everyone in this class over the next four months!
Kate