"For America" (A Sample Speech)

Speech writing is hard, let me tell you!  I gave my juniors, who are studying American literature, the task of writing a speech based on the poem "Let America Be America Again" by Langston Hughes.  As usual, I promised them a sample -- it's only fair for them to see how I would do any task I ask THEM to do!  This is my effort...

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

Stirring words from Langston Hughes’s poem, “Let America Be America Again”.  It seems to be a staple of the study of American literature that we ask students to consider, among other pressing questions, what it means to be American. We press upon them the ideas of Michel Guillaume St. Jean de Crèvecoeur, in his “Letters from an American Farmer”, and have them read articles and speeches and poems and letters on the subject. They are required to try to define for themselves what it means to them, if they are American, to be so called. In very few of those discussions and excursions into nationalism and patriotism is any of them asked to consider what it means for their country to be America.  What is America?

Many answers immediately come to mind, of course. This question, closely related to the first, has given rise to many an impassioned response, and vast are the numbers of people who would weigh in on this discussion. The answer to this question can be made by those who were born here, those who came here, legally or otherwise, and those who remain outside, looking in. The answer to this question ranges from the reverent to the profane, from the serious to the silly, from the delusional to the actual. The answer to this question causes the philosopher to wax philosophical, the politician to wax political, the poet to wax poetic. The answer to this question draws anger from the enemies of the state, ridicule from the satirists of the state, passion from the lovers of the state.

So, how can we, ordinary men and women, begin to answer this question? What IS America to you? To me? Do we dwell upon the instances of grave injustice that have marred this young country’s history? Do we dwell on the instances of poignant sacrifice that have scarred this young country’s heart? Do we dwell on the instances of buoyant triumph that have raised this young country’s spirit? There cannot be one response to this question, for all the things that have gone into the forging of this nation have made it what is is, and are making it what it will become. The founding fathers of this nation had a dream, as has every generation of political men, of wealthy men, of academic men, of ordinary men since its nationhood was first declared in ink and defended in blood.

America is a dream. The pilgrims dreamed of religious freedom, and before them, the settlers in Jamestown dreamed of amassing great wealth. The immigrants who came of their own accord, did so to be free — free of the tyranny of starvation, the tyranny of poverty, the tyranny of inequality, the tyranny of hatred, the tyranny of bloodshed. The common theme is freedom. America is, to quote Langston Hughes in his poem “Let America Be America Again”, “The homeland of the free”. America is a dream.

What is the truth of America today? Is it the dream, or something less uplifting? Many who came of their own volition have found no freedom here. Those who were uprooted from their lands by the invading settlers have found no freedom here. Those who were brought here against their will have found no freedom here. Those who are hunted and deported have found no freedom here.

The dream of wealth is now enjoyed only by the few with the means and the power to pursue it. The dream of freedom is now enjoyed only by the few who can purchase the means to attain it.

The poor of every race, the immigrant, the black man and the red…all have a dream that is not being realized in America today. The poor are disenfranchised, the people of color are disowned, the immigrants are disbarred, and none is permitted to achieve his dream. America is a dream, but only for the wealthy few, the powerful few.

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

In Langston Hughes’ words, this is the rallying cry of all those who seek to have what America was meant to be.  This is the rallying cry of those who dream of what America can yet be.  Can it be done?  Is there a will to achieve it?  There are forces at work to keep America a country out of sync with itself, out of touch with its roots.  It is our job to teach the young to believe in the dream.  It is our job to teach the young to reach for the dream.  It is our job to teach the young to fight for the dream.  it is our job to teach the young to live the dream.  Hughes said it best, I think:

From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again…

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

Copyright © 2012 by Karen D. Bonnick

So, what do y'all think?  Could I make a living as a speech writer?