Hello!
The event will be an informal contest of a Proclamation Speech, where contestants read or recite a famous speech delivered by a historical figure.
We have decided to use an expert from John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s 1961 inaugural address, the final portion. It has 357 words. Given the pause it needs from one paragraph to the next, a contestant will use most likely less than 5 minutes to deliver it.
The whole idea of this contest is to ask our members and you to have great focus on your voice. Imagine that you are doing this on the radio, or behind a podium in a big lecture hall, where people won’t see you clearly, or won’t see you at all. How are you going to infuse your passion, your energy and your wisdom into your voice, the only media between you and your audience?
Please let me know if you are interested and would like to participate. Let me know by 3:00 PM Tuesday, May 1, 2018. I hope all of us would jump on this bandwagon. Contact Jack Li – jack.li@rbc.com to reserve your place! The winner will receive a prize!
Below is the whole content of the speech which you will be delivering.
Thank you and see you during the event!
We meet on Wednesdays at noon.
Location: 155 Wellington St W Floor 12 Toronto, ON M5V 3H6 Canada
Please wait on the 12th floor to be escorted to our meeting room. If you wish to be part of the audience you are welcome to attend!
Register here!: https://fake-it-till-you-make-it.eventbrite.ca
Excerpt from JFK’s inaugural address
In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.
Now the trumpet summons us again–not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need–not as a call to battle, though embattled we are– but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle, year in and year out, “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation”–a struggle against the common enemies of man: tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.
Can we forge against these enemies a grand and global alliance, North and South, East and West, that can assure a more fruitful life for all mankind? Will you join in that historic effort?
In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own